So Pollak recommends being as upfront as possible about your own leadership style. “It’s an act of generosity to tell people your style and how to work for you,” she says. “If you’re a very hands-on superintendent, some people might like that, and some people might not. But either way, they’ll respect that you’re honest about it.” Again—clear is kind. “People respect a leader who says who they are and tells people what they need,” says Pollak.

Combine the best parts of the past with the present.
As new generations enter your schools—whether as employees or as students—you may find yourself torn between two extremes. On the one hand, there’s the stability (or perhaps stagnation) of “what we’ve always done,” and on the other, the progress (and risk) that comes with change. The trick is to live somewhere between those extremes, to blend the strengths of the past with the new best practices of the present.

This is the core idea of Pollak’s book The Remix. “A remix starts with a classic song, something that was considered good,” she tells SchoolCEO. “You don’t throw that song away—there’s a lot of value in it! But it might need some updating because there are new things that we know now.” The same is true in your schools. Keep what’s always worked, but update those strategies for the modern day. “I had a college professor once ask me if he shouldn’t teach the periodic table of elements because kids today can’t handle it,” Pollak explains. “And I said, ‘No, I’m saying that maybe the way you’ve taught it for 35 years could use some refreshing.’”

Take, for example, the traditional teacher evaluation model. Across all industries—not just education—younger employees report anxiety and discomfort around job evaluations. According to a study from human resources firm TriNet, 62% of millennial employees say they’ve been “blindsided” by performance reviews, and nearly half say performance reviews make them feel they can’t do anything right. “It’s a bigger deal for the younger teachers because they want to do it right,” says White. “They’re not used to hanging out there on a limb—they’re used to having people coaching them all the way, like their parents have done.”

So should you stop evaluating teacher performance altogether? Of course not. And in fact, your younger teachers wouldn’t want you to. While some Gen Xers and baby boomers mistake younger employees’ discomfort with evaluations as an unwillingness to receive constructive criticism, millennials and Gen Zers actually want more feedback. In fact, the same TriNet survey found that 85% of millennial workers expressed a desire for more frequent conversations about their performance. Another survey from the Center of Generational Kinetics found that Gen Z employees prefer to receive feedback as often as weekly.

It’s just like teaching the periodic table. You don’t need to change the substance of your district’s teacher evaluations, but you may need to change your approach. White recommends moving from a cold, clinical evaluation mindset to more of a coaching mindset. The key difference between the two is the existence of a strong relationship between teacher and evaluator. 

“Young people want coaching; they want face-to-face interaction. The idea of going into an evaluation without a relationship with the evaluator is terrifying for a lot of them,” says White. “We need to give them prompt feedback, and we need to have a conversation, not just sit across the desk and tell them how they scored.” Having more frequent conversations about performance with a leader they trust will set those younger teachers up to thrive.

Not sure whether a practice needs “remixing”? Be sure to ask a multigenerational group for their thoughts. “If you want to take something that has always worked and rethink it, you’ve got to have fresh voices there to help you think through those ideas,” says Pollak.

Be a perennial leader.
In 2016, tech entrepreneur Gina Pell coined a term for a whole new generational group: the “perennials.” Perennials, she said, are “ever-blooming, relevant people of all ages who live in the present time, know what’s happening in the world, stay current with technology, and have friends of all ages.” And according to Pollak, all leaders should work to become perennials. “You are the age you are, and there’s nothing you can do about it,” she says. “But you can develop a perennial mindset.”

So how, as a school leader, do you become a perennial? It has to do with that remixing—valuing and upholding the good parts of your district’s past while bringing it into the present. “You have to know your district’s history, talk about it, share it and keep it alive,” says Pollak. “But you also have to keep up with the times. You realize that you need a website, a social media presence, an app, whatever it is—because times change.” The trick is to always have both angles in mind, no matter your age.

 Luckily, a school district is one of the best places to come into contact with people of all generations—from baby boomers all the way down to emerging Gen Alphas. “At any age, you can appreciate and listen to people of all generations—and what better environment to do that than a school system?” Pollak says. “That’s the most important quality of any perennial—that appreciation for all ages and the value that they bring.”