Ten Essential Steps to Becoming a CIO

Hey everyone.

Welcome to another Atlas webinar.

We are super stoked to have Gabe Lucas with us from 12 M and EdTech recruiting.

Uh, Gabe also, for those of you who aren't aware, is one of the co-founders of Atlas.

So, um, we're all here today partially, and thanks to Gabe and his work and now, um, he's with TE 12 M and EdTech recruiting.

You guys are about to get, uh, insider's knowledge on the essential steps to becoming a CIO.

So Gabe is gonna dive into the work that he does, um, and let you know firsthand what heads are looking for when hiring.

Um, and, uh, we'll take questions in the chat and afterwards.

Um, but otherwise, Gabe, go ahead and take it away.

Thanks for being here.

Thanks, Kelsey.

Great to be here.

And, uh, yeah, looking forward to good conversation.

Um, I always start a presentation of like this out with a sort of asterisk in the sense that I know, uh, people's decision, uh, situations may be very different and you may have questions that are like, you're not comfortable sharing in front of a group, so you're more than welcome to reach out, um, on the side or, or, or follow through with Kelsey.

Uh, but happy to also, you know, just talk generally, uh, about what, what's a really important topic.

Um, uh, ironically, I was just talking to a school 30 minutes ago about what they're looking for in their next CIO or CTO.

So this is on the minds of a lot of people, um, right now.

So, just a little background on me.

Um, I, you know, uh, as Kelsey mentioned, I am one of the founders of Atlas back in 2014, and, uh, served on the board and, uh, ran it as a board chair for many years.

Uh, and was there when we hired Christina.

And really excited to see Atlas having grown to where it is today, and so many amazing people.

I don't work for Atlas, um, or, you know, have any direct connections.

So I, um, am now happily just a supporter and a, and a and a fan of the organization.

Uh, previously I was a director of tech at two different schools, uh, out in California.

So I've served in the technology seat.

Uh, one of those, you know, was the quote, C-I-O-C-T-O role, though I didn't have that exact title, which was, you know, fine for me at the time.

And really the C-T-O-C-I-O title was sort of become, I think, much more common, kinda like how the CFO position has, uh, you know, re rethought its title and structure over the last 20 years from directors of finance, et cetera.

And last 10 years, uh, or 11 now run this company.

And we help clients, uh, hire for, you know, uh, mission aligned, uh, organizations.

So we serve a lot of schools.

Uh, we do the executive search model.

We don't place people, um, you know, there's, there's a team of us.

Some of you may have interfaced with some of our team members in your searches.

And, uh, so we love helping schools hire for positions, not just tech related, but we definitely, um, can help, um, you know, in that cabinet level role.

Um, so we've done, you know, assistant head of school, CFO, but on the tech side we do a lot of ed tech, director of Tech, C-I-O-C-T-O.

Um, it's where we started.

It's what we know best.

And, um, you know, I think it's what we try to really, um, help with with our clients.

And I think a session like this is meant to give anybody who's thinking about a role like this, uh, a little bit of a leg up or at least a sense of, you know, how it fits into the, to the higher equation.

So, uh, the agenda for today, um, I have, you know, as the title suggested, 10 tips or, you know, uh, ideas that are just, you know, starter ideas or at least things that you know, are, are I wanna plant seeds and happy to then, you know, explore further.

Um, starting with knowing the role and under, and knowing that there are different flavors or ways that schools are thinking about tech leadership.

So, you know, as the title suggested, you know, 10 Tips to Becoming A CIO, well, you should know what you're getting into.

Um, so I have some, what I would call architectural diagrams or what we actually call like org chart visuals.

Um, so you can see how some schools have defined tech leadership roles.

And I want you to just, you know, I won't ask for open discussion right now, but just think in your head about, you know, is this A-C-I-O-C-T-O role? That's question one.

Is it a CIO CT role? CT CTO role? That's right for me.

I'm gonna stop using the C-I-O-C-T-O and just, you know, when I say CIO, it means basically the C-level position, uh, in technology.

But, you know, don't get too hung up on like CTO versus CIO.

So, um, you know, this is the classic one here, right? A-A-C-T-O-C-I-O-A-C-I-O reporting to the head of school who has done pretty broad areas of responsibility.

