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The strategy behind recruiting a leader Andrew Wigford explains how to conduct an effective recruitment and selection process Leading an international school today requires educational understanding, international mindedness, and savvy business acumen. Every board will have high expectations for a new future leader, but the process they follow for selection can be far from strategic; often assuming too much about the needs of the school or the leader, relying on only one route to identifying candidates, and selecting without proper process. Know what and who you need The search for a new Head provides a school board with the opportunity to step back and evaluate not only its current and impending leader, but also the position of the school within the community and its future direction. A benchmarking study of like schools will enable the board to understand how it compares with others, and how these schools are compensating their leaders. Such a study will Spring
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| 2018
provide the board with accurate data to produce a needs analysis; agreeing what they want for the school, the type of person necessary to lead it, and the package the board is willing to offer to attract the best possible candidates. When it comes to remuneration, agreement of salary parameters is important. So too is remembering that the school is competing for a new leader within an international, not national, market. The vast majority of successful leadership placements involve some degree of negotiation. Too often schools lose good candidates right at the end of the process because they are not prepared to negotiate. Proper process helps to form the basis for a candidate specification. Prepare strategically A sub-committee of the board can move the process forward most efficiently, using the outcomes of the board’s needs
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