As I mourn the loss of a role model, mentor and kind friend, I celebrate the years he lived and the influence he had on my life and so many others.
Frank Coulter was a teacher at heart. Even though he left the classroom early in his career to become an administrator, he was always looking for the lessons in life and sharing them. And now I have the opportunity to share them with you. Here are a few of my Frank Life Lessons:
1) Hire the very best employee from the applicant pool even if they only work with you for a short time. He would remind me of this every time I was hiring a new employee. He said don’t settle for less than the best even if they just work for you a year or two. You would rather have the best for a short time than be stuck with mediocre forever.
2) You had your chance to be Homecoming Queen when you were in high school. Whenever I had a tough decision to make, he would remind me of this and tell me it takes courage to be the best. He understood that being liked was important to me but he also had faith in me to do what was right even when it was difficult.
3) Pick up the trash when no one else does. Frank used to ask me why I thought other employees would walk right past trash in the hallway or parking lots and not pick it up. Why don’t they care? And the answer was that most people didn’t care as much as he did. He never forgot that tax payer dollars built Moore Norman and that we all had a responsibility to keep it at its best.
4) It’s just as important how you leave a job as how you do it while you’re working there. Frank was frustrated after an employee had completed a written exit interview with some negative comments. He said if they had constructive criticisms to share or ideas for making something better why didn’t they share it while they were working here. He always had an open door and welcoming communication style where he listened to everyone.
5) It doesn’t matter who gets the credit as long as the work gets done. There was so much he did in this community and in this state that he probably never got credit for but he didn’t care. It’s what made him such a great leader. He was the father of many strong partnerships because he was willing to be part of the constellation and not be the shining star.
I could write a book based on the lessons I learned from Frank. For now, I’ll close the way he closed every conversation we had – with a few words of kindness and “tell Tim and the kids hello from me.”
Thank you kind friend for a lifetime of great memories.