And this is a very classic definition.

This was a K 12 school.

It's, you know, on par or in parallel to division heads, academic leaders overseeing an IT team with a director of tech underneath overseeing database responsible for like information systems and overseeing ed tech.

So that's a very classic definition of a, of a C-level tech role.

And I would hope everybody would answer yes to the prompt question, if you will.

Is this right for you? Well, that depends.

But, uh, you know, when I tell a client or a candidate, Hey, are you looking for A-C-I-O-I, I'm thinking this.

Now, let's take a variation of this.

This was, this happens all the time, still reports to the head of school on par with the CFO in the head's cabinet on par with the assistant head of school or the academic leader, uh, directly responsible for multiple areas of, of technology there.

You know, there's dotted lines to say, Hey, before you spend $3 million on infrastructure work with your CFO, before you change the ed tech vision, talk to your assistant head of school, right? So that's the, those dotted lines mean.

Um, but I would argue this is essentially the C-level position just without the title.

It's what I had back in 2011.

Uh, well before all, you know, a lot of CTO's titles existed.

We do a lot of these searches and it's, so I, I put this out there just for people on this session to go, Hmm, you know, maybe that's what I'm looking for.

It's a smaller school, perhaps there's not as many direct reports.

Um, you know, there could be a small IT team of one or two.

There could be one or two red techs or not.

So, you know, you just gotta think about what's right for you.

Um, but some people might be like, no, I need that big massive position.

Okay, that's a very different north star.

And you gotta be thinking about what that means.

And we will talk about that in in a second.

Um, you know, this is just sort of a different way of visualizing, but picture ahead of school.

And what I'm showing here is, you know, when you're in the heads cabinet as a CTO, you're often surrounded by assistant heads of school and other C-level positions.

So, you know, it's pretty clear the answer to this is a yes.

But you know what this means, of course, is that you're now sitting in an inner circle.

Um, and if you go back to the previous position, right, some director level positions are reporting to the head, but they may not be in the like executive cabinet.

So for some people, their north star is, I wanna be in that like inner, you know, like trivial pursuit pie.

I wanna be one of the pieces in the circle and I wanna be in that, you know, um, you know, inner, inner circle.

Great.

Uh, it comes with responsibility.

It also comes with expectation.

And you just gotta think about what that means.

Uh, but take a look at this.

Here's a school that had a CTO overseeing quite a bit of areas of responsibility.

Quite a few people working in that dark blue box underneath them.

But look to the right, there's a director of ed tech that actually reports up to an assistant head of school.

Like, this is literally a structure.

And I've done this many, many a search.

Um, so the answer I would argue is a definite yes, it's definitely A-C-I-O-C-T-O, but what I'm trying to point out is that that doesn't always mean everything tech rolls up to this person.

And that can be great for many sides.

It can be great for the school because they may have somebody in that yellow box who's doing great work and you know, is working with an academic in this case.

And they also may be saying, what we really need is a C-level tech leader to focus on operations.

So you just gotta think about, again, all these different roles, how they fit into an equation.

What are their areas of responsibility, what are you looking for, right? And of course, our job is to work with our clients.

Our school is to help them define roles with clarity.

But as you can already see and hopefully appreciate, one size doesn't fit all, and there are many variations of even just the C-I-O-C-T-O role without even getting into like title variations, et cetera.

Lemme show you another, um, situation that comes up quite a bit.

We will have schools come to us to say, Hey, you know, we have the head CFO, we wanna hire A CTO, we want that title reporting to the CFO.

Um, we have an assistant head, maybe we have other stuff going on.

They're gonna lead a team, maybe 4, 5, 6, 7 people.

But we're looking for that CTO position, not in the heads cabinet.

Why maybe the head is not inclined to manage this.

They have too many direct reports, uh, like the last picture.

Maybe it's a little bit more operational.

You know, lots of different reasons.

Now, is this A CTO? Is it not? What we try to get our clients to think about is that conceptually you're looking for a director of tech, right? But I'm sure a lot of you who are in the job market will know, and you'll see these rules.

You'll, you'll see this, right? You'll see a CTO title that, that maybe it's reporting to that red box that the assistant head of school or some other academic leader.

So that may or may not be what you're looking for, but it also may be what the school was looking for.

