Conducting an Executive Search for a Principal to Uphold Tradition and Drive Innovation at a Prestigious Independent Catholic Girls’ School. Supporting a Seamless Leadership Transition.
The Brief
Future Leadership™ partnered with a prestigious independent Catholic girls’ school to appoint a new Principal following the retirement of the incumbent after nearly 20 years of outstanding leadership.
The school, renowned for its academic, pastoral, co-curricular, and spiritual programs, sought a leader capable of building on its strong foundation and furthering its vision of forming young women with confidence, independence, and intellectual excellence.
The Board selected Future Leadership™ as its search partner due to the team’s deep knowledge of the independent school sector, robust networks, and ability to deliver a transparent and thorough process.
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
Future Leadership™, led by Liz Jones, conducted a comprehensive and collaborative search:
- Detailed Briefing and Stakeholder Engagement: Held sessions with the Board, the outgoing Principal, and senior leaders to define the role and identify potential internal and external candidates.
- Targeted Candidate Outreach: Reached out to over 80 potential candidates and referral partners to identify individuals aligned with the school’s values and strategic vision.
- Candidate Management: Managed applications from three internal candidates while engaging external prospects to ensure a diverse and competitive pool.
- Rigorous Selection Process: Facilitated three rounds of panel interviews, psychometric assessments, and 360-degree reference checks, ensuring thorough evaluation.
This structured approach resulted in a shortlist of three highly capable candidates, each deemed appointable.
Emerging Capabilities
Strategy and Purpose
Develops and leads strategy for the function/organisation, taking a broad and long-term perspective. Communicates and gains buy-in to organisational goals and vision, promoting change initiatives.
Culture and Engagement
Fosters a positive culture, creating a sense of belonging and inclusiveness. Creates an environment that encourages diverse perspectives and facilitates a psychologically safe environment.
Governance and Compliance
Establishes, champions, and measures the effectiveness of an organisation’s regulatory and reporting systems. Identifies and evaluates risks and develops strategies to mitigate risk.
Stakeholder Relations
Establishes rapport with stakeholders, builds and sustains trusted and collaborative relationships. Identifies and draws on relevant and diverse perspectives and integrates them to support productive interactions.
Communication and Influence
Communicates with clarity and impact to facilitate individual and collective understanding, inspire action and enable information exchange. Leverages human-centric communication and storytelling to effectively influence stakeholders across the physical and virtual realms.
The Outcome
The Selection Panel were extremely pleased with the candidate field, determining the three final candidates were all appointable, including one Sydney based individual.
The appointment of the candidate, previously the Executive Deputy Principal at Loreto was announced in early December 2020.
The successful appointee had significantly contributed to the school’s leadership as the Executive Deputy Principal and demonstrated the capability to further its mission of forming confident, compassionate, and capable young women.
The seamless transition in leadership reinforced the Board’s confidence in Future Leadership’s ability to support both internal and external candidate pathways.
