Unlocking Potential, Driving Success: Six Strategies for Leading Better School Teams

In K-12 schools, there is no shortage of teams: leadership teams, curriculum and instruction teams, grade-level or subject-area teams, parent-teacher associations, school boards, and many more. Teams make schools go ‘round. 

It’s often said that schools rise and fall based on the quality of the teamwork that occurs within their walls. When you have well-functioning leadership and teacher teams, the continuous improvement of teaching and learning is sure to follow. They allow us to get further, faster.

The first step to developing high-performing teams? Becoming a great team leader who works hard to build trust, empower others, create connections, and who possesses a strong streak of empathy and knows that team members are people first and workers second. 

The first step to developing high-performing teams? Becoming a great team leader who works hard to build trust, empower others, create connections, and who possesses a strong streak of empathy and knows that team members are people first and workers second. 

Whether you’re a new principal, assistant principal, teacher leader, or someone who’s simply taking the reins as a new team leader for the first time, keep these six strategies in mind as you hone your leadership skills. 

Reflect on your team’s effectiveness

For those of you who are taking the helm of a team that’s existed within your school for a bit, you might be wondering, “It’s a new school year. How do I ensure that we kick off this year in the best possible place? 

Our answer: by doing a bit of reflection and level-setting on the current state of the team. To start thinking about ways to improve your team’s performance, reflect on the following questions and share them with your team members:

• How are we currently using this team and its learnings in our school?
• Do people readily volunteer for participation on this team? If not, what could we do to make participation more attractive?
• What skills should we help team members develop further?
• Are there professional learning opportunities that we can offer, both independently and collectively, to grow this team’s leadership capabilities? 
• Is the team “effective,” according to our standards? What kind of support might the team need to be even more effective? 

Resist the urge to dive right into the work

When you call your first team meeting to order this year, it might be tempting to get right into the goals, challenges, and potential solutions for the matters at hand. After all, the school year goes by quickly, and there’s a ton of work to do! However, relationships aren’t built by immediately getting into work mode—they’re created by getting to know your team members and encouraging them to get to know each other.

Mary Shapiro, a Fellow at Simmons College Institute of Inclusive Leadership, says that team leaders should instead focus on building camaraderie—and one exercise she suggests is to have people share their worst and best team experiences. “Discussing those good and bad dynamics will help everyone get on the same page about what behavior they want to encourage—and avoid—going forward.”

Mary Shapiro, a Fellow at Simmons College Institute of Inclusive Leadership, says that team leaders should instead focus on building camaraderie—and one exercise she suggests is to have people share their worst and best team experiences.

The first few weeks of any new team are critical, because, as author Michael Watkins says, “People form opinions pretty quickly, and these opinions tend to be sticky.” Devoting time and energy to establishing with your team how they want to work is just as important—if not more so—than the work itself. 

Make sure everyone understands the team’s purpose

As author Priya Parker says in her book The Art of Gathering, “the way we gather matters.” And one of the best ways to make any gathering matter—whether it’s a dinner party, a community event, or a new team—is to make it crystal clear about why you’re meeting. 

This might seem obvious when it comes to school teams. If you’re a group of third-grade teachers, that’s why you’re meeting, right? Not quite. As Parker says, “A category is not a purpose.” Being third-grade teachers is what defines you—it’s not why you exist. A purpose for your third-grade team might be something like, “We come together as a team to support one another, learn from each other, and identify ways we can better meet the needs of our third-grade students.”

When you have a purpose that everyone on the team understands, it helps the team make better decisions. Parker calls this “making your purpose your event’s ‘bouncer.’” Just as a bouncer works to maintain order and ensure a safe environment for event attendees, a relevant, meaningful, and clear purpose can help your team discern the right actions to focus on.  

When you have a purpose that everyone on the team understands, it helps the team make better decisions.

Be intentional about bringing forward diversity and new perspectives

In the corporate world, there’s a lot of talk about the importance of “culture fit.” Usually spoken about in the context of hiring, culture fit is the concept of screening potential candidates to determine what kind of culture impact they’d have on the organization. Usually, organizations are looking for candidates who have similar values, beliefs, and behaviors. 

