The Head’s plan for CFO succession

A main job of the Head of School is to persuade supporters that gifts are put to their highest purpose and applied effectively in support the mission of the school. If the Head can’t sit across from a donor, look them in the eye, and make the case that their funds will be stewarded appropriately, what does that say?

The case for the efficient functioning of the school rests on leadership from the CFO or Business Officer to foster a culture of continuous improvement.

Challenges in the business office are not unique to your situation: any extra dollar an independent school had available 10 years ago likely went toward improving the program or the facility. As a result, it’s common to discover a backlog of ‘deferred maintenance’ on the administrative side - unaddressed systems, staffing, and structural issues.

“The board knew about this mess, but they left it for me to fix?”

— The newly arrived Head of School

Because most school Heads do not come up through the business office or arrive with an accounting certification, the assessment of ‘how things are going’ is left to the expert in charge. This also means that when a long-serving CFO departs, unpleasant surprises can await someone new to the school if there isn’t a well-prepared next-in-line for this leadership role in-house. To guard against the quick exit of your next successor CFO, we recommend you build organizational capacity and self-awareness before starting your search.

• Capture current roles and responsibilities

  Very few business offices in schools operate with updated job descriptions. Who does what? What key functions are entrusted to vendors? Balancing the load across the team according to updated institutional priorities (rather than just ‘the way it’s been done here) and staff capacity means first agreeing that change is necessary.

• Cross-train staff and add buffer capacity

  During a CFO transition, it is common for long-serving business office staff to re-evaluate their commitment to their job. Do they really want to 'break-in' a new manager? Identify key functions (payroll) that are vulnerable to unplanned staff transition. Implement cross-training routines within the existing team, and where necessary add part-time, full-time, or vendor-provided support as backup.

• Align the interviewers on what is required

  Board directors with a finance background can sometimes help properly evaluate CFO candidates - and sometimes not. Build a shared understanding among direct reports to this role and everyone on the hiring team. What technical skills, management abilities, and mindsets will help the school thrive? Test and get feedback on each element as part of the interview process: don't rely on references alone.

The feedback we hear most often from a new CFO has to do with the difficulty of persuading others about the need for change. We hear things like:

“I have to constantly assess: how deep is the required change ahead, and how fast does the institution need me to make the change? The faster and deeper the change, the shorter my likely tenure.”

“I knew some changes would be necessary. But I didn’t realize I’d have to first change hearts and minds about what’s really going on now to justify the decisions I know have been put off too long.”

To manage these risks, build transparency at every step of the search. Do this first by investing in creating organizational self-awareness ahead of a search. You’ll know this is in place when you get similar answers to the question: “What do we need in a new CFO?” from different parts of the organization, including your board.

Then commit to being clear during the search process with your finalists about what they are likely to encounter in the work. Your investment of time now will serve as a gift both to the successful CFO candidate who understands what they have to do, and the school community who knows what they are asking their new CFO to undertake.