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LEADERSHIP THROUGH PARTNERSHIP Highlights – Perspectives on Governance for School Heads

Primary Sources: Slides from NAIS’s LtP Conference Keynotes by Dick Chait, Pat Bassett, & Jack Creeden

+“A Non-Profit Board is Comprisedof an Incompetent Groupof Highly Competent People?” Invited to Join Board – Good at Something Else.

We Must be Taught How to Play This Game.

Preferably Instruction Begins Before We Are Sent to the Playing Field!

+Perception of Roles (The State of Independent School Governance, NAIS, 2006)

99% oversight body assuring accountability of the organization

98%group to give support to the chief executive

94% fundraising

82% community ambassador for school

52% representative of those you serve

+ Developing the Board – from the Head’s Perspective(Board Member, May 2004, Chait et al.)

The SAT Analogy:

My board is to my schoolas is to .

If my board were delivered from heaven, I’d say…

My board is to my schoolas is to .

+ Three Levels of Board GovernanceSource: Bill Ryan, AISNE Governance Workshop, Oct 23. 2007

Loose steering wheel is to auto

Fingernail is to blackboard

Hamster is to wheel

Analogies revealing some level of dysfunction:

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“Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right.” ~Warren G. Bennis

Examples of a board doing “things right”?

+What Leaders Really Do ~ John Kotter

Management:

Manages Complexity by…•Planning & Budgeting•Organizing & Staffing•Controlling & Problem-solving•Producing predictability, order, and consistency

Examples of a board doing “things right”?

(i.e., “doing things right”)

+Price Water House Risk Management Report

Fiduciary Duties of Care: Risk Assessment & Management•Governance •The evolving higher education business model •Safety and well-being of individuals on campus •Current regulatory environment•Institutional compliance•Political and public perceptions •Information security•International operations •Medical center considerations

+PwC Risk Management Report – Sample Section on Safety

• At-risk students (identification, support, counseling, reporting)• Campus suicides (response teams, communications)• Trips abroad (health & safety issues; evacuation plans)• Student organizations (alcohol and drug policies and enforcement)• Minors on campus (host accountability and background checks)• Violence and threat assessments (campus crime, reporting, threat assessment)• Crime reporting (reporting, reputational damage)

+Fiduciary Oversight to Fiduciary Inquiry.

Extracting Leadership Value (Chait, 2005)

The Fiduciary Questions:

Did we get a clean audit?

Is the budget balanced?

Increase budgets by 2-3%?

How much $$ do we need to raise?

Can we secure the gift?

Is faculty/staff turnover reasonable?

The Strategic Questions:

What did we learn from audit?

Does budget reflect priorities?

Move $$ from other programs?

What’s the case for raising the money?

How will gift advance mission?

Do we treat faculty/staff fairly?

+PRIORITIES VERSUS ORGANIZATION (CHAIT, 2005)

BOARD COMMITTEES FINANCE DEVELOPMENT EXECUTIVE GOVERNANCE B&G ADMISSION &

MARKETING

WHICH COMMITTEE STUDIES: CLIMATE OF

DIVERSITY IMPACT OF

TECHNOLOGY FACULTY

RECRUITMENT & RETENTION

COMPETITIVE POSITION

+CHALLENGES TO TRADITIONAL MODELS – LEVELS I & II

Trustees Want to Make a Difference

Reacting to Staff Reports Not Engaging

Monitoring and Oversight Tasks = The Substitute Teacher’s Responsibility: Maintain Order - MONITOR Meet Minimum Standards – COMPLIANCE & OVERSIGHT Don’t Teach Anything New – PROGRESS WITHOUT CHANGE

+What Leaders Really Do ~ John Kotter

Management:

Manages Complexity by…•Planning & Budgeting•Organizing & Staffing•Controlling & Problem-solving•Producing predictability, order, and consistency

Leadership:

Leads Change by…•Setting a direction•Aligning people•Motivating and inspiring•Producing useful and dramatic change

Examples of a board doing “the right thing”?

(i.e., “doing things right”) (i.e., “doing the right things”)

+Generative Questions (from the college president to the board of a highly selective US college)

What does the college have to offer to students and society, in this century? How has that changed from a generation ago?

What does it mean for the college to be successful? To what degree is our view of the college’s success in the context of our peers, and to what extent is it independent of them?

By what standards should we expect to judge in five years our stewardship of the college?

Who are the students we should be enrolling in the college? Why? How?

+ Generative Questions (from the college president to the board of a highly selective US college)

Who are the faculty we should be attracting to the college? Why? How?

What is the comparative advantage of the college’s location, and how should we capitalize upon it.

What is the comparative disadvantage of the college’s location, and how should ameliorate it?

Are there assets of the college currently underutilized?

Is the college organized to respond to the present challenges and to realize its aspirations for the future?

+Job Security is an Oxymoron(Chait, CHE, 1.9.11)

“The reality is, when the president mismanages, the board fires the president. When the board mismanages, the board fires the president.”

“The board hires; the faculty fires.”

The antidote?

Building relational trust.

+Four Questions for Heads

What do you know to be an important component in building the board chair-head relationship?

What do you know to be an important component in sabotaging the board chair-head relationship?

How do you nurture the board and board dynamics when things are going well?

How do you nurture the board and board dynamics when things are not going well?

+The Head’s Perspective on

Governance

THE END