The purpose of these quarterly conversations is to:

• Ensure that the CEO is able to identify for the board the key challenges they are facing
• Create a structured time for the board to provide the CEO with feedback about their leadership and their partnership with the board
• Create a structured time for the CEO to provide the board with feedback on their partnership with the board

How the CEO Support and Evaluation Committee Can Prepare for Your Quarterly CEO Check-in:

1. Set dates and a process timeline for two check-in conversations at the start of the school year (ideally, one in December and one in March).
   
   
2. Four weeks before check-in, the Committee should query the board at a meeting in executive session or via email or phone for ideas, input, or feedback to address in the check-in conversation.
   
   Questions for the committee to ask the board members could include:
   • What do you think the CEO is doing exceptionally well on this year?
   • What do you think they could be doing better on this year?
   • If they were going to work on one or two things for the coming three months, what would you want them to be?
   • Of the goals set for the CEO at the beginning of the year, which ones do you feel confident he or she will achieve? Which ones are you most worried about them achieving?
   • What, if any, steps can you see the CEO must take in order to achieve the goals are you concerned most about?
   • Is there anything from any of the data on organizational performance (academic, school culture, family satisfaction, staff satisfaction, or financial) that surprise or concern you? If so, what was it and what do you see as being the key steps the CEO should take to address the issue?
   • What, if anything, do you see that the board could be doing to better support the CEO in achieving the goals set for the year?
   • Is there any other feedback that you would like to make sure gets communicated to the CEO?
     
     
3. Three weeks before the check-in, the Committee should meet to distill the board’s input and plan out the conversation.
   
   
4. Two weeks before the check-in, the Committee can consider sending the CEO some reflection questions to consider before the conversation.
   
   These questions might include:
   
   
   • What are three things you think are going well for you and for the school so far this year?
   • What are three things that you think could be going better for you and for the school so far this year?
   • Of the goals you set for yourself at the beginning of the year:
   • Which ones do you feel confident you will achieve? 
   • Which ones are you most worried about achieving?
   • What, if any, steps do you see as being most essential to achieving the goals are you concerned most about?
   • Has there been anything to date in the school’s data (academic results, school culture, family satisfaction, staff satisfaction, or financial) that you have been disappointed in or are concerned about? If so, what do you see as the next step to address these issues?
   • What, if anything, do you see that the board could be doing to more effectively support you in reaching the goals set for the year?
     
     
5. One week before the check-in, the CEO should send a written response to the reflection questions to the CEO Support/Evaluation Taskforce.

During Your Quarterly CEO Check-in:

Remind the CEO of the purposes for the conversation.

Ask the CEO to share their answers to the reflection questions you sent in advance.

Be sure to talk through each annual goal and its current status.

Wherever possible, help the CEO to identify clear steps they could take to address any challenges.

Listen for and suggest places where the board could support the CEO, being ever mindful to preserve the boundaries between management and governance roles.

When the CEO has said what they have to say regarding the reflection questions, make sure to give any feedback from the board that has not yet been covered. 

If you're lucky, a lot will already been addressed.

For feedback that hasn’t yet been addressed, you might say something like, “As we said, one of our purposes here is to ensure that you get feedback to help you achieve the goals we have set for the organization. To help you do that, the board feels it is important that we give clear feedback during the year.” 

Then, share a few commendations on things the board feels the CEO is doing well as well as any key pieces of constructive feedback that have not yet been broached.

Follow-Up and Documentation

To conclude the check-in, we create a written document outlining the key points discussed in the check-in.

This document, along with the CEO’s responses to the self-reflection questions, should be shared with the CEO as well as with the full board. At your next board meeting the Committee will report to the board on the results of the last quarterly check-in.