And you gotta think about what that means and what are they looking for skill wise and what are the responsibilities.

But generally speaking, I would say, you know, if you ask Gabe's opinion, I'd say the answer here is kind of no, except I understand what's behind the desire, is to get somebody who is more than just heads down or focus on day-to-day operations and can be a part of a bigger equation around strategy.

Easier said than done.

But again, like that's, this is where it gets very complicated very fast when for this group you're thinking about preparing for this role.

We gotta really understand what's behind the role and whether you're bringing to the table what the school is looking for.

Um, just a couple more.

Um, you know, is this A-C-I-O-C-T-O? I would argue the answer is absolutely yes.

This was a K 12 school.

The color is in the K campuses.

So we have three different campuses.

We have lots of IT people, we have ed tech people, we have some structure underneath, but sometimes it's not like that first picture where there's like three really clear functional units.

You know, a lot of things can roll up to the CTO and that's what schools often are looking for when they're defining these roles is like, okay, we got a lot of people and there's reasons for all these people, but I need somebody to kind of like corral it all together.

And you gotta be ready to be, look at this hands-on in an IT universe.

'cause you're managing some like frontline support specialists, but also management level because you're leading some assistant or directors of other positions that you know, then themselves lead their own units.

And then things like registrar, you're gonna take into your equation that's not really a director of information systems, but like, this person does important work and they fit into your equation.

So that's that sort of ability to manage different levels of positions.

So, you know, again, the answer to me is a definite yes.

But this picture shows you that it's, you know, sometimes what the person's asked to do is, you know, a lot of different juggling at the same time.

Um, final picture, I think, um, you know, is this A-C-I-O-C-T-O? Well, you look on the org chart or you look at the diagram and there's, you know, a director of ed tech and a director of, of, of, of, of, of IT or enterprise tech.

And the, it's easy to say no.

Uh, you know, we, we, we have two director levels.

This is the split department model, if you will, except I would point out to the school and certainly to this group that like this person here is paying, playing the proxy role for A CTO.

They're an assistant head of school, but they are unifying multiple areas of tech.

Now, don't get me wrong, the Red Circle person, um, you know, he had many other areas responsibility, but these two in particular, why do I show this simply to say to this group, sometimes there are assistant head positions or non CIO CTI CTO titled roles that are actually in effect, they're looking for somebody who can be A-C-I-O-C-T-O plus.

And those are exciting roles, you gotta find them.

But, um, they are, are ideally looking for somebody who can take on all areas of tech leadership along with maybe it's, you know, global programs.

Maybe it's summer programs, or maybe it's, you know, you know, teaching and learning innovation writ large beyond even tech.

How cool.

And I know people who have been in this tech universe who got onto these assistant head types of roles.

So, you know, it's just, I'm trying to just show you there are other variations beyond just the, you know, classic C-I-O-C-T-O.

So, lesson one or tip one is know the role.

Know what's out there.

Understand, like, you know, the, the, the nuances that you can even, even before you get to the specific school, understand the landscape is varied and that will really serve you well.

Alright, now let's get into like tips two through 10, if you will.

Um, and then, like I said, we'll go right to questions q and a or, or conversation.

Um, so the number one thing, or you know, this is two, 'cause I remember number one was know the role, but, you know, top of list is ex you know, experience.

And within that, I've got three things for you.

One is management experience.

So it's really hard for somebody to get a role like this if you have not supervised personnel.

I know it's like going to the moon.

How do you get experience when you are trying to sort of enter a new frontier? But that's, I just want you to understand what schools are looking for.

Uh, I'm talking to somebody right now who has mentored somebody on his team who might be interested in a, in a cabinet level role.

And you know that that more junior person has started to lead, you know, student personnel and summer workers and you, you have to start somewhere.

So, but recognize without supervisory experience, it's gonna be a hard pill to climb.

Uh, beyond that, you know, management, I would call like, you know, budget and planning, uh, you know, setting professional development expectations, you know, improvement plans, pips, right? So, um, anybody who's been in these lanes or trenches to lead teams, lead personnel, um, manage budgets, in charge of PD growth, hiring, you have a leg up.

'cause that's what schools are looking for when they often define these roles.

