The First Year of Headship: Five Guiding Principles
I'm rooting for you! And give yourself some grace.
On July 1, hundreds of schools will be seeing the changing of the guard, a new head stepping into the role. I remember lying in bed on the night of June 30th as the clock turned over to midnight and thinking, with no a small amount of terror, “I am now responsible for the well being of an entire organization.” A bit dramatic? Maybe. But this headship thing is serious business.
Recently, I saw an article that was something like “Five Traps to Avoid as a New Head” and I thought that seemed to be, um, kind of a downer. It is serious business to be a first time head. It’s perfectly scary and it’s impossible to earn a perfect score on every aspect of headship. But is’a also an amazing opportunity and a chance to grow and stretch and learn about yourself and why you wanted to do this crazy job in the first place and how you can positively impact kids’ experience like you can in no other position. You get a sense of just how much water you can carry. You find ways of constantly parsing, “What’s really the most important factor here and what’s needed from me?”
So I decided to write The First Year of Headship: Five Guiding Principles
And before we get to the Big Five, I will say this - really try to lean into the moments of community joy, wherever you may find them, no matter how tired or distracted or stressed out you are. It’s a cliche, but those really do help get you through to the other side.
Principle Number One
Accept Your Wear the Crown
You are not just an authority figure at the school - you are THE authority figure. Everyone can see it and pretending it doesn’t exist is futile and will ultimately undermine your impact. It deprives you of using your authority as a force for good - to promote security and predictability, to lessen anxiety, to provide a sense that someone is at the wheel so everyone else can go about doing their jobs. And being the authority figure doesn’t mean being chilly, distant and removed from the community. You can invite collaboration and feedback; you can distribute your authority. You can create relationships; in fact, very meaningful and fulfilling relationships. But they will be different from those friendships you have outside of work. Because at the end of the day, you are the boss of them.
Principle Number Two
Everyone Is New To You
You may have been appointed head months before July 1. You may have been traveling back and forth to the campus. You may have had many conversations with people at the school, with the head search consultant, with the board chair. You may have already started forming a sense of who you can trust, who’s on Team New Head. You may have been given advice from another head or an executive coach that priority number one is to clean house and build your own team.
Everything is different once you’re actually in the job. It’s going to take time for people to reveal themselves, in both positive and negative ways. Your initial assessments will likely be proven extremely right in some cases and way off the mark in others. You also have no sense how people function/fit in/contribute in the context of a particular school culture. Institutional knowledge is not everything but it’s not nothing, either. You may not see eye to eye about everything with a current senior admin immediately, but once you’re in the seat for a few months, you may begin to appreciate how the person approaches her job and what she’s bringing to the table. You’ll see new potential in long time employees the community has long pigeon holed. And you’ll see how others are maybe not quite the superstars you heard about, particularly given the challenges you’re facing right now in 2024. Stay curious. Keep asking questions. Keep building those relationships. A year goes by fast and the school community will look completely different through your June 2025 eyes than it does through your July 2024 eyes.
Principle Number Three
It’s All About the Board - and Board Culture
OK, so it’s not really all about the board, except it kind of is. I don’t find the framing of the “board having one employee” i.e. you, particularly helpful. Think about your relationship with the board as a power sharing coalition government. You are leading the school together. Sure, you run the day to day and they are ultimately responsible for long term strategy but these two things are intimately entwined. You need each other, equally, to be high performing partners in order for the school to thrive. You are the educational expert, but if you get way out in front of where the board is at, your vision has no chance of success.
Schools run on relationships and this is no different in the board room. The relationship with the board chair is important but it’s not the only relationship and it is not realistic to bet the house on a perfect fit and collaboration between heads and board chairs. Put time into getting to know all the board members’ hopes and dreams for the school. And pay attention to board culture, the accepted way that people interact, how they operate both during and between meetings. What behavior is rewarded and what is discouraged? How social are they with each other? What topics are freely discussed and what topics seem to be lurking as subtext - and why? And what’s a comfortable way to get to know them? Coffee? Dinner? Hanging out when they volunteer for school event? Chatting in the pickup line?
It’s not sucking up to your bosses - it’s figuring out how they tick and how to best collaborate so that together, you can best serve the school.
Principle Number Four
You Jumped on a Moving Train
The old advice to sit back and watch for a year is honestly kind of cute at this point. The world is happening and it doesn’t pause for head of school transitions. Given the people centric advice I’ve provided in #2 and #3, it also takes time to really understand the people and the culture and it all fits together. But stuff is going to happen and sometimes there are changes you’ll be faced with that you wish you had a few years to contemplate, but you just… don’t.
