In matters related to management, PAIDEIA, Inc., focuses on the key question concerning organizational structure: Who's in charge of what? We firmly believe that decision-making success is possible only when the governing board, executives, administration and staff are working in unison to meet their respective responsibilities and thereby fulfill the mission.

Our counsel in this area encompasses:
• Training new board members for their
   role and responsibilities.
• Restructuring the governance of
   an institution.
• Conducting a nationwide search for
   a president, head of school or other officers.
• Providing professional growth opportunities
   for faculty and staff.
• Evaluating a headmaster/president/pastor or CEO's effectiveness.
• Developing key administrators into more effective leaders.
• Assisting with financial accountability to insure proper stewardship.

Specific services include:
Executive and administrative search
Board education and training
Executive/administrator/staff mentoring
The PAIDEIA Institute for Executive Leadership^SM

Executive and Administrative Search
PAIDEIA's executive and administrative search services are specialized for schools, colleges, seminaries and other worthy causes. Each year, institutions across the USA and overseas retain PAIDEIA to assist in search-and-placement for both top executive (e.g., president, head-of-school, CEO, executive director, etc.) and other key administrative positions.

PAIDEIA is not an employment agency and does not require a fee from individual applicants, nor do we guarantee job placement. Our firm is paid by the client-institution, which retains us.
We offer two types of executive search services:

Comprehensive Searches
Most of our searches are comprehensive, meaning that PAIDEIA works on behalf of the client throughout the entire process, thus saving the client a great deal of time, lending extensive experience and judgment to the task of identifying the right individual for the job, and focusing the search committee’s efforts on only the strongest candidates. Once a search committee has engaged our firm for this purpose, and we receive or help finalize a candidate profile, PAIDEIA:

• Recruits prospective candidates through our national and international network of contacts and possibly advertisements placed in strategic publications and/or Web-based vehicles.
• Assesses the credentials of initial inquirers, inviting those who seem best suited to the position to become formal applicants.
• Conducts initial phone interviews with applicants, and follow-up in-person interviews with the most promising candidates.
• Culls down the group of candidates to a pool of five or six nominees, whose dossiers we then send to the search committee in advance of a selection meeting.
• Attends the selection meeting, during which we describe the nominees in full—at which point the search committee typically selects up to three finalists.

Throughout the remainder of the search process (i.e., finalist interviews, candidate selection, negotiations, final appointment), PAIDEIA continues to provide ongoing support and counsel to the search committee and board.

SearchLight^SM
Recruiting and retaining strong talent is perhaps one of the most important things leaders must do well if they are to succeed in advancing their institutions; but budget constraints can hinder an organization’s efforts to identify and attract solid candidates for development and advancement positions.

SearchLight is a unique service designed by PAIDEIA to provide cost-effective professional support to college and university leaders who seek to recruit top talent into the advancement field: development and fundraising, alumni relations, marketing, communication and public relations.

For a reduced fee as compared with our comprehensive search service, PAIDEIA will interview, qualify and screen applicants, and deliver a slate of candidates for the client's review and selection. SearchLight not only helps the client save money, but also time that in-house staff and/or the search committee would otherwise spend unproductively, weeding out applicants who are ineligible, unqualified or otherwise unsuited for the institution's mission and purpose.

For additional information about our executive and administrative search services, or searches that are currently under way, contact PAIDEIA at info@paideia-inc.com or 631-751-4705.

Board Education and Training
Board leadership is crucial to many aspects of guiding an institution, especially fundraising success; and effective board leadership does not happen overnight. To be successful with its advancement efforts, every institution—small or large, young or old—must recruit, educate, nurture, evaluate and deploy the right board—meaning the board whose members are most committed and best equipped to help the institution fulfill its mission with integrity.

PAIDEIA provides counsel at each step of the board recruitment and education process, through board audits and assessments, board profiling, board education on campaigning, and board counsel on giving (and asking) responsibilities.

 

Executive, Administrator and Staff Mentoring
Formal professional mentoring can help institutional executives, administrators and staff members become significantly more effective at fulfilling their roles and responsibilities. With the breadth and depth of experience among our team, PAIDEIA is well equipped to provide valuable guidance to individuals and institutions seeking to enhance their professional performance.

In establishing a mentoring relationship, PAIDEIA typically responds to either a directive from the board or a request from an individual executive, administrator or other staff member. We hold a preliminary meeting with the individual or group who has issued the directive or request and the person who is to be mentored; terms and conditions for conducting the mentoring process are agreed upon. A performance review—based upon areas of competency to be measured—is held after a period of six months or so, during which the mentoring has been carried out.

The performance review is a broad-based study, including multiple face-to-face interviews, during which the perceived effectiveness of the participant's leadership or promise thereof as a result of the mentoring process is tested. PAIDEIA submits a written report to the board or executive who commissioned the mentoring.

 

The PAIDEIA Institute for Executive Leadership^SM
There is a common denominator among all executive searches: no board or search committee that engages PAIDEIA to conduct an executive search expresses a willingness to appoint as CEO someone who lacks any experience at asking for and receiving a major gift. Yet during the course of almost every executive search—especially for a head-of-school position—we receive applications from persons who have broad experience in their own field of expertise, but do not have sufficient experience at raising gift support. This single gap in an applicant's resume is sufficient to disqualify the prospective candidate.

To help prepare would-be executives, PAIDEIA has initiated The PAIDEIA Institute for Executive Leadership: a year-long opportunity for mid-level administrators to receive specific mentoring in financial development/advancement. With the cooperation and encouragement of the head-of-school, the mentoring program begins at the annual PAIDEIA Conference in June, continues at our WEEKEND DIALOGUE in September, carries on with bimonthly contact with a PAIDEIA mentor and one onsite visit by that advisor, and concludes with the PAIDEIA Conference the following June. A single fee covers the year's engagement; travel and related expenses are billed as incurred.