Good leaders become dispensable!

In school leadership, as in the leadership of any organization, it is imperative that a leader build a strong team of emerging leaders.  One way to measure whether you have been a successful leader is whether you leave behind “good leaders” when you depart.  Good leaders will select, nurture, mentor and position others to lead.  In some way the best leaders lead from behind as they groom others on the team to lead from the front.  There is greater impact on the organization if a leader builds the capacity and delegates responsibility to a wider team because the team forms a critical mass of people who can support the vision and mission of the organization.  In addition, it widens the network of people who are communicating the organizations’ vision and mission, helping to build a strong community of people who understand and support the work.  Through building a strong leadership team, the organization’s “head leader” is ensuring that he or she will become more dispensable because the team can carry on and help the organization continue learning, growing, and going deeper in its work.