And that, I think extends to enterprise experience kind of more generally.

Um, so some examples, right? You know, and these are, you know, when they're asking questions, when they're talking about past experience, have you led major change management initiatives, which is sort of a partner to project management, um, or transitions, right? So let's just think out the box or maybe in the box, right? You know, a big SIS transition infrastructure upgrades changing curriculum, uh, student device program beyond just like we made a tweak, tweak to fix, you know, the projector.

Um, but, you know, really going into multi-year initiatives that require capital budget planning, vendor management, uh, building capacity, getting all the constituents, you know, to, to buy in testing rollouts, you know, soft launch SIS transition.

We're deprecating one and we're bringing new one on board.

It's a three year plan, right? All that is really important enterprise experience.

And, you know, change is, is the name of the game.

So the more you can talk about that, the more experience you can get out of the gate is gonna really help you, um, when you're putting your, your, your foot in the CIO door.

Um, and then, you know, generally just like call organizational culture, um, often when a new C-I-O-C-T-O role is created, it's because there's a need to build or rebuild internal departmental culture, or you're bringing, you know, one or two units together, right? And how are you gonna create a larger division or team with different subunits, right? So experience as a culture builder, and I don't just mean like a good colleague, but somebody who has, you know, taken on the responsibility to create, you know, like common sets of goals, build pd, um, even if you're not supervising people, right? But you're, you're in charge of that, that internal affairs.

Um, then next point, aligning to external needs, right? And that's massively important too.

Uh, you know, common sort of goals around support services, right? Expectations that the end users have and making sure the department and the, and the end users are in sync.

And when we're running a search, I can tell right away when like we, we have a client right now, things are running smoothly.

The person leaving was there for 25 years and he built a very positive culture and the team is aligned to external needs.

That school is not looking for a CIO, but, and, but they're looking for somebody who can continue that work.

That's really important.

But often, you know, this experience is, is relevant because, you know, schools, some schools need this to, to get more solidified because things haven't been so, so great.

And that's that last one, right? Maybe improve the standing, the stature, service levels, communication, right? All this sort of plays up into culture, but culture always about the humans and the human partnership, both within a tech division or department, as well as how that connects to the outside school.

So management experience change at management or enterprise experience and culture experience.

You know, you'll see a lot of questions, you'll see a lot of, you know, topics.

I mean, this is what schools are looking for when they think C-I-O-C-T-O, which is exactly what they look for in other lanes, and that's gonna lead us to mindset.

So what I mean by that is like, you know, technology, when they're looking the, those big leadership abilities, that's not the only vertical within a school, right? You might have finance needing the same thing.

And why do you have a CFO? Because they can think about culture and change, or why do you have an advancement c, you know, chief advancement officer, so they can bring admissions and development and Marco together.

So my little, um, SAT analogy person and me, right? Like the CIO is to the director of tech title or position, much like A CFO is to a director of finance position.

And the sort of analogy, right, especially in finance is like, you know, oh, when we need to hire A CFO, we're looking for quote an MBA.

When we need to hire like a controller or a director of finance, we're hiring a CPA.

That may not resonate with everybody and don't be offended.

But, uh, here's what I'm trying to say for this group.

When you're looking to apply or, you know, be at a CIO level, usually the school isn't looking for how many, like, you know, Cisco blanks or you know, you know, Microsoft, Google, all these certifications and how many, like, you know, different types of firewalls can you manage.

If they're asking those questions, they probably are not looking for a CIO.

Um, so you have to kind of think like the CFO, think like the MBA, um, yet, as we all know, you have to be able to get into the weeds.

And so that leads to the next thing, right? Somebody who can really think at the strategy level and present themselves as a, you know, MBA type person, right? This is gonna, I'm using the CFO analogy, but you, you can talk, but this school I was just talking to an hour ago, right? They're looking for somebody who can think vision-wise when it comes to tech, but there aren't a lot of like, you know, boots on the ground.

So they're gonna have to be able to get into the details, um, in another lane, right? It's somebody who understands the need for like policy procedure.

And that can be a good card to play sometimes, but it has to be somebody who is comfortable with nuance exceptions.

