What is the Best Advice Anyone Ever Gave You?

Ned Smith
Headmaster, Episcopal High School,
Bellaire, Texas
www.ehshouston.org

According to Ned Smith, headmaster of Episcopal High School of Houston (EHS), "Being a headmaster is like being a coach. It's about putting the right people in place, and empowering them to do their best. While as a coach, I am most often giving advice, rather than getting it, I still remember one piece of advice I was given that has really stuck with me and proven to be true."

Fit and youthful in appearance, Ned grew up in an environment that stressed values, morals, and education. He attended and his father was a teacher and organist at Groton School in Massachusetts, one of the oldest private schools in the nation.

As he remembers, "Things don't always turn out the way you plan. In college, I was an English major. I wanted to be a lawyer and, after graduating, thought I would take a short break before starting law school. I got a job teaching and coaching sports at Harvard School, an all-boys high school that soon merged with Westlake, a nearby all-girls school, to form Harvard-Westlake. I was lucky to be there through the transition to a coed school and discovered I loved teaching, especially younger kids. There was such a sense of discovery, both for them and for me! I stayed for 12 years and forgot about law school."

But, feeling he had more to offer, Ned sought and accepted a position as a middle school principal in St. Paul, Minnesota. "I stayed six years and realized the analogy of leader as coach was exactly right. In particular, the impact you can have in a coaching role is profound."

But, back to the best advice he ever received.

"Shortly after I became principal, a colleague casually gave me a piece of advice that had a pronounced effect on me. He said, 'You must radiate calm. People are always watching you.' And it was true. I tend to be a little intense and, as a result of this advice, I became more aware of how intently the students, their parents, and my teaching team were watching me, taking their cues from how I acted and spoke."

EHS is a four-year, coeducational day school within the Episcopal Diocese of Texas. Founded in 1983, the school community is faith-centered and provides instruction to college-bound students with a wide range of abilities. The strong academic program is complemented by extensive offerings in the arts, religion, and athletics.

When Ned arrived at Episcopal High School in the fall of 2007, he found a successful school with a superior reputation, but one facing the significant challenges of managing growth and keeping the culture for which it had become so well known.

In tackling these challenges, Ned has continued to follow the advice he received long ago. "I believe that the school's core values are always our starting point - our point of reference," he said. "At its core, the job of headmaster is to connect the school's programs and policies with these core values and assure consistent alignment with the school's goals of growing while staying small. As coach, one of my most important responsibilities is, by both my actions and demeanor, to reassure our communities - alumni, friends of the school, faculty, students, parents, donors - that we have strong core values that will not be sacrificed; that we are in control of our destiny, and will not change for the sake of change but only to get better at what we do."

Because the cost of its programs and the infrastructure that supports them is growing faster than can be covered by tuition, Ned is focused on building and growing EHS' communities of support. "It's a great example of how being a coach who radiates calm and control really works," he said. "I am asking people to invest in EHS; invest in their child's future, their influence, their time, or their money. I see too many cases of people using technology, like email, to communicate with constituents instead of reaching out on a personal level. I am a strong believer in the high touch approach and it fits well with my role as coach."