How to Be a Leader in an Independent School [Podcast]

Dr. Carrie Grimes

Dr. Carrie Grimes is an Assistant Professor of the Practice in the Leadership, Policy, and Organizations department and also serves as the Director of the Independent School Leadership Master's program at Vanderbilt University. She completed her Ed.D. in Leadership and Learning in Organizations, where her research focused on social identity and community within school settings. Carrie's career has been centered in independent school leadership, including roles in administration, teaching, counseling, and institutional advancement in schools and programs in New York, California, and Maryland. Throughout her career, she has focused on community building, imaginative problem solving, and cross-team collaboration across a wide range of stakeholder groups including toddlers through adolescents, parents, adult learners, donors, and alumni. Carrie has a B.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.A. in Applied Psychology from New York University.

Carrie Quoted

“The breadth of expertise that stakeholders are expecting from a Head of School today has exceeded the bounds of what’s possible.”

 “The relationship between the Head of School and board has become more important than ever…We need to see a high trust culture between heads of school and trustees. And that trust can only be cultived over time…” 

“We’ve seen a lot of short-term headships in recent years because that trust has not be cultivated and it has not be able to sustain schools through periods of crisis, the pandemic, and racial injustice…”

“Boards are looking for more cognitive diversity.”

 “We can’t have an echo chamber anymore on boards.”

 “Social media is a double-edged sword. It’s provided our MarCom teams to have quick and powerful impact amongst prospective and current stakeholders in terms of communication and storytelling, however, it puts the power in the hands of the people.”

 “The only way that a Head of School can seek to possibly navigate the complex waters of social media is in total partnership with a skilled and highly competent Director of Communications and Marketing. I can’t underscore this enough. That individual must have a seat at the executive leadership table and that relationship between the Director of Communications and the Head of School must be tightly tethered in high trust, particularly at crisis moments.”

“These departments (MarCom) in our schools are consistently under-resourced in terms of the number of people who are putting out the work.” 

“The Head of School has the responsibility to amplify the identities of folks who populate his or her leadership team…If parents have the opportunity to see multiple leaders are highlighted, people begin to re-conceptualize the leadership structure as not a leadership structure of one, but a structure of many who work as a collective.”

“There’s a fine line between the spotlight and the hot seat. The spotlight can get really hot.”

What You’ll Learn

• How the Head of School’s job has changed in recent years.

• What jobs best prepare people for being a Head of School.

• How the evolution of MarCom professionals as transactional employees… to highly strategic evidence-based practitioners who are designing strategy around a whole host of initiatives. 

• Why our Heads of School can’t be experts in every domain. They need to trust their team with their expertise.

• What is “distributed” or “collective leadership.”

• How a school can help parents understand the new role of the Head of School.

• What is the “why” for graduate students and how there are a lot of new and interesting titles in schools that has piqued their interest in lieu of becoming a Head of School.

• Why you don’t need to be a Head of School to be a leader.

• What the Master’s in Independent School Leadership program at Vanderbilt is, the cohort model, and how the program is broadening its reach.

• Why socio-emotional intelligence and relationship building are the most important skills at independent schools.

Mentioned

What Makes a Leader? IQ and technical skills are important, but emotional intelligence is the sine qua non of leadership by Daniel Goleman

Range by David Epstein

Note

You’re invited to email Carrie about the Independent School Leadership program at Vanderbilt.

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