In our experience both processes can work but the statistics are powerfully on the side of appointing an internal candidate.

Almost 90% of international and US schools engaged in a head of school search choose a person from outside the community. Many boards like a search because it is an exciting opportunity to engage the community and energize board members. However, about 80% of those outside folks leave not on their own terms or under their own steam.

The search process normally covers an 18-month timeframe from start to finish, and the transition process for an outsider new head is at least 3 years and often can be five years. Almost no board realizes that changing heads and hiring an outsider can be a 6.5-year process!

Only 10% of schools choose an insider and yet only 10% of those insiders are “fired.” Why?

Inside candidates, assuming they have strong backing from multiple stakeholder groups, know the players, know the culture, have history with the school and a higher trust than any newcomer.

Often a search committee knows that it has a strong inside candidate(s) but for political and PR reasons, wants to compare those individual(s) to a national or international candidate pool. The goal is to confirm its choice. However, often strong outside candidates avoid a search where a known inside candidate, including one doing an interim year, is perceived to have the inside track. Why spend political capital with one’s own school to compete in that?

Inside candidates generally know the type and pace of change that the faculty will tolerate. External heads do not have this political capital reservoir or background knowledge.  Boards often put external candidates under pressure to make quick changes, and without that knowledge of the culture, often these new candidates do not survive beyond three years.

So….inside succession planning is crucial. Why does it not happen more often?

Perhaps some heads are unconsciously reluctant to hire and retain senior administrators who have the charisma and potential to build strong connections with the board, faculty, students and parents and thus, ultimately replace them.  Many heads are not that secure especially if there is high board turnover so having a talented and obviously engaging senior administrator can pose a threat.

On the other hand, many great heads who feel very secure in their tenure have hired and sent out senior administrators to head their own schools. We all know a few heads who have “seeded” the world with some great school heads. This is part of their legacy.

However, external succession planning CAN work if there is a good entry plan, and 3-5 year transition plan, and a transition committee that is made up mostly of board leadership from the search committee. This group can warn that new head about where the bodies are buried, whom not to offend, where to build good will first and thereby give a new head a clear pathway to success. This should include having the same chair for the new heads’ first three years.

Every head turnover is a potential loss of momentum, mission fuzziness, micro management and a potential power vacuum where intrusion into operations by the faculty, the board and the parents are a strong possibility.

We heard a recent conversation where a valued long-term head was retiring, not entirely of his own volition. The challenge was that the School was small, enrollment was declining, costs were up, the deficit was growing. There was no internal senior management team because the Head was performing the admissions, fund raising and academic leadership functions.  Hence the dilemma: the Board was entirely dependent on the Head who did not really want to leave and yet the board saw the need for a change to turn the School around.

The options are:

1. Planned internal succession?
2. Hiring an interim head for a year or two? Boards often do not like this option being afraid that the school will lose financial health and momentum.
3. Going into a full fledge national search with 18 months’ notice to the current Head?

Try this quiz. Which option would you choose and why?

Littleford & Associates conducts executive assessments, full national and international searches, governance training for boards, and search/transition and succession planning for nonprofits and some corporations worldwide.

Watch NOW John Littleford’s informative video on the topic!