Our Methodology

Tailoring the Search Process to Meet Your Needs. The manner in which your search is conducted has an indelible impact upon the ability of the new Head to lead your school effectively. CS&A will help you determine how to structure stakeholder participation constructively and how to manage it efficiently and effectively.

Understanding the School, Its Challenges, and Its Opportunities. Our consultant engages in an intensive immersion to understand fully your school's history, mission and culture, and will focus on those distinctive characteristics that make up its identity.

Defining Required Leadership Competencies and Personal Characteristics. We involve the Board and the Search Committee in reaching common understandings concerning the critical connection between successful leadership and sound governance, and guide the direction for the search based upon the input received from stakeholders. Every Board member (whether on the Search Committee or not) participates actively in framing the foundation for the search.

Preparing the Invitation to Apply, the Marketing Plan, and the Search Timetable. Following this intensive data gathering phase, we summarize our understanding of the school, the challenges ahead, and the required core competencies and characteristics needed in a new leader. More than a traditional position description, the Invitation to Apply is designed to ensure both that the recruiting objectives are closely calibrated with those of the Search Committee, and that the opportunity is presented and marketed effectively.

Building a Specific Candidate Pool. Since we have specialized in Head searches for independent schools since 1977, our clients have the benefit of our extensive networks and contacts we have developed – and actively maintain. We reach out to our academic contacts in colleges and universities, foundations, government agencies, independent and public schools, and at professional associations. We also follow up on nominations received from the school community and from other marketing efforts, and we contact educational leaders identified through our proprietary Search Management System, the largest and most comprehensive of its kind in the field.

Evaluating the Pool. CS&A interviews and check references of all candidates before referring their credentials to the Search Committee for review. The approach of our interviews tracks each candidate's career events and behavior to ensure that s/he has successfully demonstrated, in analogous situations, the specific competencies required for our clients. Our reference checks utilize the same approach, to glean from key sources the substance of an applicant’s performance and the possible differences between that and the applicant’s presentation or interviewing style.

Narrowing the Pool. Through early interviews, often held off-site, the Search Committee and consultant winnow the pool of quarterfinalists. Semifinalists are usually invited on campus for a round of second interviews and then selected finalists - and their spouses - are customarily invited to visit the campus to engage in meetings and final interviews.

We provide advice concerning format, logistics, procedure, and best practices, and offer Committee members detailed interview questions custom-designed to probe whether candidates possess the specific leadership qualities identified by the school. We help a school structure interviews, visits, and reference checks to ensure that these meet the candidates' and the Committee's needs. We also facilitate the flow of feedback between the candidates and the Search Committee.

Transition Support. CS&A services extend beyond the appointment. We believe successful appointments also rely on a carefully crafted and executed transition, or even the ideal candidate may not succeed.

We prepare a Transition Management Plan for the Board Chair, providing tools that will support the appointment and the school's effective leadership and governance. These include: a model job description, proposed objectives, and a suggested evaluation process for the new Head; an Entry Plan to facilitate an effective transition; a Board Chair/New Head Behavioral style analysis to foster an effective working relationship; and an Administrative Team-Building Analysis to promote cooperative and effective leadership. Finally, we are available to revisit the school after the first "100 days" to provide an objective, transition management assessment of the working environment between the new Head of School and the Board of Trustees.