Managing the Money People: A Guide for New Heads

If you don't have a handle on the money, you can't get a handle on anything

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You need to know what’s in the piggy bank.

Photo by Fabian Blank on Unsplash

This is a long one but it was super fun to write. Hats off to all the finance, admissions and development folks I’ve worked with over 20 plus years in school leadership. You taught me so much.

Dear New Heads:

Congratulations! Many years ago now, when I shared with a school colleague I had received an offer to become a head of school, she responded with a baseball analogy, “You’re going to The Show!” Yep, the big leagues, the brass ring, the top of the heap. All your hard work paid off.

As cliche as it sounds, it is difficult and probably impossible to be completely prepared for the step from a senior administrator to the head. As I told someone midway through my first year, it was like going from a protected cave at the top of the mountain to being out in the open air on the peak, by yourself, in all weather. I never realized how much the head absorbed for the team from until I became the head.

But to stay in The Show, you have to step up and come through, really deliver, under pressure. The head is a CEO and it’s a tough gig where you are constantly being pushed outside your comfort zone even as, in fact, you control so much of the context, like a medieval duke over his fiefdom.

And part of stepping up is making sure you completely understand what is going on with the money in the organization - where it comes from, where it goes, what controls are in place, how the cash flow works, how much you’re drawing down from endowment, how much you’re giving away in financial aid.

Running the school without having a very solid understanding of the money is like driving a car with a blindfold on. It’s both foolhardy and irresponsible.