Over a decade ago, ISM quoted Noel Tichy as saying that what distinguishes winning organizations is that they “teach leadership.” In that article, we called for a “culture of observation” for coaching, for ongoing conversation, and for evaluation as a process carried out every year. Interestingly, while ISM then quoted others on leadership, we said almost nothing about it ourselves. The leadership literature demonstrated, we thought, the opacity of the term. Anyone, by their own definition, could be a leader. The books written by those who espoused the highest standards of leadership (that others should thus emulate) were often on the best-sellers lists. But what it meant for our schools seemed far less certain.

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It’s the first day of the new school year and, by midmorning, three teachers have reported that an expected student (two new and one returning) has not shown up for class. As Admission Director, you get on the phone to contact these families. The results of your calls are discouraging. In each case, the family chose another school.

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Before going on-site at a client school, ISM Consultants examine numerous documents to gain a thorough grounding in each institution’s approaches to governance, operations, and student programs. The school’s mission statement is a central component in this review. Once on-site, observations, conversations, survey interpretation, and interviews at times reveal discrepancies between the school’s published mission statement and its de facto statement. The de facto mission (or missions) comprise sets of principles or practices that have come to be observed at some levels or in some departments of the institution and that do not conform to the published statement. In some cases, ISM has found that there appears to be a different de facto mission for each academic division, for each academic department, and/or for each component of the cocurriculum. The published mission statement appears thereby to “wander” its way through the school, applied with one interpretation here, with another interpretation there, and with no attention to its very existence somewhere else.

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A central component of providing “direct and consistent donor cultivation” is the school’s ability to assist donors in making informed decisions about their giving, while protecting the school from awkward, inappropriate, or perhaps risky gift transactions. Consider the following two scenarios. A donor wants to make a gift to the school using securities that she has owned for many years. She requests the school hold the stock for a month before selling it. A patron of a nonsectarian school will make a seven-figure gift if the school agrees to add a religious component to its mission.

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As a candidate for a private-independent school headship, you must learn, in a short amount of time, a great deal about the school you are considering. If, like many candidates, you have more experience in programmatic areas (e.g., curricular and cocurricular programs, student issues, parent communication, faculty support) than in operations (e.g., facilities, finances, human resources, risk management), acquiring an understanding of a school’s financial condition could present a challenge. Look to the on-site interview(s) as the best time to gather the information you need about the budget and other monetary matters. Make sure you talk to the Chair of the Finance Committee and Business Manager/CFO separately. These people (with the current School Head) will provide the most useful detail in answering your questions.

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Many private-independent schools encourage students of all ages to become involved in community service—an ongoing, schoolwide program of service to others. These schools may also specify that students complete a prescribed number of hours as a graduation requirement. These service programs are designed to broaden students’ sense of social awareness by exposing them to the “real world” and to instill in these young people a lifelong commitment to caring for and about others. In addition, a school should offer service learning—those components of the school’s curriculum that support and complement the community service efforts.

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Two Boards often govern schools with a religious affiliation. Typically, one of these is charged with direct governance of the school itself. The other is the governing body for the religious entity, and thus indirectly governs the school as well. ISM’s generic term for these “other” governing entities is “Super Board.”

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You don’t want to enroll a child in June who is a real academic risk or who doesn’t fit your school’s mission. What if your best candidates apply in August? And what if the first 10 students who meet minimum qualifications for a given grade are all girls and you operate a coed school? Leave yourself room to select the most appropriate candidates from among all who eventually apply.

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As Summer Program Director, you’ve spent time since last summer’s program to reconsider the design and curriculum for this summer’s sessions. You may not, however, have looked at risk management specifically from the perspective of your program. Or perhaps you noticed some safety issues last year that must be addressed. The safety and care of your students is a priority—and is also essential in our litigious society.

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ISM published its Student Experience Study (SES) outcomes in January 2012, and published related articles in Ideas & Perspectives throughout the spring. Among the features in the report were a revised Faculty Culture Profile—ISM’s long-standing measure of the quality of a school’s faculty culture—and a revised Student Culture Profile, along with the study’s statistical findings and an instrument for use as part of any school’s approach to faculty evaluation, the Characteristics of Professional Excellence II.

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