The Tools for Professional Development

 Consider optimal board composition: mix of skills, experience and personalities  Carefully analyze mix of personal styles to ensure harmony and a positive dynamic that avoids factions on the board  The ultimate mix: Work, Wealth and Wisdom!

 Retain a critical amount of institutional memory since turnover on international school boards tends to be high  Be open to new board members who meet the criteria for service and who might be able to lead change that is needed  Balancing the right mix of keeping the board strategic while ensuring that they do read your reports and are engaged appropriately

 The head must invest the time in getting to know every board member personally  The board must support the head publicly and privately until a decision is made to terminate him/her  The chair must be the head’s most public supporter and most private critic  Heads need to spend up to 40% of their time engaging, guiding and nurturing their board members

 Student Leader? Knows every child. You have charisma with children  Faculty Leader? You know faculty and curriculum and this was your path “up”  Strategic Leader? You understand high level theoretical thinking, and seize opportunities  President/External leader? You can sell, fund raise, and make the major “calls”  Can you move from one to another ?  How to use your style to handle conflict, delegation?

 A Driver? These can be outstanding heads if they can outlast the upset that their pace of change often creates  An Amiable? These can be long-term leaders but once they leave, problems may be found under the rug, the social “glue”  An Expressive? Also charismatic but not a change agent, but build strong bonds  An Analytical? Often the most successful  A Combination of the above?

 More effective fundraising skills?  Marketing? Financial management?  Are you willing to spend your time on board cultivation, development and guidance?  Do you have a career path after being a Head of School?  Ability to reflect on and develop key growth strategies for America’s CEO’s? Conflict Resolution and Delegation/Communication

 One-on-one coaching and mentoring  Targeted professional development courses and conferences  Sabbaticals  Networking with colleagues  Focused travel  Reading  Going back into the classroom  Shadowing and being shadowed  Boards allowing you to serve elsewhere to grow  Professional “conversations”

 Competitive compensation  Incentives to remain  Sustaining the spouse/partner and children  Growth opportunities within the school/organization itself  External work, foundation development, networking with other businesses, corporations, opportunities for career growth and change, BEING HEARD

 Launched by introspective/experienced Head  Seeking long term growth  Starting with key strategies needed by all successful executives/leaders  Drilling down to discussion of specific, sometimes high pressure, issues  Moral, committed, intellectual leadership  Vision driven, and having the courage and tools to learn, to grow and to engage effectively

 Heads and Chairs need to be open to growing and learning, even if at the top of their game  Professional mentoring conversations, guidance and proven experience can help even outstanding leaders to handle complicated and unique challenges  Families come into play. How do you, we, keep our families engaged and supported to help us and be supported in turn?  Case Study: of conflict between two outstanding leaders: chair and head, leading to major problems in a search process

John Littleford TEACH Confidential: Intellectual Property of Littleford & Associates Global Issues - Local Solutions