The determiners of leadership- the capacity to sustain, improve, evaluate and

innovate:
SUSTAINABILITY- ensuring lifelong learning-

In the words of educational gurus, Andy Hargreaves and Dean Fink, “Education leaders want to
accomplish goals that matter, inspire others to join them in working toward those goals, and leave a
lasting legacy.”

Sustainability means a strong critique of the existing standards and practices to validate their
positive impact on the student welfare and implementation of the new ones, if needed, to ensure
that changes are embedded in the school system to propel transformation.

All education leaders should create a stimulating learning system that engages students
intellectually, emotionally, and socially. Sustainable leadership therefore goes beyond the temporary
gains in achievement scores to create long-lasting, meaningful improvements in learning processes.
Let us look at the particular principles that define sustainable leadership:

How and when

 Sustainable leadership lasts-planning and preparing for succession

One of the major characteristics of sustainable leadership is that it involves planning and preparing
for succession – not just as an afterthought, but from the first day of the school leader’s
appointment. Sustainable leadership requires that leaders pay serious attention to leadership
succession. This can be achieved through grooming successors for them to continue with reforms,
and keeping successful leaders in schools much longer, especially if they are making great strides in
promoting learning. It also involves resisting the urge to search for “irreplaceable charismatic
heroes” to become the saviours of schools, including succession in all district and school
improvement plans and slowing the rate of principal turnover.

 Sustainable leadership spreads-leave a lasting legacy

A suitable way for leaders to leave a lasting legacy in their schools is to ensure that they share and
help develop their vision with other school actors. Leadership succession in this sense therefore
means more than grooming one’s successor. It actually means distributing leadership throughout
the school through its professional community so that others can carry the torch of school
improvement as a succession process of the current principal.

 Sustainable leadership is socially just-a symbiotic tool for the socially responsible
education web model

Another aspect of sustainable leadership is its benevolent benefit to all students and schools. It is
considered as a symbiotic tool for the socially responsible education web model. Sustainable
leadership is not just about maintaining improvement in one’s own school. School leaders who truly
care about sustainability should accept responsibility for the schools and students and be aware that
their actions have an effect on the wider environment.

Sustainable leadership is conscious of the fact that the magnet, lighthouse, and charter schools and
their leaders effect surrounding schools. It is also sensitive to privileged communities “poaching”
from the local leadership pool.
  Sustainable leadership is resourceful- a strong network of leaders

The systems of sustainable leadership provide certain intrinsic rewards while at the same time
offering external incentives that attract, motivate, and retain the best and brightest in the leadership
pool. These systems provide time and opportunity for school leaders to network, support, and learn
from one another, while at the same time coaching and mentoring their successors. Sustainable
leadership carefully utilizes its resources to develop the talents of its educators, instead of lavishing
rewards on selected proven leaders. The systems of sustainable leadership take care of leaders while
encouraging them to take care of themselves. Eventually, leadership is only sustainable when it
sustains the leaders themselves.

 Sustainable leadership promotes diversity-continuous improvement on a broad level

through intense collaboration

Leaders who promote sustainability prepare and recreate environments that stimulate continuous
improvement on a broad level. They enable people to adapt and prosper in increasingly complex
environments by learning from each other’s diverse practices. Most innovative schools create and
promote this diversity.

 Sustainable leadership is activist

Standardization has increased the problems that traditional schools had. Moreover, formerly
innovative schools have lost their edge. In an unhelpful environment, sustainable leadership must
include some sort of activism. Leaders must be willing to pursue improvement for their schools, even
if it means being labelled as difficult.

 Systems must support sustainable leadership

Most inspiring school leaders do more than manage change – they actively pursue and model a form
of sustainable leadership. The measure of developing sustainability is the commitment to and
protection of deep learning in schools by attempting to ensure that school improvements last over
time, especially after the charismatic leaders have left.

IMPROVEMENT

As a part of the continuous commitment to IB on continuous improvement, the World Schools must
review and potentially change the culture of the school, its systems, relations, processes and
procedures. Kaikaku is radical and revolutionary improvement, whereas Kaizen is evolutionary
incremental improvement.

How and when

 Motive staff and students through inspirational skill workshops to uniformly move towards
the shared goal of lifelong active compassionate learning, reinforcing the school’s
philosophy, mission and vision.
 Implement a continuous self-assessment and peer assessment as a part of everyday
learning
 Create a coordinated intervention plan that ensures that students who struggle receive
additional time and support for learning in a way that is timely, directive, diagnostic,
precise, and most important, systematic.
EVALUATION-a fundamental critique of the school operations on student learning

How and when

 Engage in a continuous process of evidence based school self -evaluation and implement
strategic action planning for improvement.
 Ensure that the school’s improvement planning is underpinned by a culture of high
aspirations for staff and students.
 Work purposefully and very effectively to ensure that actions implemented lead to
measurable and identifiable improvements in learner outcomes.

INNOVATION-a simple, new and game-changing thought towards progressive outcomes

The seeds of innovation can grow, flourish and live through the collaboration of thinkers and the
doers.

How and when

 Intra and inter-institutional collaboration enunciates innovation in education.

 Idea in the Innovation Cycle
Delivery Definition

Idea in the
Development Innovation Cycle Discovery
to be infused in
the DNA

 Innovation in the progressive collaborative learning framework

  Technical innovation in leadership embraces gameful learning, design thinking for leading
and learning, deep learning through transformative pedagogy. Deep learning encourages
students to become creative, connected, and collaborative problem solvers; to gain
knowledge and skills for lifelong learning; and to use a range of contemporary digital
technologies to enhance their learning. To facilitate deep learning, teachers will learn how to
employ a diverse range of powerful teaching strategies and authentic learning activities to
assist students to become independent thinkers, innovative creators, and effective
communicators.

Innovation becomes meaningful with not mere adoption but implementation, fidelity w.r.t integrity
and purpose, impact on learners, institutionalisation, maintenance, replication w.r.t interschool
transfer.