Like, you know, and I hear all the time, like, you know, oh, I don't like my job because like, you know, management's always like making exceptions or they, you know, well, welcome to reality, right? And so a good CIO isn't gonna be flummoxed by, yes, we need to have policy and procedure in place, but you know, the head of school will have an exception.

The CFO will want exception, the director of athletics will want exception, right? We all know that.

And if that flummoxes you or like makes your stomach churn, think twice about this role.

If like, some people just live in that like ambiguity, they love that great.

That and that.

Somebody who can talk about it, who can talk about experience there, it's gonna again, have a leg up.

And, you know, I talk about leadership backbone, that may be a little bit, uh, too kind of, you know, like, I don't know, uh, controversial, but like, it's somebody who can, you know, who knows when to stand firm knows what, who can get out in front of important policy communication, but on the high EQ side knows how to build relationships, invest time in the one-off conversations.

We're running a search right now for an assistant head of school for academics.

It's the same thing in that way.

Can you get out in front of the faculty, the parents, right? Can you lead with vision? But before you do that, you know how to have the one-off conversations like prior to build internal capacity and support.

It's that kind of politicking or somebody who understands how to like build capacity and support if that's kind of your game and your jam.

Again, I think you're, you'll, you, these are the roles you would enjoy, but that's what schools you're looking for.

And thus, can you talk about it from both an experience and a mindset, um, uh, point of view.

So then let's talk about like, you know, I've, I've been, and I've been describing these types of roles.

These are the people that you should be shadowing and observing and or other, you know, roles like this because they have to do this themselves.

A good CFO knows how to come down with, you know, HR policy, but knows there's always gonna be exceptions when it's time to hire, you know, sports coaches, right? Advancement director understands like, we gotta raise $35 million, but we can't do it.

And like, you know, run over the, the poor person who's trying to do a bake sale.

Like we, we can build community engagement at the same time that we go out to the top donors in the pyramid.

And I just, you know, again, academic assistant head, right? You have to be able to get in front of the faculty and inspire, but teachers don't want to be told all the time, right? So you have to know how to have the earlier conversations, you know, prior to getting on the stage.

So it's those types of positions if you're looking at them really carefully and maybe even better, you know, setting up some mentorship partnerships.

I think that can give you really good insight into how to, how to lead with a, you know, C-level style.

Because going back to number five, that's what schools are looking for.

Okay? Um, two more little subsections and then again, happy to, to take questions or whatnot.

So, um, you know, uh, when I say demonstration, it means, you know, what schools are looking for is can you demonstrate a like wide capacity to span? And I've already kind of hinted at this, and there's two obvious ways that this, this cuts one is up and down the vertical, right? So you're looking for somebody who can enter the boardroom and talk and present and lead and engage, you know, trustees and the high level, even though you're not like a officer of the school, per se, all the way down to be in the trenches.

So, I mean, again, this, this should sort of be obvious anybody's in these types of searches, but then you gotta think about how do we get that experience? I would say anybody who wants to be A-C-I-O-C-T-O should get on a board or at least start to function or operate or volunteer in such a way that you're like, you're, you're thinking at that like true board level.

It could be a board subcommittee, it could be, you know, but work with your head or somebody to say, how do I get that like, upper, upper management experience.

But, uh, what a school will be seeking is of course somebody who is not afraid, not unwilling to get in the trenches.

We all know that these roles have to be ground level at certain times.

And so, you know, now is a great time to be focused on those other two or two or three, right? And, you know, just simple things like do you, do you in your current position meet with department heads? Do you gather needs? Do you get a sense of what they're looking for? Like not just to go like, oh, I'm here to talk to you and fix whatever problem you have, but like, think about it as almost like an internal consultant, right? And your, your goal is to really suss out where things are working and can you work with your director or your C-level person or somebody to like give you the experience to begin to get stakeholder constituent needs in different lanes.

Um, and these conversational experiences and just really, you know, just general engagement experience.

'cause that's what they're looking for.

Somebody who can go up and down this vertical.

But I'll say this, and this is one that I, it always surprises people, right? Um, which is like, you have to be able to cross the horizontal as A-C-I-O-C-T-O, even if you're just the C-I-O-C-T-O for the operations.

In other words, what mox is people is, oh, I thought this was just a tech operations, CIO and ed tech was over there.

