Future Leadership conducted an executive search for board directors at an independent school, ensuring governance renewal and strategic succession.
The Brief
An independent school invited Future Leadership’s Advisory team to undertake a board renewal project to assess the current skills and capabilities of the Board and identify any gaps and suggest future skills that could augment current Director’s strengths and lead to strategic succession planning.
Based on the premise that school boards need to focus on best practice governance principles given the new school registration requirements for governing bodies with regard to accountabilities and professional practice, the school board (with a new Constitution in place) sought to develop a current skills and capabilities matrix and identify future qualities for new board members as part of its succession planning.
The objective was to assess existing director capabilities, identify gaps, and appoint new directors who could align with best practice governance and succession planning requirements.
Candidate net Promote Score
Future Leadership combines truly personalised relationships with innovative technology solutions to ensure an approachable and efficient process for all our Net Promoter Score across clients, successful candidates and unsuccessful candidates is well above industry standard.
Candidates supported every year
We maintain genuine relationships with past candidates and continue to support them with leadership solutions long term, after they land their role.
Senior Women Appointed since 2002
Over half of the executive search assignments undertaken by our team have resulted in the appointment of outstanding female or LGBTQI+ leaders to high profile roles.
Candidate Retention Rate for 12 months since 2002
Our thorough briefing process and ability to engage passive candidates mean that we go to great lengths to find the right person for the role – long term!
The Process
The school invited Future Leadership’s Advisory team to undertake a board renewal project to assess the current skills and capabilities of the Board and identify any gaps and suggest future skills that could augment current Director’s strengths and lead to strategic succession planning.
Based on the premise that school boards need to focus on best practice governance principles given the new school registration requirements for governing bodies with regard to accountabilities and professional practice, the school board (with a new Constitution in place) sought to develop a current skills and capabilities matrix and identify future qualities for new board members as part of its succession planning.
Top capabilities Identified for the appointments
Strategy and Purpose
Develops and leads strategy for the function/organisation, taking a broad and long-term perspective. Understands and considers context. Communicates and gains buy-in to the function/organisation goals, direction and vision, promoting change initiatives.
Commercial Acumen
Provides a deep understanding of relevant industry, marketplace and business drivers as applicable to the organisation. Leverages the application of commercial tools and frameworks to manage opportunities, conflicts and trade-offs.
Critical Thinking
Gathers and examines different data points, testing for assumptions and gaps in logic; reframes problems and presents well-reasoned insights considering diverse perspectives. Analyses, interprets and objectively evaluates information enabling judgements.
Organisational Capability
Understands the organisation's future requirements and identifies opportunities to build potential across the organisation. Seeks opportunities to develop other people and takes appropriate action to address skill gaps in others.
Adaptability and Resilience
Demonstrates positivity, curiosity, and the ability to pivot when confronted with change, pressure, adversity and disruption. Responsive to strategic environmental, social and corporate challenges and opportunities.
Systems Thinking
Views situations in their entirety, understanding all the parts at play. Identifies the interconnected factors and how they influence each other, impacting the whole system. Takes a strategic perspectives
The Outcome
The executive search resulted in the successful appointment of highly qualified board directors, ensuring strategic governance continuity.
Post the initial review, the independent school engaged with the Future Leadership Executive Search team to commence the search process for a Board Director to replace an outgoing Director. Additionally, the School also requested a Market Scan and Talent Mapping to identify future Board Directors. Talent Mapping identified 33 potential candidates, reduced to eleven after completion of a Skills Matrix. Following on from this, six candidates met with the School Council Chair, Deputy Chair, Council members and Headmaster. As a result, the school engaged with one candidate for an immediate start and three further candidates with staggered commencement.
