There is plenty of food for thought for those engaged in governance in our report on leadership transitions, undertaken in collaboration with MSB. The Space Between: Rethinking leadership transition in international schools highlights the vital importance of viewing leadership transition not simply as an appointment but as a process.
Appointing a school’s leaders is one of the most important decisions a board, group or owner is expected to make. Schools often invest a lot of time and care in making an appointment. There are also many outstanding leaders in international schools. And yet, too often the transition from one leader to another is far from smooth. Sometimes things work out after a bumpy start; at other times, apparently good appointments are too short-lived.
This dilemma inspired the research that led to The Space Between. Drawing on interviews, survey data and roundtable discussion, RSAcademics and MSB set out to consider a range of questions. How does a departing leader leave? What knowledge and context are transferred? How does the new leader begin to understand the organisation? How are expectations met and managed in the early months?
Only about a quarter of respondents – leaders themselves as well as governors, group executives and advisers – said that international schools manage transition well. Transition out of role was identified as especially problematic. When information, context, understanding of relationships, local sensitivity and informal knowledge is lost as a result, the incoming leader is faced with unnecessary gaps and avoidable uncertainty.
The Space Between does not only identify the challenge – that too little attention is given to the process of transition. We have tried to use the data to identify solutions that will be useful to those involved in governance and to leaders embarking on or contemplating their own moves.
For example, the report unpicks the idea that success factors seem to be most strongly associated with trust, autonomy, cultural alignment and being listened to. Those emerge as more important in the medium-term than practical relocation support, essential though that is. It also describes the stages of transition: transition out, making an appointment, transition in, and the early period in-role. And it highlights that leaders are sometimes expected to act too quickly, before they are equipped with an understanding of the organisation and its context, and the importance, therefore, of aligning expectations.
The overall contention of The Space Between is that leadership change will always involve uncertainty, but that avoidable uncertainty can be reduced when transition is planned and supported with care.
On September 10th at 9am BST, MSB and RSAcademics will co-host a webinar, specifically for governors, group leaders, owners and others involved in governance. Register here to join us.
The Space Between webinar for governors: Thursday 10 September 2026, 9-10am UK time
Haven’t yet downloaded the research paper in full? You can do so, here.
