As a school leader, it is easy to see the resignation of a valued colleague as a problem.

There is no doubt that the whole process of recruitment, training and induction is costly not only financially but, perhaps more significantly, in terms of senior and middle leadership time.

However, in his classic management book, Good to Great, Jim Collins uses a metaphor coined by Dick Cooley, the former CEO of Well Fargo Bank, to explain that great organisations “get the right people on the bus, get the wrong people off the bus and get the right people into the right seats on the bus”. 

As such, schools and their leaders need to recognise that when a resignation - or indeed retirement - comes along, it can actually be a golden opportunity that no principal should pass up to ensure their setting is operating as efficiently as possible.

1. An opportunity to get the right people on the bus

First, a vacancy is a great opportunity to bring new talent and ideas into an organisation.

This is particularly important when there is an established team - be that senior leadership team or a department - that has settled into going through the motions.

New blood can challenge the established norms and switch things up.

For instance, at Kellett, we have had a very stable senior team of deputy headteachers for the past seven years.

The promotion last summer of the pastoral deputy to the headship in a peer international school gave us an opportunity to bring in an experienced pastoral leader from outside.

She has brought new skills and experiences of a different context. Her external perspective has forced us to question and review how we do things.

In some cases, we have revised our processes; in others, they remain unchanged, but we have revisited and restated the rationale for them.

The process has been valuable in both instances.

2. An opportunity to rethink

However, there are times too when moving immediately to find a replacement - even if they bring different perspectives - may not be the right move.

I used to work with an HR director who had a mantra that has informed my thinking ever since working with her: “Every resignation is an opportunity for reorganisation.”

Her approach totally rejected the whole concept of a “like-for-like” replacement, to the point where we felt a little flat if new hires ended up doing the same role as their predecessors.

Seen from this perspective, a vacancy is an occasion to review the current structure and responsibilities and to consider different ways for distributing the workload.

This summer, two of our long-standing deputy headteachers handed in their notice to return to the UK next summer.

This has given us a major opportunity to reorganise the structure of our senior school leadership team, moving from a position where we had one head and three deputy heads, to now having two deputy headteachers (academic and pastoral), a head of sixth form and five assistant headteachers (academic, pastoral, data and exams, co-curricular and professional development).

This will serve us far better for the future, but would not have happened if we had simply considered retaining the same setup and replacing the two staff that were leaving. 

3. An opportunity to shake things up

A vacancy can also create the opportunity to shuffle the pack and to move key people around the organisation - something I have written about before on the idea of creating a ”tour of duty” for senior staff to gain experience overseeing a new area.

For us, the creation of the new assistant headteacher roles has not only allowed us to bring some of our very best talent into the senior team, but it has also given us opportunities to promote some rising stars into the middle leadership roles that they are vacating.

4. An opportunity to review budget priorities

Saving money should never be the sole driver of decisions but resignations do offer an opportunity to revisit the budget.

Given that educational salary scales often have an element of incremental drift built-in, it is good discipline that a resignation should automatically trigger a review of the level of the salary and any responsibility allowance, as well as the amount of non-contact time allocated to the role.

Indeed, a radical starting point for senior leaders should be to ask whether the role needs replacing at all: can the teaching and other responsibilities be absorbed within existing staffing capacity?

It is quite common, at least in international schools, that some roles are needed to see a school through a specific period of its development; however, priorities and wider structures can change over time and the original rationale for the role may no longer stand up.

This mindset has meant that we have decided not to replace the outstanding coordinator of our Global Citizenship programme, who has been promoted to deputy headship in the UK.

Instead, we are incorporating the leadership of this area into the responsibilities of the newly created assistant head pastoral role.

5. An opportunity to say thank you

One of the greatest challenges for school leaders is carrying people with you while managing organisational change. School structures need to evolve, and resignations can be an opportunity to achieve this.

However, this sort of change needs to be handled sensitively. It is very easy for a colleague whose role is not replaced or is dramatically changed to perhaps feel undervalued or think their time was wasted given that the role is disappearing.

As such, amid the excitement of plans for new structures and appointments for next year, it is important leaders recognise the value outgoing colleagues brought and make it clear that the work they did laid the foundation on which the next generation will be building.

Mark S. Steed is the principal and CEO of Kellett School, the British International School in Hong Kong; and previously ran schools in Devon, Hertfordshire and Dubai. He tweets @independenthead