Why are they asking me questions about innovation and curriculum? Because they're a school, because they wanna know how you engage on these topics.

So, you know, and if it's a chief innovation officer or something more ed tech, you know, if, if you can't thoughtfully talk about and engage on a strategy planning level, right? You know, so what's the classic thing in operations? It, the classic question is like, you know, how would you lead a cybersecurity audit? Doesn't mean you're gonna do it.

Doesn't mean like how would you fix every last hole? But like, can you think about this initiative which we go back to here? Like, and often it'll say things like, you know, how would you engage the board all the way down to the end users on some operational IT cybersecurity audit? Like being able to discuss that and talk about your either experience in some similar lane or 'cause what, what what they're asking for is how do you kind of cut across different lanes or silos or stakeholders and how do you sort of go up to the boardroom where the people who are like nervous when they hear things like, you know, we're vulnerable all the way down to what this means to the end user.

You know, you're now leading a big initiative and this, this ties back to change management, project management.

What are you gonna do to lead that initiative 10 years ago? The classic question was, how would you leave a lead an SIS transition? Those are sort of taken for granted a lot of times.

Now our cybersecurity is in vogue.

So for one reason or another, you know, but just to be ready to answer these these questions is really important.

Um, okay, so then, you know, uh, final sort of lane in terms of like some mobility and insights and, and this goes back again to these really high level C-level positions.

Um, uh, and, and these are experiences that, um, schools are looking for, right? Can you have you, can you create and develop internal, like what I would call teams or functional units? Why remember that very, very, very, very first picture, right? The C the CIO who had like IT data systems and ed tech, right? Most of the time there's this concept of structural units.

And so in other words, a good CIO doesn't have everybody reporting to them if they're in a large K 12 school.

But that's easier said than done.

And what does it mean to create little subunits or teams? CFOs have to do this, division heads have to do this, right? Know math department, English department, counseling department.

So they have department heads.

How do you lead that? Can you talk about what it means to create structure, create teams? What have you done in the past that has demonstrated that ability? Can you create structure without creating bureaucracy? And it just feels like, you know, everybody has to like, you know, all you're doing is routing people to some other, you know, little subunit, right? And this is where it gets a little bit sort of organizational theory, but you know, what is your management framework? What is your service framework? How do you think about structure? How would you, you know, you know, school might say, okay, you've seen this, now you've been on campus, we're a thousand students, right? We have two campuses, we have three, we have divisions, we have, you know, you, you name it, right? How would you structure a technology department for us? Like that type of question will probably come maybe later on in the search.

Once they think you have a little bit of a handle on who they are, what are you gonna say? What have you done in the past that has involved possibly some restructuring when if you led teams that have worked now in different, you know, uh, arrangements.

And I think that leads then to the final thing, which is just, you know, understanding this ties it all back to those diagrams, right? What is the why? What are they gonna looking, you know, can you suss out, oh yeah, there's some restructuring that has to occur here versus, oh, you know, what's been missing is just, you know, we don't have like the IT stuff working or we don't have the ed tech vision at the level we want.

Like I see those, just those three things different times for different roles.

And they're looking for very different leaders because someone who needs to restructure and like the teams aren't working well together, it's very different from the stuff isn't working very different from the vision or the program isn't aligned with like the rest of the school's, you know, um, like academic program.

So what problems need to be solved is what it boils down to.

And that ties back to are those the problems you're ready to solve, you want to solve? And more importantly, how have you solved those types of problems in the past? Okay.

Well, um, happy to Kelsey, you, you drive the next phase and we can do questions now.

I dunno if there's questions in the chat.

Um, uh, but more than happy to talk generally or specifically as you think it would be appropriate here.

Awesome.

I will, we had a question come in.

Um, I do want to mention to everyone, hopefully you've heard and seen about it, but we partner every year with, uh, 12 m and ed tech recruiting to put together this salary survey.

That's what leads to the compensation benchmark report.

It's an anonymous survey.

Um, and it's important to participate year over year because that also is a huge part of these conversations, um, that you're having, uh, that heads of school are having when they're looking at structuring the tech departments.

Um, so I'm gonna drop the link we're, we have, uh, we have it open for another week or so.

Um, and it's also important to get those responses from across every role.

