Approach satisfied head of department initially (6)
I believe the answer is:
method
'approach' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'satisfied head of department initially' is the wordplay.
'satisfied' becomes 'met' ('meet' can be a synonym of 'satisfy').
'initially' suggests taking the first letters.
The initial letters of 'head of department' is 'hod'.
'met'+'hod'='METHOD'
(Other definitions for method that I've seen before include "rule" , "Way of doing something, perhaps in madness" , "Order" , "Systematic procedure" , "Process, esp. Stanislavsky's" .)