When a Board Member Wants a Job

It seems that some board members cannot avoid emulating Dick Cheney, the former advisor to George W. Bush, a candidate for U.S. president in early 2000. After leading Bush's vice-presidential selection team, Cheney announced that the best available candidate was … himself! We keep hearing from board chairs and heads of school that a high-performing board member wants to enter the search for a job in the school as, say, CFO, facilities manager, or advancement director.  

Apparently, like Cheney in 2000, some trustees consider themselves among the best candidates for the job. And they may be the very best candidate, but that must be weighed against the significant problems such a situation creates for the school. Just a trustee's mere candidacy for the position creates a sense that "the fix is in" among many stakeholders, a perspective that will only grow if the board member actually gets the job. 

While the school might navigate past such a dust-up with good communication, it is much more problematic when the trustee is not selected for the job and then remains on the board. This would create the awkward-at-best situation of the trustee sitting on the governing body that is, in fact, the boss of the person who just turned them down for a job. So, regardless of the outcome of the search, it is a recipe for avoidable trouble when board members want to join the administration. 

Triangle strongly advises against sitting board members pursuing jobs at the school, full stop. Don't consider it and, above all, don't do it! We cannot imagine an extenuating circumstance that makes such a move the only option. However, if you must, then the trustee should resign from the board first, before entering the search and cannot return to the board if not chosen for the job.