Be your own person

There is a lot of pressure on leaders to conform, without really understanding (or believing) why.

And this is a problem. Because if 'we' succeed in pressuring leaders to conform to what we believe or know to be best practice without engaging their minds in the process - what have we got? Leaders?

And yet isn't there clear evidence that some leadership practices make a bigger difference than others? Yes of course. But what set of beliefs, relationships and conditions supported the effectiveness of these practices? Can we actually separate practices from context? Or is this just a nonsense? (Put another way, why can a principal be a great success in one school and then struggle in the next?)

And so it turns out that leadership, just like so many other areas of life, requires a thoughtful approach if we are to truly understand what is working, why it is working, and under what conditions it will continue to work.

So here are a few questions that help us integrate the best of leadership thinking into our own approach:

- What do I really believe about effective and ineffective leadership?
- How did I come to these conclusions, and what evidence supports my beliefs?
- Do the results (consequences) of my beliefs (i.e. student outcomes, staff motivation, parent engagement, positive atmosphere) support my view that I am on the right track?
- If not, is there a colleague who has nailed this that I can talk to ? A book I can read? An online community I can join?
- What will signal progress?

So, although there is solid evidence that in certain contexts  particular leadership practices support better outcomes and should therefore be considered carefully, we should not abandon our own ability to think things through and forge our own leadership philosophy based on results and the best of what we have read, heard, and observed.

Unthinking compliance to another's view of reality is not the way forward.