Leadership and culture · A North Star Partners company

Our clients stop paying six figures to search outside for leaders they already employ.

The Jimerson Leadership Lab builds the bench inside independent schools, education nonprofits, and higher education, so the next senior seat can be filled from within. One framework, held across coaching, training, and the work a leadership team does together.

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See how BENCH works →

Jamal “Dr. Jay” Jimerson, Ed.D.

Principal

The problem

Organizations cannot fill senior roles from inside.

34%

Thirty-four percent of nonprofits hold a written succession plan, so the transition usually arrives as an emergency.1

50%

Fifty percent of leaders of color express interest in executive leadership, against forty percent of white respondents.2

1.5 to 2×

Replacing a senior leader runs one and a half to two times that leader’s salary, the standard estimate human resources professionals use. Buying an executive costs more than building one.3

1 BoardSource, Leading with Intent (2024), leadingwithintent.org. 2 Building Movement Project, Race to Lead, racetolead.org. 3 A standard human resources estimate drawn from general workforce research. Bidwell, Administrative Science Quarterly (2011).

The bench was never built. The people who would fill it are already on staff, three levels down. What they have been missing is investment, sponsorship, and access, and that is a condition an organization can change.

The frame

The BENCH Leadership Model™

Five moves carry the work, and a leader can repeat them after hearing them once.

B

Begin with values.

Name what you stand on before you build anything. The organization states the values it intends to keep, and each leader names their own.

E

Evaluate your people.

Read how each person already leads, and read what the institution has given them. The bench map places every leader on the four levels. The access audit shows what each person has been handed and what has been withheld.

N

Name your opportunities.

Turn the read into a path. Four levels give the map, each person gets a named next step, and the organization sees which seats have a bench behind them.

C

Coach them up.

Work the plan with a coach. Growth happens inside the real job, with coaching and stretch assignments carrying most of it.

H

Hold the course.

Build the capacity to stay with the plan and the values when conditions change, when priorities shift, and when budgets tighten.

Read the full model →

The sector says the leaders are not there. They are on the bench, and they are ready when someone builds them.

Who we work with

01

Independent schools and school systems

Building the bench behind the head of school.

02

Education-adjacent nonprofits

Youth development, college access, and school-based programs.

03

Higher education and alumni organizations

Building leadership depth across campus and alumni operations.

How BENCH is delivered

01 Executive and board coaching One leader, six sessions, and a development plan the leader will work. 02 Workshops and training Shared language for an intact team, in a single session or a series. 03 Board development Board education, board evaluation, and practices the board owns. 04 Courses A sequenced series delivered for institutions that teach, giving your learners a leadership credential and a development plan they carry into the job. 05 Evaluation An outside read of whether a program produced what it promised.

The work points at one outcome: the next senior seat filled from within.

Start with a conversation.

The first conversation is forty-five minutes and costs nothing. We talk through what your organization is carrying, who is on your bench, and whether this work fits. If it does, the next step is a written scope.

Book a first conversation