In their introduction to this series on the Headship position, Stacy Stephens and Jeff Paulson described the challenge of time for School Heads. In a recent meeting, they note, Heads of School were asked to allocate their time according to the International Standards of Practice for a Head of School. The time the Heads allocated exceeded 200 percent of the time that is actually available – clearly indicating the scope and demands of the role. Given these, how do Heads manage? Equally important, how does anyone considering the Headship prepare to spend their time in a sustainable way?
Principled Prioritization
No amount of effort can pack 48 hours of work into 24. When the Head finishes the day, week, or year, the to-do list is always incomplete. If some things will inevitably remain undone—and others entirely unaddressed—then perhaps the most important decision a Head makes is determining what must happen.
Prioritization may be the most valuable skill a Head possesses. We have all known leaders who spent time on the wrong things, who responded to the loudest voice or the most recent issue. It’s hard to know where these leaders stand; they seem to lurch from problem to problem rather than lead from principles. In contrast, Heads who prioritize on principles can be counted on, in crisis and in the quotidian. Knowing what matters allows a leader to do what matters. Principled prioritization allows a leader to allocate time well, and to support others in doing the same.
How do we know what matters? Certainly, a school’s context plays a part, but there are constants that serve as compass points for any leader. People matter most, individually and collectively, in the human enterprise that is school. Students must be at the center of the Head’s decisions, including decisions about time, and right after students must come those who support them: faculty, families, staff, and trustees. Prioritizing people does not mean setting work down every time someone walks into the office. It means putting the work that takes care of people at the top of the to-do list. And it means communicating clearly to the school’s many constituencies how our work—building a budget, implementing a program, stewarding the board—supports the people we serve.
Strategizing and Sequencing
Prioritization is at the heart of strategy—or should be. Ideally, a school’s strategic plan identifies a small set of priorities and explains how thee support the people in your school community. If your school doesn’t have a plan that does this, make creating one your first priority.
It’s easy to lose sight of strategy in the crush of daily life in school; an angry email (or two or ten) can derail an entire day. Effective leaders build their weeks, months, and years around strategy. However, they identify priorities and plan progress toward them, in units of time large enough to accommodate the derailments of daily life but small enough to ensure accountability. This work of strategizing and sequencing allows Heads to attend to the communications, meetings, and events that get big things done. This is how Heads respond to unanticipated issues while still accomplishing strategic goals.
Sharing Leadership
High-performing Heads don’t do this work alone. They align their work and their teams’, making priorities clear, sequencing steps, and ensuring that each member of the board and team is doing the part of the work for which they are best suited. This is the secret of how Heads build the capacity to achieve more than they actually have time to do.
This brings us back to people. Investing the time in building a focused board and an effective team, often feels “extra” in budget season, a critical phase of construction, or the middle of the mad month of May, but it is central to a Head’s use of time. An effective board and leadership team amplify the impact of the Head of School. Even in the smallest schools, talented Heads don’t do it all, though these Heads are often involved in more (and are often among the most able school leaders as a result).
The Headship always involves reckoning with too many tasks and not enough time, but principled prioritization, careful sequencing of strategic work, and intentionally sharing leadership can help Heads put their time and their teams to work for what matters most in school: the people who constitute the communities we serve.
Read more about The Complexities of Head of School Leadership and Shaping Lives and Building Legacy.
Dr. Melinda Bihn has led the International School of San Francisco since 2014. She has worked in international schools in Austria, Germany, and Portugal and in independent schools in the United States of America. She speaks French and German in addition to English. Melinda has a bachelor's degree in arts in English with a minor in French, a master's degree in comparative literature, a master's degree in the teaching and administration of English as a second language, and a doctorate in educational leadership. She has been an independent school trustee; has served on the boards of the California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS), the Center for Spiritual and Ethical Education (CSEE), the California Teacher Development Collaborative (CATDC); and was a 2019 Fellow at the Klingenstein Center for Independent School Leadership of Teachers College, Columbia University.
