During her tenure, a well-known independent school Head lists among her many accomplishments, endowment growth and reputational enhancement after a challenging transition from a long-term predecessor. She has been fortunate to have had strong supportive chairs and is now on her fourth chair. Usually this is potentially a risk to a head’s survival in the role.

How many of you have had four successful marriages? The chair/head partnership is a marriage, a bond that requires mutual support, no surprises and a sharing of praise and criticism with the goal of protecting the head and the school.

Recently, I asked the Head how supported she felt by the Board and if they were recognizing her accomplishments. After a long pause, she spoke honestly about the loneliness of the job. This was an rare admission of an endemic issue for heads.

Most heads cannot have “friends” on the board, faculty or parent body.  They know that all these folks work for her or she works for them in some capacity. That can make for awkward friendships. A nurturing chair must find ways to lessen the isolation of the head’s role, and it is hoped that the full board tries to offer counsel, support and protection when needed.

I spoke to the Board Chair about the Head’s isolation prior to a governance workshop. The Chair acknowledged that he could do better by meeting with her and checking on how she was doing and feeling more often. He pledged to grow in that aspect of his role. This was a frank and powerful response by her Chair, now in his second year. I came away very impressed.

During a recent governance workshop for the entire Board, the Chair said he had spoken at length to the Head recently and understood better what to do to be more supportive of her. Having led thousands of governance workshops worldwide, this Consultant has rarely heard a chair articulate in front of a board what they all need to do to advocate for and stand by the head through thick and thin.

Both the Head and Chair made themselves vulnerable in their comments. It paid off.

Post workshop, it is obvious they understand each other better and what they both need to do in both good and challenging times. This School is enjoying a good run but as we all know that it can change on a dime. When that next challenge arises will this Board “circle the wagons”, keep the confidences of the Board room, and support their Head? This Consultant is confident that this Board will do just that.

A board chair should be the head’s biggest public supporter and the most honest private critic. The relationship requires trust, vulnerability and a rule of no surprises. It is no secret to anyone reading this that Littleford & Associates is a strong advocate for longer serving boards and longer serving chairs. That almost always leads to longer serving heads who leave a legacy. In contrast, a board with rapid turnover of board members and chairs finds itself in constant head of school search/transition mode.

As a former Head, this Consultant’s Chair supported a full year sabbatical for me after 8 years in the head position.  I was granted half a year salary plus housing on the Harvard campus, a year’s tuition at the Harvard Education School, and all my standard benefits.

That year was a professional turning point for me.  I wrote a book published by NAIS for almost 18 years on the topic of faculty salary systems and then returned to the Head’s role for three more years. That sabbatical year provided the basis for my consulting work which I have been doing full time since 1992.

I learned later that a foundation grant which enabled me to earn the other half of my salary tax-free came anonymously from a Donor. The Donor passed away in a car accident. I learned then that the Donor was my former board chair, Tim Hitchcock.