I didn't set out to create an interview framework.
ABOUT JONATHAN ROYCE
I set out to answer a question no one seemed able to explain.
JONATHAN ROYCE
Throughout my career in public education as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, and superintendent, I believed what most aspiring superintendents believe. If I gained the right experience, prepared thoroughly, and communicated my leadership effectively, the interview would largely take care of itself.
Then I began participating in superintendent searches.
Like many candidates, I invested countless hours researching districts, refining my leadership philosophy, and preparing thoughtful answers. Some applications ended with first- and second-round interviews. Others did not.
What stayed with me wasn't the outcome. It was the uncertainty. After interviews, I found myself asking the same question over and over:
What was the board actually evaluating?
Because there was never any feedback that explained the decision. And the difference between finalists often couldn't be explained by experience alone. The more I reflected on those experiences, the more I thought that something deeper was happening during superintendent interviews.
School boards weren't simply evaluating answers. They were evaluating leadership.
The Question That Changed Everything
That single question became an ongoing area of research. I began studying superintendent interviews not only as a collection of questions and model answers, but as an executive decision-making event.
I analyzed interview transcripts, board discussions, leadership patterns, district contexts, governance expectations, and the subtle signals that seemed to influence hiring decisions. One pattern emerged repeatedly.
Candidates believed they were being evaluated on what they knew. Boards were evaluating something far more important. They were asking questions beneath the surface:
Can we trust this person with difficult decisions?
Can we picture this leader guiding our district through uncertainty?
Those hidden evaluations explained why candidates with similar résumés often produced very different hiring outcomes. That realization became the foundation for Executive Interview Intelligence™ and the Superintendent Interview Operating System™.
Do they demonstrate executive judgment and not just educational expertise?
Will this person create consistency across the organization?
“Candidates answer questions.”
Boards evaluate risk.
Why This Work Matters
What boards ultimately select is often something candidates never realize they're being evaluated on.
Executive Interview Intelligence™ research has consistently revealed six foundational principles that influence superintendent hiring decisions. Those principles now guide each framework within the Superintendent Interview Operating System™.
THE SIX PRINCIPLES OF EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW INTELLIGENCE™
01
Not a knowledge competition.
Superintendent interviews evaluate executive judgment, not the ability to recall the right answer.
02
Everybody has the credentials.
Credentials get candidates into the process. Executive judgment determines who gets hired.
03
Reduce uncertainty.
Boards move forward with the candidate who makes the hiring decision feel safest, not the one who sounds the most polished.
04
Make judgement visible.
Don't simply explain what you decided. Show how you evaluated options, weighed tradeoffs, and arrived at the decision.
05
Demonstrate operational thinking.
Show the systems, frameworks, and decision processes that create consistent leadership, not isolated successes.
06
Show, don’t tell.
Help the board picture you leading their district by making your executive thinking visible before you're hired.
Executive Interview Intelligence™ helps experienced educational leaders make these leadership signals visible during the interview process, before the board makes its hiring decision.
MY COMMITTMENT
I don't believe superintendent candidates need another list of interview questions.
Everything I publish, from interview research observations and Strategic Briefs to workshops and coaching, is designed to help educational leaders see superintendent interviews through the same lens many boards use when making one of the most important leadership decisions a district will ever make.
Because boards rarely hire the candidate with the most polished answer.
They hire the leader they trust to make difficult decisions under pressure.
My goal is to help you demonstrate that you are that leader.