Four Leadership Moments for Heads

The relationship between a head of school and board of governors is often defined by how well both parties handle challenging moments. The Big Four topics that fuel such moments are university placement, student attrition, sports, and faculty turnover, and future posts in this space over the next few weeks will address each of these in turn.What makes these topics so incendiary is that each is something to which board members who are also parents in the school have a personal connection (either via their own child or the child of a friend), or that lends itself toward problem-solving sorts of conversations. Enrollment, while a more critical issue than attrition, rarely sparks the sort of tense discussions as attrition. The difference is in the level of abstraction--enrollment is more generic and impersonal, while many board members may know at least one family that has unhappily departed the school. Same with teacher turnover, sports, and university placement.Given that a great many headships have foundered on the rocky shores of discussing these topics with their boards, one can hardly blame heads for being reluctant--even avoidant--about bringing them up. This is a shame, because we see each as a leadership opportunity for heads. This is not merely a semantic reframing! Each is an opportunity for the head to show leadership by (1) bringing up the issue first, before board members point out a problem, (2) honestly calling out the problem so that the board knows that the head takes it seriously, (3) helping board members see the issue in a context of other independent schools, demography, finances, etc., 4) presenting a nuanced narrative of what is problematic and what is not, and 5) articulating a problem-solving approach before one is imposed by an anxious board.