Interim or Permanent Head - An Important Choice for Search Committees
BY DAve dAVIES - CONSULTANT, EXECUTIVE COACH
When a school Head decides to move on, the Board of Trustees is faced with numerous decisions. What priorities do they have for the school? What characteristics, strengths, and experiences do they desire in their new Head? How much time does the Board have to select and hire the new leader for their school? Do they want to use a search firm and, if so, how do they go about finding, vetting, and contracting a consultant?
Among those decisions lies another - is an interim or a permanent Head the better direction for their school at that particular time? There is certainly no “one size fits all” answer, and the school’s financial, enrollment, and personnel situation, the successes (or failures) of the departing Head, and the timing of their decision and subsequent announcement all factor into this critical decision.
The advantages of moving forward with the search for a permanent Head include:
the opportunity to move forward immediately with strategic plans and programs versus marking time for a year;
conducting one search rather than two;
establishing continuity sooner within the school community;
the economics and time involved in a single search versus two.
Advantages of choosing an interim Head include:
allowing the community to heal if the previous Headship did not end well;
providing distance for the school from previous practices, styles, and approaches to allow the new permanent Head their own opportunity;
empowering a one-year leader to make any necessary difficult decisions without worrying about damaging relationships necessary for a longer-term Head’s success;
giving the search committee more time to do a full search, especially if the previous Head announced late in the typical search cycle.
The hiring cycle for Heads of School continues to advance months ahead of what, for many years, had been the search calendar. Given a dearth of Head candidates across the country, but also because of a fear of losing good candidates to schools that have advanced the timeframe, many schools are now launching searches in the spring, interviewing in the summer, conducting finalist interviews shortly after school opens, and offering Headships as early as September.
If a Head’s departure isn’t announced until twelve months or less before their tenure concludes, the school is already behind in the cycle. Although consultants can scramble to help in such a situation, some strong candidates may already be well along in other searches and decline to enter additional ones. In that case, a one-year interim may be the best solution available.
If there has been a failed Headship at a school for whatever reason, the community may be leery about the next Head. If the interim can calm the waters, address some of the issues and problems, and provide some distance from the previous administration, the new permanent Head will have a greater chance for success.
If there are programmatic, financial, or personnel problems, an interim Head can address many of these issues without the time-consuming process of developing the trust normally necessary to make difficult decisions. Absent the need to develop long-term working relationships, they can move more swiftly to prepare the ground for the permanent Head’s tenure.
Even though the process for finding an Interim is not nearly as time-consuming as a permanent Head search, the prospect of leading two searches in two years may seem daunting. However, if a Board has a deep enough pool of talent, tasking two different search committees with two different chairs would distribute the workload. Although leading two searches may not be attractive, that scenario might be less stressful and ultimately more beneficial to the school than rushing a permanent Head search where the school either hires the wrong person or installs the right Head in the wrong situation, a difficult culture that leads to failure. In the latter case, the school will end up doing two searches, albeit under less than desirable circumstances.
In addition to permanent Head searches, The Education Group places interim Heads of School and would welcome the opportunity to explore this essential question with schools approaching the search process without obligation to engage us.
Addendum
June 2020 - The pandemic has had a distinct impact on Head searches. The pool of Head candidates is likely to be shallower, as sitting Heads remain in their positions while their retirement funds return to or at least approach pre-pandemic levels. We have also had strong candidates withdraw from searches because they are consumed with and/or committed to helping their current schools plan for and implement what will be an unusual start to the 2020-2021 school year. We believe that the pool and the process will be stronger for the 2021-2022 school year.