Regardless of whether you’re hiring for a role in your school or leading a team, it can be detrimental to focus primarily on culture fit. When your team lacks a diversity of experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds, it can reinforce existing biases with decision-making, limit innovation, and encourage groupthink, where you wind up making less impactful decisions because you’re spurred by the urge to conform and maintain harmony. 

When your team lacks a diversity of experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds, it can reinforce existing biases with decision-making, limit innovation, and encourage groupthink, where you wind up making less impactful decisions because you’re spurred by the urge to conform and maintain harmony.

Instead, shift your focus to prioritize people that can add to your team’s culture—those that will help to expand the team’s perspective. As you’re looking to round out your team—no matter if it’s centered around curriculum and instruction, strengthening parent engagement, or a school improvement initiative—ask yourself, Who will challenge the thinking of the team, giving us an opportunity for productive conflict? Who has diverse experiences beyond their role at our school, and can they leverage those experiences to help make decisions? 

Distribute leadership based on team members’ strengths and goals

You might be the “leader” of your team—but that doesn’t mean you’re the only one that’s able to lead. When you focus on distributed leadership—a shared approach in which decision-making is spread from one person to a group—engagement increases, more voices are elevated, and additional solutions to challenges are generated. 

You might be the “leader” of your team—but that doesn’t mean you’re the only one that’s able to lead. When you focus on distributed leadership—a shared approach in which decision-making is spread from one person to a group—engagement increases, more voices are elevated, and additional solutions to challenges are generated. 

When New Leaders alum and former principal Beulah McLoyd was working to transform her once-failing Chicago high school, she looked to her teachers for leadership support. “To me, distributed leadership really just means encouraging teachers to do what they do best…every teacher brings leadership qualities to your table…those qualities can be leveraged and encouraged for your students’ benefit.”

At the beginning of the school year, McLoyd worked with each of the teachers on her team to sketch out their strengths and goals. After those conversations, she looked for intersections with the needs of the school’s students. When an English teacher confided that she felt inspired to go into school leadership, McLoyd thought both about the expertise the teacher  brought to her practice and the standards of mastery she wanted the students to meet. She wound up asking the teacher to serve as the school’s English department chair. The teacher gained valuable leadership experience, which helped her move toward a principal role, and McLoyd gained more time to focus on school-wide priorities. It’s all about making people feel valued, making the most out of the expertise you have on your teams, and making the most of everyone’s time.

Look for and elevate other leaders-to-be

For a moment, think about how you were first introduced to the idea of leadership at your school. Were you a teacher or staff member who always wanted to make an impact beyond the classroom, and saw getting more involved with team leadership as a way to do that? Or, was it something you hadn’t considered until your principal or another school leader encouraged you to take the steps?

If your journey sounds like that last example, think of how it felt to know that someone saw you as a leader when you hadn’t quite recognized it in yourself. This kind of informal recruitment, also known as “the shoulder tap,” is one of the best ways that you as a team leader can now recognize the latent leadership qualities in others. 

This kind of informal recruitment, also known as “the shoulder tap,” is one of the best ways that you as a team leader can now recognize the latent leadership qualities in others. 

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As you’re on the lookout for other team members, you might encounter situations where those you’d love to see in a leadership capacity—specifically teachers—might not be sure whether they want to go down that path. This is where it’s helpful to point out all the leadership actions they perform on a daily basis. Managing their classrooms, communicating with parents, planning instruction, collaborating with other teachers, and making decisions about their own professional learning are all “leadership” qualities. 

Leadership is equal parts empowering and guiding others

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As you step into your new role as a team leader, remember that leadership is as much about helping others see and expand on their leadership potential as it is about guiding them. The strategies outlined here are just the beginning of what can be a transformative journey for you and your team. 

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By fostering trust, encouraging diverse perspectives, and recognizing the leadership potential in others, you'll not only strengthen your team but also contribute to the greater success of your entire school community. Leadership is a shared experience—embrace it, nurture it, and watch your team thrive.

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