Um, so again, the data from this is gonna help schools, uh, better figure out how to structure their tech department, how to resource it, what salaries should they be offering, um, you know, new, new hires in all levels of the tech department.

So shameless plug for that and a huge thanks, um, to Gabe for partnering year over year, uh, with us on gathering that data.

Um, it's an incredible partnership to have.

And then I also dropped a link, um, as Gabe mentioned, serving on a board.

The Atlas board of directors is, uh, we're now accepting self nominations for next year.

Yay.

So you can check that out.

That's a great opportunity.

I don't know how many positions flu will have open, but you know, it's a good exercise even to go through that application process.

But because you can kind of start seeing what are boards looking for, um, what kind of conversations should you be prepared to have? So those are the two atlas plugs that are very related to this topic.

Um, and then I see that Anderson put a question in the chat.

Have you had searches where the school has the role role at a different org chart level and they changed the org chart to place the role up or down? Gabe? Um, I may or may not follow the question exactly, but, um, uh, I get, if, if I think I understand it, I, uh, it's saying, okay, they, they define their role in one way and then, uh, I, well, I'm not sure if it's like during the search, but I will say I see restructuring happen all the time.

So I see director level positions becoming CTO, uh, and I see the opposite.

And, you know, we are completely agnostic.

But, um, what I would say to the, to answer the question, I think is, um, it's often a function of other members of, of the leadership team starting with the head.

So we all know the game, right? And it's not a game per se, but when a new head comes in, why isn't tech in my cabinet? I want that, or I got other things to deal with, or, you know, I have a new, you know, and so that needs to go elsewhere along with athletics or DEI or you know, student affairs, right? So tech is not the only universe that gets, shall we say, shuffled.

It's pretty rare to have that.

If the question is about like during a search, I would hope that a good school knows what it's looking for and it's not saying, you know, well, it's a CIO reporting to the head, and then at the time of making an offer, like, oh, by the way you're gonna report to the division director, that would be a, you know, kind of a bait and switch.

Um, but the first thing happens all the time.

In other words, high level what works for one chapter of a school may not be what the school needs five years later or 10 years later, or flip it.

10 years ago, this was a good chapter for us.

Um, you know, and going forward, there's a new chapter.

Um, I had a little article in independent school magazine this past spring, um, if you have access to that, I outlined four different structures for tech leadership.

And you know, my point to schools is one size does not fit all.

So, you know, yes, changing happens all the time.

It's usually triggered by, again, new leadership, new goals for the school.

We're gonna do a bunch of building and construction.

We need a CIO in the cabinet.

Uh, you know, so it, what are the changes that are necessary? Um, and again, though, I think it's not just tech that can get, shall we say, restructured or shifted.

Awesome.

Thank you Anderson.

Um, let us know if that, uh, if you had any further questions, does anyone else have questions? You are welcome to drop 'em in the chat or come off mute.

And then of course, um, if you wanna hang around, we usually will in the recording a couple minutes earlier.

So if you want any off the record questions, well Forward and I'll, I'll put, there's my email.

Thanks.

So anybody's welcome to reach out, um, you know, 'cause I recognize some questions might be very sensitive, like, I'm thinking of applying for this job.

My head doesn't know, so, you know, I I get the situation.

Don't feel you have to out yourself.

Um, but anyway, that's just, I'll put that there.

Wonderful.

Thanks.

Any other questions for on the record? Uh, uh, is there a, ooh, is there a hiring point season? Well, when schools will listen to me and they don't always, um, I say the fall was the best time to run A-C-I-O-C-T-O search, right? The head of school, think about it, right? 18 months in advance, sometimes 12.

Um, so leadership level searches, now I get reality, right? So there will be great CTO roles coming in January or February.

We'll probably run a few of those searches.

Um, I would say that if you see a CTO search in April to start in July, okay, a school may be desperate.

Maybe they just lost their great, their, their great leader.

Okay? But all things being equal, I would say, like I'd be telling a client, what are you doing? Like, we're in like desperation slash like chaotic fast mode and a search like this deserves a longer runway.

So there is sort of a high season, if you will, which is generally now through, you know, I guess the end of the year.

But buyer beware for situations that are, you know, it's April and May, and, and they, yes.