If something is happening where a change will really impact the quality of the student experience or is deeply toxic to the adult culture, by all means do it. The changes you use your authority to make that have 90% upside are also an excellent way to establish your values and reinforce political capital. However, very large changes that involve interlocking systems - the daily schedule, major administrative restructuring, mission tweak - if you can buy some time and wait until year two, you’ll probably have a more successful outcome. Remember the probably-fictional-but-not-inaccurate Peter Drucker quote, “culture eats strategy for lunch.”
And I can guarantee you will have at least one very sticky and hopefully not too unpleasant employee conundrum to navigate - it’s just what happens during the churn of change. And never forget to reach out for help when you need it.
Change is hard, period.
I’m always a bit skeptical about people who are loud and proud about loving change. Even good change involves loss and grief and who loves loss and grief? We go to ridiculous lengths to avoid these feelings. Also, you may have been hired to be a “change agent” but when it becomes clear that you intend to actually make big change - well, wait just one minute, did we really want that? Can’t we have change and keep everything feeling and operating the same as it always was? It wasn’t perfect but it was familiar.
You’re also going through a big change. You’re having to say goodbye to your former school and your former tried and true ways of being the successful professional you’ve been in another context. And now you’re spending a year walking in shoes that don’t quite fit, yet.
It’s OK if people in the school community talk about the past with fondness. It’s not a criticism of you; it’s a way of processing loss… although sometimes it sure does feel like criticism of you! Ouch. But it can be the first sign people are preparing to board the change train. And you need people to talk to about what you miss from your old role and your old life. We all need to move through it or we get stuck.
Principle Number Five
Headship is Both a Solo Act and a Team Sport
Ultimately, you are responsible for it all, but you can’t possibly be in charge of it all. To try is a recipe for burnout and the chance for success is extremely low. More than ever, you need specific expertise most heads just don’t possess - financial, legal, fundraising, enrollment management, in human resources, health care, facilities management, crisis management. You are the conductor, not every member of the orchestra. You need to discern what you don’t know and what you need to understand to make informed decisions. Sometimes this means exposing what you don’t know. This is scary. But it has to happen. You can be confident in your authority and ask to increase your knowledge. You need to figure out how to make decisions collaborating with the people who have all those different areas of expertise and different perspectives.
This is about constantly navigating your authority, when to use power, when to use influence. When do you inspire and when do you lay down the law? How do you build trust and offer support while holding everyone to the same high standard you hold yourself? It’s complicated. It takes time. And you’ll need to start exploring how to do this from your first day on the job. Don’t be afraid of trial and error. Course correct as needed. And different challenges - and different personalities - will require different approaches.
Where am I in all this, you may ask. Good question! Who you are is of central importance to how you lead. Who you are matters. Keep this on repeat. You’ll bring all of who you are to the toughest decisions. Embrace the adventure of uncertainty that is transition and give yourself some grace. There will be days where you will feel on the top of your game in the morning and completely off balance in the afternoon - maybe even within the same hour. Stay curious. You are loveable and you are flawed, as we all are. Feel discouraged or lonely or sad and let it pass. And enjoy every moment of joy and any win that comes your way. You earned it.
Sending all of you new heads all the very best -
Julie
For new heads - 1-3 years - I’m piloting a new program that combines leadership coaching and communications coaching, supporting you in both fully stepping into your authority as the school leader and in developing your leadership voice in all the many ways you need to communicate with your community. This would also include availability for crisis/sensitive comms consultation as needed. If you’re interested, schedule a meeting or drop me a line!
I’m headed to Washington DC this coming week to spend time with the extremely cool cats of One Schoolhouse and run a workshop on Finding Your Leadership Voice for the Academic Leaders Forum. We’re going to dive into embracing your authority to promote better connection and communication. There will be learning and sharing and maybe some crayons and definitely role plays. And then in July, I’m off to NEASC to do a session for their Heads Retreat on Communications in a Time of Polarization.
If you’re interested in a school workshop or admin retreat to improve connection and communication, reach out to me here.
Summer Writing Workshops registration is here - in July, write a prototype school statement or draft a statement of educational philosophy - go at your own pace, receive individualized feedback.
And you can always find me at jfaulstich@stonycreekstrategy.com