When Leaders Change …

Article written by Bianca Coleborn, Director of Marketing, Faith Lutheran College; Founder, School Marketing Manifesto 

When Leaders Change … what does that mean for your Institution?

Leadership within a school environment is critical to its success.

Put simply, a school is only as good as its Head.

So, it makes sense that when there is a change of leadership, there will be a significant impact on your school community.

There are two parts to the changing of the guard – farewelling the outgoing Head and welcoming the new one. When it comes to the farewells, make sure the students and parents are involved.

Given this role has the highest profile in your school, everyone in the community deserves the opportunity to say thank you and goodbye. Be prepared for grief and sadness at their departure, particularly if they are an adored leader. This needs to be managed well, and families will need assurance that the school they signed up to will continue as promised under the new leadership.

Always remember that, for parents, choosing a school is a highly emotional purchase… but it’s also a long-term commitment as well as a significant financial investment. If they fell in love with the Head at the time of enrolment and have had a positive experience so far, it is understandable that they may feel some trepidation about the future.

Successfully welcoming and introducing the new Head to the school community is the key to managing this effectively. There will, of course, be a grand ceremony inducting the new Head into their role. However, the real work takes place after this time and is particularly critical in the first year.

At the end of the day, new leaders require trust to truly be successful in their role. Before they can develop trust, people need to get to know them and like them first. It’s called the ‘Know, Like, Trust Principle’.

For your community to get to know your new Head, they need plenty of opportunities to see, hear and interact with them. This means attendance at as many school events as possible, regular video messages via social media, participating in school activities and just being out and about on school grounds, creating authentic opportunities to interact with students, staff and parents.

It is important to note that while it is good to be seen, it is even more important for there to be genuine interaction with members of the school community. An analogy I often use (forgive me if you have heard me use it before), is that with each family in your school, you have a jar. Over time, you will work to build up credits in the jar. These credits are the trust each family has in your school. You want to have enough credits so that if something goes wrong and there is a withdrawal from the jar, you don’t have a withdrawal from the school on your hands.

Your new Head doesn’t have any of their own credits in the jar yet, so it should be their mission, and yours, to ensure they are taking every opportunity they can to build up that trust.

At the end of the day, a school is only as good as its Head…and a Head is only as good as the trust their community has in them.

Key Tips: Leadership behaviours to build trust:

• Give trust – be a leader, not a manager
• Focus on serving your community
• Show grace
• Be transparent – communication is key
• Walk the talk
• Embrace fun!
• Be visible in your school community 

Article written by Bianca Coleborn, Director of Marketing, Faith Lutheran College; Founder, School Marketing Manifesto | First appeared in the Educate Plus ‘Face-2-Face’ Magazine, 2022