And, and they're trying to say it's an important role and, and you find out, you know, it's been unfilled for a couple years and you're like, wait, are you really doing this? Right? Are, so I'll even take the question further to say, you know, just not all roles are equal and don't take the role just because of the title.

There was a school one time, I will never say what it is, but like, you know, it had a CIO title and you know, in the duties were like, must know smart boards.

It's like, oh my god.

Like are you kidding me? Um, you know, you're, you're essentially like, yeah, like CIO you know, must know this particular technology or, you know, we won't, like that's not a CIO role, that's a tech specialist or a trainer or a, so you gotta be really careful about any, either time of year or how the role is defined.

Um, but that said, I would, anybody who's in this market, you should start looking in September, october for the following July.

And good positions will be defined.

You'll just probably see more of them in like, you know, December through March, April, if you will.

Thanks Gabe.

I'm gonna ask a, a follow up question on that.

Yeah.

Um, if you don't mind, for someone who might be looking right now Yeah, yeah.

For next year, um, yeah.

And doesn't wanna leave their school right stranded, right? Right.

Do you have any recommendations on having those conversations with leadership to maintain the good relationship you currently have? Right.

And, and I'm looking for what's next.

This might be my last year.

I wanna give you plenty of leeway, right, right.

For the hiring process.

So I love the question and I mean, I just think it's all about relationships.

So if I had to just take this and even the high season question, I mean, you know, and it's, this is not just for technology, right? This is for finance academics, right? If you have that relationship with either your boss or your head of school to say, look, this is my North Star, I'm looking to grow in this lane.

And you might be able to point to like, Hey, you know, I've been involved in Atlas, I, I did the a LI, uh, I'm doing the T list, right? Like, so you're demonstrating a portfolio of like, interest to go, remember when you invested in me or when I went to this or I got on that board, right? Uh, and this is a continuation of that.

This may be my last year, maybe the next year and a half.

I'm really looking to grow.

I hope you'll support me.

Like I highly recommend that you have that conversation.

'cause I'll tell you right now, we didn't discuss all the mechanics of the search.

When a school's looking for a CIO, you want know when a head-to-head reference matters, that's what it matters.

And I can think of searches just this past year alone where I actually thought the candidate was great, uh, but when the head called the other head and you know, just heard some things like, oh wait, you know, and it may have have even been a bit unfair, but like that comes back to that relationship, right? So to have somebody in your camp and to have somebody you know, supporting, now I get the fact that some heads are not always happy to hear you might be leaving.

What do you mean you're betraying? So you just have to, you know, feel this one out.

This is that nuance moment, right? Where like, you gotta be able to handle nuance.

But I think it ties, what I'm trying to get people to see is it ties back to a longer runway.

And when you are doing things like, Hey, I I just applied to be on the Atlas board.

I, you know, I, I did the a LI, uh, I'm getting involved with my local regional association on like technology planning.

Uh, I joined the Atlas conference planning committee, right? You, you, you're just showing and demonstrating a desire to, to grow and think beyond impact.

Most reasonable people will understand, ah, you are a, you're looking to grow.

And you know, you have to have that conversation that may feel uncomfortable to say, look, I hope you'll support me and my growth.

And the best thing you can do, if possible, is to say, not like I'm gonna be leaving, you know, in six months, but like I'm, you know, I, I have a two to three year horizon, or I'm, I'm starting to really feel, and by the way, you might get a surprise and the head might create a role internally, you just don't know.

But it's this, this is the, the, these are the adult conversations that you have to be willing to have if nothing else.

Because as a CIO you're gonna have them with other people in other situations.

So what better time to just practice uncomfortable conversations.

But I think again, if you, if you look backward, you wanna tie it to your, your body of growth that you're trying to demonstrate is, is already in motion.

Thank you so much, Gabe.

Mm-hmm.

Um, I'm gonna also shamelessly drop the link to the Atlas Leadership Institute.

The next cohort doesn't start till the summer, but we do have rolling open applications.

I'm gonna go ahead and pa uh, stop the recording and, uh, we can hang out for a couple more minutes.

But thank you so much Gabe.

Um, this is really incredible knowledge that you've shared with the community and, um, we appreciate the Yeah.

Helpful advice for anyone looking to take that next step in their career.

I..