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How Strategic Powerhouse Placement Transforms Entire Teams

In healthy systems, powerhouses don’t stand alone. They spark sustainable momentum.
In healthy systems, powerhouses don’t stand alone. They spark sustainable momentum.

This year, I faced one of the toughest leadership challenges: staff turnover. One building had brand-new, overwhelmed teachers — eager but unsure. Another had confident, competent veterans who made it look easy.


In my schools, I witnessed a clear divide between brand-new special education staff and their veteran counterparts; Not in passion or dedication, but in confidence, instincts, and collaborative capacity.


New teachers bring energy, curiosity, and a strong desire to do right by their students. But many arrive without a roadmap for navigating the complexities of neurodiverse learners. This is especially evident during the school year and even in a summer program setting. They're unsure how to manage paraprofessionals, how to respond to medical concerns, or how to juggle compliance with instruction. They often need constant reassurance and close guidance, not because they're not capable but because they're still building their toolbox.


This led me to ask the questions: 


  • Can we architect teams where greatness rubs off? 

  • Can we lead in a way that lifts the floor and raises the ceiling? 


These questions became urgent when I looked at the latest data. The RAND Corporation reveals that teacher turnover nationally has declined from a post-pandemic high of 10 percent to 7 percent as of the 2023-2024 school year, but remains above the pre-pandemic level of 6 percent (Diliberti; Schwartz, 2025). Principal turnover tells an even more concerning story, hovering at 8 percent compared to just 3 percent before the pandemic.


But here's what the data doesn't capture: the human cost of constant staffing churn. When experienced educators leave, they take with them not just their skills, but their institutional knowledge, their relationships with students and families, and most critically, their ability to elevate everyone around them.


In the neurodivergent world, these powerhouse veterans operate with quiet confidence, anticipate problems before they arise, and know how to keep the room calm in the face of behavioral or medical incidents. But more importantly, when these vets come together as a cohesive team, they don't just execute well. 


They elevate the entire program. They amplify each other.


This aligns perfectly with research on what scientists called emotional contagion and spillover effects, showing that leader attitudes and behaviors directly influence team performance and commitment (Barsade, 2002; Arnold; Loughlin, 2022). When experienced leaders and emerging talent connect, their synergy strengthens commitment and boosts collective performance.


CASE STUDY: OUR TRANSFORMATION

For this year's summer program, I had the opportunity to bring together three powerhouse veterans across buildings. These weren't just experienced teachers — they were the ones others naturally turned to, the problem-solvers who stayed calm under pressure, the mentors who could guide without overwhelm. Veterans knew to cross-reference student names with contacts, addresses, and bus numbers before issues arose. They instinctively checked medical releases and knew exactly when to escalate concerns to me — the kind of institutional knowledge that prevents crises rather than just responding to them.


The measurable results:


  • Smoother transitions for students

  • Stronger mentoring for newer staff

  • Shared leadership in solving challenges

  • A tone of calm professionalism that others naturally rose to meet


Even the paraprofessionals responded differently when the veteran powerhouses were present. They became more deliberate in demonstrating their skills and understanding their roles, creating a culture where everyone elevated their performance. The difference was like catching the morning traffic groove instead of the stop-and-go nightmare. Everything ran smoothly when veterans helped set the operational rhythm.


When a new student struggled with a location change, they immediately contacted his team for review rather than waiting for the situation to escalate. Perhaps most telling: parent complaints virtually disappeared, and the constant stream of random questions that typically come when new staff are visible, stopped entirely. Parents instinctively trusted the program when they saw veteran competence in action.


Veterans set the pace, not just with what they do, but how they do it together.


This real-life observation demonstrates that positive workplace relationships create gain spirals, a phenomenon where the benefits of supportive colleague relationships compound and elevate performance across the entire team. Unlike typical one-way mentoring, gain spirals create mutual reinforcement, offering something that is both measurable and sustainable. In the case of our summer program, veterans felt energized by engaged colleagues, paraprofessionals stepped up their game when they saw excellence modeled, and parents responded with greater trust and fewer concerns.


However, the spiral effect works both ways. Negative powerhouses, those with high skills but toxic attitudes, can create equally powerful downward spirals, spreading cynicism that undermines team performance regardless of their individual competence. The key is recognizing that excellence without positivity isnt a powerhouse at all. Its a liability that requires interventions like coaching and crucial conversations.


How to Spot Powerhouses and Rising Stars


The most successful organizations treat talent development as a strategic imperative rather than an add-on. Research shows that 81% of participants in peer mentoring programs rate them as effective or very effective (Murrell et al., 2021), but only when the pairings are intentional and the powerhouses are positioned to amplify rather than just perform.

In this challenging retention environment, every experienced educator who stays and thrives has the potential to prevent multiple future departures — if they're positioned strategically.


From my experience, these are the characteristics you might find in each:


Powerhouses (Proven High Performers)


  1. Operate with quiet confidence and anticipate problems

  2. Others naturally seek their guidance

  3. Stay calm and effective under pressure

  4. Elevate team performance through their presence

  5. Demonstrate both competence and collaborative spirit


Rising Stars (High Potential)


  1. Show energy, curiosity, and strong dedication

  2. Learn rapidly but need guidance building professional instincts

  3. Volunteer for challenges and seek growth opportunities

  4. Respond well to mentorship and feedback

  5. Demonstrate potential for future leadership




Shifting From Survival to Growth Mode


If you're building teams, coaching leaders, or designing systems this year, start with your powerhouses. Not to put them on a pedestal, but to create concentrated excellence that others naturally rise to meet.


When you strategically position your powerhouses as catalysts who amplify each other, something transformational happens. The overwhelmed become confident. The hesitant become bold.


You'll know you've made the shift when your role changes from constant firefighting to strategic planning. When your staff start solving problems before they reach you, when peer-to-peer learning happens naturally, and when the energy in your building or organization feels like possibility rather than survival.


That's the kind of culture we're building. Because when greatness rubs off, everyone wins.




REFERENCES





AUTHOR'S BIO

LTaundra Everhart, M.Ed. is the founder and CEO of Before You Go! Mixed Greens For The Soul, LLC, a wellness company dedicated to preventing burnout before it becomes a crisis. With 20+ years of expertise in human resilience, LTaundra has served as a master teacher and educational administrator, developing the proprietary Pause. Patch. Reflect.™ method and the Emotional Freedom Framework™ Guided Journal. Her evidence-based approach to workplace and educational wellness has been featured in Newsweek, Parents, Success, and MSN. Through strategic consulting and engaging tools, LTaundra helps individuals and corporations achieve measurable gains in retention, performance, and overall well-being.

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