+
Primary Sources: Slides from NAIS’s LtP Conference
Keynotes by Dick Chait, Pat Bassett, & Jack Creeden
LEADERSHIP THROUGH
PARTNERSHIP Highlights –
Perspectives on
Governance for School
Heads
+
“A Non-Profit Board is Comprised
of an Incompetent Group
of Highly Competent People?”

Invited to Join Board – Good at Something Else.

We Must be Taught How to Play This Game.

Preferably Instruction Begins Before We Are Sent to the
Playing Field!
+
Perception of Roles
(The State of Independent School Governance, NAIS, 2006)
 99%
oversight body assuring accountability of
the organization
 98%group
to give support to the chief executive
 94%
fundraising
 82%
community ambassador for school
 52%
representative of those you serve
+ Developing the Board – from the
Head’s Perspective
(Board Member, May 2004, Chait et al.)
The SAT Analogy:
My board is to my school
as
is to
.
If my board were delivered from
heaven, I’d say…
My board is to my school
as
is to
.
+
Three Levels of Board Governance
Source: Bill Ryan, AISNE Governance Workshop, Oct 23. 2007
Analogies revealing some level of dysfunction:
 Loose
steering wheel is to auto
 Fingernail
 Hamster
is to blackboard
is to wheel
+
+
“Leaders are people who
do the right thing;
managers are people
who do things right.”
~Warren G. Bennis
Examples of a board doing
“things right”?
+What Leaders Really Do ~ John Kotter
Management:
Manages Complexity by…
• Planning & Budgeting
• Organizing & Staffing
• Controlling & Problemsolving
• Producing predictability,
order, and consistency
(i.e., “doing things right”)
Examples of a board doing “things
right”?
+ Price Water House Risk
Management Report
Fiduciary Duties of Care: Risk Assessment & Management
• Governance
• The evolving higher education business model
• Safety and well-being of individuals on campus
• Current regulatory environment
• Institutional compliance
• Political and public perceptions
• Information security
• International operations
• Medical center considerations
+ PwC Risk Management Report –
Sample Section on Safety
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
At-risk students (identification, support, counseling, reporting)
Campus suicides (response teams, communications)
Trips abroad (health & safety issues; evacuation plans)
Student organizations (alcohol and drug policies and enforcement)
Minors on campus (host accountability and background checks)
Violence and threat assessments (campus crime, reporting, threat assessment)
Crime reporting (reporting, reputational damage)
+ Fiduciary Oversight
to Fiduciary Inquiry.
Extracting Leadership Value (Chait, 2005)
The Fiduciary Questions:
The Strategic Questions:

Did we get a clean audit?

What did we learn from audit?

Is the budget balanced?

Does budget reflect priorities?

Increase budgets by 2-3%?

Move $$ from other programs?

How much $$ do we need to
raise?

What’s the case for raising the
money?

Can we secure the gift?

How will gift advance mission?

Is faculty/staff turnover
reasonable?

Do we treat faculty/staff fairly?
+
PRIORITIES VERSUS
ORGANIZATION (CHAIT, 2005)
 BOARD
COMMITTEES
 FINANCE
 DEVELOPMENT
 EXECUTIVE
 GOVERNANCE
 B&G
 ADMISSION &
MARKETING
 WHICH
COMMITTEE
STUDIES:
 CLIMATE OF
DIVERSITY
 IMPACT OF
TECHNOLOGY
 FACULTY
RECRUITMENT &
RETENTION
 COMPETITIVE
POSITION
+
CHALLENGES TO TRADITIONAL
MODELS – LEVELS I & II

Trustees Want to Make a Difference

Reacting to Staff Reports Not Engaging

Monitoring and Oversight Tasks = The Substitute Teacher’s
Responsibility:

Maintain Order - MONITOR

Meet Minimum Standards – COMPLIANCE & OVERSIGHT

Don’t Teach Anything New – PROGRESS WITHOUT CHANGE
+What Leaders Really Do ~ John Kotter
Management:
Leadership:
Manages Complexity by…
• Planning & Budgeting
• Organizing & Staffing
• Controlling & Problemsolving
• Producing predictability,
order, and consistency
Leads Change by…
• Setting a direction
• Aligning people
• Motivating and inspiring
• Producing useful and
dramatic change
(i.e., “doing things right”)
(i.e., “doing the right things”)
Examples of a board doing “the right
thing”?
+ Generative Questions (from the college
president to the board of a highly selective US college)

What does the college have to offer to
students and society, in this century? How has
that changed from a generation ago?

What does it mean for the college to be
successful? To what degree is our view of the
college’s success in the context of our peers,
and to what extent is it independent of them?

By what standards should we expect to judge
in five years our stewardship of the college?

Who are the students we should be enrolling
in the college? Why? How?
+ Generative Questions (from the college president
to the board of a highly selective US college)

Who are the faculty we should be attracting to
the college? Why? How?

What is the comparative advantage of the
college’s location, and how should we capitalize
upon it.

What is the comparative disadvantage of the
college’s location, and how should ameliorate it?

Are there assets of the college currently
underutilized?

Is the college organized to respond to the
present challenges and to realize its aspirations
for the future?
+
Job Security is an Oxymoron
(Chait, CHE, 1.9.11)
 “The
reality is, when the president mismanages,
the board fires the president. When the board
mismanages, the board fires the president.”
 “The
board hires; the faculty fires.”

The antidote?

Building relational trust.
+
Four Questions for Heads

What do you know to be an important component in building
the board chair-head relationship?

What do you know to be an important component in
sabotaging the board chair-head relationship?

How do you nurture the board and board dynamics when
things are going well?

How do you nurture the board and board dynamics when
things are not going well?
+
The Head’s Perspective on
Governance
THE END