Seven Principles of Sustainable Leadership

04/19/2004

Seven Principles of Sustainable Leadership

"Children have neither past nor future; and that which seldom happens to us, they rejoice in the present." - Jean de la Bruyére

SEVEN PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABLE LEADERSHIP

A study of leadership in public high schools in the USA and Canada found that "most school leadership practices create temporary, localized flurries of change but little lasting or widespread improvement. The researchers did find some leaders who thought hard about how they might implement deep, broad, and long -lasting reforms. From these leaders, the researchers extracted seven principles that together define "sustainable leadership". These principles, listed below, were presented by Andy Hargreaves and Dean Fink in the April 2004 issue of Educational Leadership.

1. Sustainable leadership matters – sustainable leadership goes beyond temporary gains in achievement scores to create lasting, meaningful improvements in learning.

2. Sustainable leadership lasts – sustainable leadership means planning and preparing for succession – not as an afterthought, but from the first day of a leader's appointment.

3. Sustainable leadership spreads – sustainable leadership means distributing leadership throughout the school's professional community so others can carry the torch after the principal has gone.

4. Sustainable leadership is socially just – sustainable leadership benefits all students and schools -- not just a few at the expense of the rest.

5. Sustainable leadership is resourceful – sustainable leadership husbands its resources in developing the talents of all its educators rather than lavishing rewards of a few proven stars.

6. Sustainable leadership promotes diversity – sustainable leadership enables people to adapt and prosper in their increasingly complex environments by learning from one another's diverse practices.

7. Sustainable leadership is activist – sustainable leadership engages assertively with its environment in a pattern of mutual influence.

To review the entire Educational Leadership article, go to: http://www.ascd.org/publications/ed_lead/200404/hargreaves.html

To sharpen your leadership skills, check out the seminars held throughout the country in the coming months through the Exchange Leadership Institute. To locate a seminar near you, go to: http://mail.ccie.com/go/eed/0159

For more information about Exchange's magazine, books, and other products pertaining to ECE, go to www.ccie.com.