RG175 Blog

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

In my phone conversation with NAIS president John Chubb, he stated an alarming statistic: fifty percent of all NAIS schools are facing enrollment pressures. His next statement startled me even more: “the reason, in my opinion, is a lack of leadership.” Moreover, in my role as consultant over the pas... read more