An NAIS school advisor, trainer and governance expert shared these pearls of wisdom with me recently as we reflected together on the work of leadership transition in schools. We agreed that the board plays a pivotal role in ensuring a clear and respectful process and that many boards in small schools struggle with governance as leadership, leaving a trail of confusion and upheaval in the wake of change. Mostly this happens, we concurred, because many trustees come from the business world and apply the same ideas that surround change in business to schools. The catch is, of course, that schools function more like a family unit than a corporate unit. So invariably the characteristics requisite to a transition that makes sense to all those living into it – clear, timely, well-communicated, well-socialized, transparent and incrementally implemented – become a challenge.
Shared vision and shared decision-making are central to governance as leadership. When leaders on boards and in schools break formation on this fundamental and vital thread, the work is weakened and efforts have to be re-doubled. Then the energy of change goes into dealing and coping with personalities, people’s fear and personal politics rather than into the fundamental aspects of supporting the vision through forwarding performance, responding to non-performance. and leading change from a position that supports what is best for the school.
The head of school in a well-led endeavor is at the helm of the institution but does not define it – the vision defines it. The board holds the vision and selects the head of school based on his/her ability to further the vision. So, if members of the school do not understand and resonate with the vision, leadership will be hard and turnover should be expected. Ironically, when a board permits a head of school to define the vision and when the process is not a shared endeavor, the turnover travels both ways into faculty/staff and upwards into the board itself, a cycle difficult to break and the start of potentially long-term and systematic and infrastructural problems.
