Developing a Culture of Shared Leadership, Decision-Making, and Accountability
Rationale
The Leadership Category within the Baldrige Education Criteria for Performance Excellence provides a roadmap and tools for the leadership of a school to develop processes for guiding the school community’s efforts in developing the vision, mission, goals/objectives and setting expectations for the school and its students. In order for these elements to be meaningful and dynamic, the leadership system must provide for stakeholder involvement and initiate processes for monitoring and communication, all within a supportive environment focused on staff empowerment and organizational learning. This is a tall order! It comes at a time when principals, already challenged by the school reform movement focused on meeting the increasingly diverse needs of their school communities, are seeking guidance in meeting multiple challenges.
Principals understand that they cannot meet the demands for school reform alone. Because such responsibilities require the commitment and energy beyond what any one leader or principal can accomplish alone, it is incumbent upon the principal to develop a leadership system by empowering administration, staff, parents, and students. The task, therefore, has become one of developing skill among staff members and other stakeholders for shared leadership, decision-making and accountability in facing the critical issues of the school and the reform movement, a challenge for which the Baldrige model is well suited.
More Information
More information can be found in the Chapter 2 of Building An Organizational Learning System: The Baldrige Principal's Handbook for Guiding the School Improvement Process under the following subsections. These subsections will be available for download in the near future.- Belief Systems of Effective Leaders in Baldrige Schools
- Strategies for Building Leadership Capacity and Shared Decision-Making
- Shared Accountability for Data-driven Decisions and Results
More About Developing the School Culture
- Introduction: Developing the School Culture
- Developing the School Community's Vision and Mission
- Developing the Baldrige Core Values/Best Practices for the School
- Developing a Culture of Shared Leadership, Decision-Making, and Accountability
- Developing a School Learning System (SLS) or Professional Learning Community (PLC)
- Sustaining the Culture and the School Improvement Process
Related Topics in Baldrige for Leadership
- Introduction to the Principal's Handbook
- The Baldrige-guided School/Office Improvement Process
- Developing the School/Office Culture
- The Essentials of Baldrige
- Meeting the Requirements of the Baldrige Categories (Overview)
February 24, 2006 | Maintained by Web Services | Content Manager: Eve Wetten
