RG175 Blog

There are several reasons why so many heads of school are being dismissed early in their respective tenures—declining enrollments, undisciplined boards of trustees, entitled and entrenched faculty, a disconnect between leadership style and the culture of the school, a failure to properly calibrate t... read more

Independent school education is facing a leadership crisis. The median tenure of a head at his or her present schools is less than six years (Mitchell). Abrupt departures of heads within two months of the end of the school year are increasing at an alarming rate according to ISACS Executive Director... read more

True story. In 1998 as Head of School, I was interviewing candidates for the Middle School Head position. At the time, the Middle School operated like an old junior high school, essentially treating early adolescents as if they were smaller versions of 18-year-old students. The program was stale, an... read more

Being a search consultant often means working both sides of the same street: finding the best candidate for the school and finding the best fit for the candidate. It should be obvious that a school can be a wonderful place without its being right for a certain candidate; and the corollary is equally... read more

Superlative Country Day School is looking for a new Head of School. There at the end of the “God-on-a-good-day” list of wished-for traits for its new leader is “sense of humor.” Really? Indeed, Superlative’s earnest search committee is serious about this list of traits, and they’re deadly serious ab... read more

A good checklist can change everything. Atul Gawande gave us a great gift in The Checklist Manifesto when he documented the value of a checklist for performance. From industries as varied as aviation, health care, and skyscraper construction, Gawande proved incontrovertibly that a good checklist is... read more