Welcome to the second of a three-part Executive Coaching series. We asked our coaching and consulting team the benefits of heads of school engaging the help of an executive coach. Our coaches weigh in on the full spectrum of advantages, including sound advice and counsel on the day-to-day business of running a school to helping the head become the visionary the school needs for continued growth.
Being a Head of School During a Dilemma Year
Laura Fuller
Consultant, Executive Coach
The Education Group
Heads of school – especially those relatively new to their position – need a confidant, resource, guide, and mentor to help them navigate the first two or three typically challenging years of a headship. This year two major challenges – pressure to sustain a safe school environment during the pandemic and to address racial inequities specific to independent schools – combined to require of a new head almost superhuman talents to navigate this perilous educational landscape. While the board chair and other board members play important advisory roles for both new and experienced heads, no person in the school community possesses experience in running a school and managing the often-competing interests and diverse opinions of its various constituencies. Put simply: A school head has no equivalent “peer” or colleague in an independent school. And so, the value of an executive coach with experience as a head of school is immeasurable. The coach becomes a member of the head’s inner advisory circle, offering both support and guidance while challenging the head to strategize and view situations and issues from varying vantage points. Indeed, the executive coach is the head’s only ally with no personal investment in the school or an agenda specific to the school. The executive coach is available 24/7 for the head to call upon in all matters, large or small – any issue that challenges the head and requires solid, balanced evaluation and decision-making. Indeed, the coach’s only goal is the success of the head.
My experience in coaching heads of school suggests that regardless of the head’s previous positions or titles, the role of school head requires a unique skill set that is part intuitive and part taught. Nobody is better prepared to teach and model the skills required to be a successful head of school than an experienced former head of school with a proven record of serving independent schools.
Put simply: A school head has no equivalent “peer” or colleague in an independent school.
The past year offers an especially excellent example of the value of an executive coach during a difficult situation, the kind that arise not infrequently in independent schools. During the past year, school heads across the country faced what psychologist Robert Evans calls a “dilemma situation,” not a “problem” to be solved. According to Evans, a “problem” is innately solvable and requires only critical thinking, problem solving, and finally activation of a viable solution. Contrarily, a “dilemma” is a situation that is not solvable, at least in the short term, but does require wisdom and finesse on the part of the head of school to manage the polarity typical of the frequently oppositional school constituents as they align with one side or the other of the dilemma.
When the seismic reaction to last summer’s horrific murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer coincided with forced isolation from COVID quarantine throughout our country, independent school heads frequently found themselves in a position all too common in recent years: alone and bombarded by negative attacks from several varying constituencies. Outraged parents of Black students, as well as white parents and well-meaning faculty, demanded a community-wide statement reflecting the school's "position" on this tragedy. Alumni quarantined in their hometowns while completing their collegiate courses online demanded their alma maters re-examine their entire approach to JEDI issues and education. Boards found themselves in the spotlight of concerns over the authenticity of their support for school diversity statements — often written years earlier, in more benign times. And the entire "dilemma" was laced with political connotations spurred by recent polarizing at the national level.
The past year offers an especially excellent example of the value of an executive coach during a difficult situation, the kind that arise not infrequently in independent schools.
School heads, both Black and white, found themselves assaulted by demands from both sides of the political/cultural spectrum. They were often personally criticized for a perceived lack of attention to important JEDI issues, and found themselves having to defend what often represented a significant amount of work that had been going on for many years in an effort to improve the inclusiveness of their school and the experience of students of color who attended independent schools. Even those who had seen themselves as champions of this noble cause seemed to fall short in the eyes of their more extreme constituents — often without any real evidence. They had seemingly become a target of the discontent experienced across the country due to their symbolic position as the head of a school.
Well-meaning heads of school did what was instinctive: They tried to “fix” the issue, not recognizing that it was truly a dilemma and not a problem with a simple, reachable solution. Furthermore, the complexity of this particular dilemma had been hundreds of years in the making and had permeated the entire population, not just the small independent school world. Yet, heads wrote letters and held multiple meetings with parents, alumni, faculty, and diversity directors and experts. As the political pendulum swung wildly back and forth, heads of school became more desperate and often more actionable in their attempts to regain peace in their school communities. These same anxious school heads were often confronted by boards of trustees with widely varying opinions on how to handle the escalating demands.
Even long-tenured heads of school found themselves embattled during the last year; those with less experience were pushed to the point of seriously reconsidering their desire or ability to head a school. More tenured heads at least had the perspective to recall stressful times in the past and their experience in managing dilemmas that arise in their schools. They also had the advantage of a history with their boards and the inevitable stability this shared history brings to a school during stressful times. New heads, still trying to find their footing with their communities and boards, found themselves pummeled back and forth between well-meaning constituents on both sides of the issue. Those new, or relatively new, heads who had the advantage of an executive coach at their side seemed to be able to step back and maintain perspective even as they resisted the temptation to become overly reactive. However, those who muscled through the last year alone found themselves exhausted, embattled, and often anxious about their longevity as a school head.
Coaches are typically very experienced former heads of school, with proven track records, who have only one agenda: the success of the current head.
While the past year was especially complicated and difficult for independent schools and their heads of school, it is not unusual to have at least one potentially incendiary situation arise every year in our schools. It may not be a societal issue such as we experienced during the past year. The issues that typically arise are more specific to the schools — often situations surrounding discipline or personnel issues – but they can be just as damaging to both the school and the head of school. They have contributed to the alarmingly short average tenure of new heads of school.
Simply put, the job as a school head has become exponentially more complicated in recent years and requires not only a very special and talented individual, but also experience in dealing with the inevitable negative situations that will arise – experience that newer heads of school, even the best of them, simply do not have. This is where the executive coach is invaluable. Coaches are typically very experienced former heads of school, with proven track records, who have only one agenda: the success of the current head. What a gift this is for any new, or relatively new, head of school – to be able to rely on the advice of their executive coach while they build their own experience during those initial vulnerable years.