In a few months a new crop of enthusiastic rookie heads of school will assume their new leadership positions. Some will lead schools that have stable enrollments and balanced budgets, and although there will certainly be challenges, there is no pressure to “fix” the schools in the near future. For o... read more
RG175 Blog
As part of our ongoing effort to cultivate and support independent school leadership, RG175 consultants contribute monthly blog posts on topics ranging from governance and head transitions to strategic thinking and school management.
Being a successful Head of School is akin to being part-CEO and part-politician. On one hand, the head is clearly the “boss” with all the requisite responsibilities of managing people. On the other, the Head has to be responsive to numerous constituencies such as trustees, parents, alumni, students,... read more
With declining or stagnant enrollments and the transfer of power to a new, albeit untested generation of heads, it’s imperative for independent school trustees and heads to connect strategy to innovation. And, more importantly, to make sure that first-time heads are trained to understand this connec... read more
Teachers and administrators take notice when a first-year head of school eats lunch with the same group of teachers and administrators at “the coaches’ table.” Within the first three months, a first-time head tackles what he sees as a major ethical issue, a long-standing practice involving several s... read more
The accelerating retirement of baby boomer heads and the enrollment pressures many schools have been facing since the Great Recession present a significant challenge for independent school trustees as they select new heads to guide their schools in uncertain times.Many search consultants think that... read more
In 2011 Daniel Kahneman, the Nobel Prize winning behavioral psychologist at Princeton, wrote Thinking, Fast and Slow. This rich and rather dense book details the bias that runs rampant in human decision-making and highlights the illusion of objectivity that pervades our thinking. A summary of the ma... read more