RG175 Blog

Not long ago, a trustee of a prominent independent day school groused to me that the Head of School doesn’t lead “he just goes around asking other people what they think. No one knows where he stands. We need a vision of where the school should be in five years, ten years, and he needs to spearhead... read more

There are many “must read” articles and books that land on the desks and in the email inboxes of school heads. There are terrific workshops to attend, theories of management to understand and apply, and great courses and seminars to register for in order to better comprehend one’s work environment a... read more

Too often we rely on some superficial definition of leadership: “She’s got presence” or “He’s got what it takes.” Without a doubt, there’s a part of leadership that arises from temperament or personality. But temperament and personality alone are not enough to sustain an effective and long-term lega... read more

In my May blog, “Turning Around An Underperforming School: Do You Have What It Takes?”, I wrote about the exciting research being done in England to uncover the leadership characteristics of headmasters that actually turn around underperforming schools. The authors (Alex Hill, Liz Mellon, Ben Laker... read more

I used to assume that quality decision-making was an innate leadership skill, more a matter of instinct and personality rather than something learned. Turns out, I was wrong.Recently, I read Chip Heath and Dan Heath’s book Decisive, which explores the nature of decision-making, delineates the inevit... read more

“My goal is to be the dumbest guy in this room, and I’m pretty smart,” said a successful C.E.O. to his senior administrative team. This C.E.O., a good friend of mine who started and sold two successful businesses, was recounting this story to me recently. At first it seemed an odd statement. Shouldn... read more