In their employment and enrollment decisions, heads balance compassion with their duty to protect the school's mission and bottom line.

A format for heads and board chairs to use in performing a yearly governance check-up.

Cultivate the complex web of relationships between families and the school that generate loyalty. That's independent school marketing.

Boards should provide first year heads with dedicated mentoring on Day One.

The role of "pastor of the flock" is one of the most important roles that heads play, regardless of where they stand in their tenure.

A prescription for summer time priorities for heads of school.

The independent school board/head relationship is complex. To wit, the board is the head's boss, but the head is often the board's teacher.

Conducting substantive board work over the summer is unrealistic. Boards should organize their work accordingly.

Education should be about exploration, which is to say getting lost on purpose.

Heads should steward their neighbors as they do their donors.

Three big picture reflection prompts for heads to use over winter break.

Five precepts for independent school heads for getting the most out of communicating good news.

Recommendations for heads in managing the janky energy that defines the last two months of the school year.

Hiring is the head's most important task. How you go about it should reflect the highest values of the school.

It's essential for boards to have a carefully designed transition program for new heads.

Planned well, capital campaigns are ripe opportunities to boost advancement work: alumni, major gifts, annual campaign.

Heads should take a first-hand role in enrollment.