Why Distributed Leadership Fails When Only One Person Trains

Trudy: I've been working with a principal and her leadership team over the last year and a half. Last term she took two weeks' leave. Her team ran the school and nobody rang her. They orchestrated it that way, even taking her out of the group chats. Compare that to what happens when you step out for a day. I've observed many principals who can't be out of their school for a PD day. without necessary phone calls at morning tea or they have an uninterrupted day but what's waiting for them on their return to school requires double workload the following day. My client principal who took the leave didn't become a better principal in those two weeks. She has been deliberate about shifting her leadership actions and that of her middle leaders over the last eighteen months. Today I'd love to share a program I'm starting in 2027 that I've built from what has and hasn't worked in my own programs since mid-2024. I watched what works and what doesn't, but more importantly I've interviewed principals and middle leaders about my work with them and that feedback has shaped what's coming next. Firstly, a little of my background. I was a school principal for twenty one years in five schools, three of them large primary schools with middle leaders in various roles. Then as an assistant regional director for nine years, working with principals and leadership teams on their school improvement priorities. Primary schools, secondary schools, special schools, even schools of distance education. I've run different leadership programs over the last three years and here's what I know and what I have observed. Principals do a leadership program. They get fired up and they go back to school. Then they do all the heavy lifting alone because nobody else in the team had the same experience or insights. And they always need to start with how do I get my team on board? It's happened to me. Or middle leaders are sent off to do a program and come back with good ideas, intentions and inspiration. Their principal wasn't there, so the ideas go nowhere. If they do get traction, it's not a liftoff like it would be if the principal had been present. There's this tension that plays out. It's the deputy who has new skills, but a principal who still decides everything. Or the principal who has new ideas but a team that still waits to be told what to do. Both scenarios result in the learning sitting with one person and the momentum is stifled. Then we add in the practical problem. Right now, getting a whole leadership team off site for a day of PD is close to impossible with current staffing and the demands that unfold within a school across the school day. So here's a little of the backstory. July twenty twenty-four I started running leadership programs online, and the leaders' learning circle for principals in small schools was born. And it spread into every geographic corner of Queensland. The OGs, as I call them, the original group of seven principals, took a leap of faith. They were seeking support to lead more strategically. They wanted to get out of the operational churn that was keeping them bogged in the day-to-day. They wanted to connect with others in the same roles so they felt less isolated and honestly feeling supported as they navigate the complexity of leadership in schools today. It was delivered online because there was no logistical way you could bring them together. Their geographic location, the time to travel, the time out of school, cost and availability of relief teachers. It was just impossible. There was no other way. And similarly, it was delivered in 60-minute blocks because time poverty is a thing. I've now facilitated the leaders' learning circle for six cohorts. And when I ask each group of principals what they valued most, the answer was the peer group coaching. Nita, for example, said, I think that the most valuable thing for me was the peer coaching. What a gift that is. Because you've got this collective genius of a mob of people who have been just doing this job for ages or come from a different lens. And then Tanya says she values getting peer feedback from colleagues who aren't geographically beside you or invested in your school without actually feeling that pressure that they're invested or that they have a stake in it as well. If you're curious about how it works, at its simplest, a principal brings a real problem and the group works on it with their own experience. I teach a specific process and of course we set up a safe space for leaders to share the reality of what they're dealing with. Challenging student behaviour, parent complaints, staff performance, community conflict, personal wellness and life challenges. Really nothing is off limits. And as an aside, if you're a small school principal, I'm taking expressions of interest for the leaders learning circle right now to start in 2027. Go to trudygraham.com.au forward slash connect and send me a message. I'd love to hear from you. Now let's talk about middle to large size schools. I ran exceptional leaders for principals last year and exceptional middle leaders this year and the peer coaching has worked just as well for the leaders in middle to large schools. Different contexts, geographic areas and sectors. Jackie, a head of junior school, told me it had been interesting and that she has to understand how the other settings work before she offers advice because their schools are so different. But the honest conversations about what each of them is dealing with hasn't been a problem. She said the group became quite connected after the first session because they all realized they faced the same sorts of things. And Eloise, a deputy principal, now uses the process to work with her teaching teams. The value for me has been the feedback from these leaders, as I've met with principals. Who have invested in their middle leaders this year. They've told me they wanted to be more involved in the program. Not necessarily in every session together, but better positioned to leverage the learning across the team and with their improvement priorities in their schools. I then looked at the feedback from Emily and her leadership team at Serena. I've worked with them for 18 months and introduced peer coaching as a process within their leadership team. Emily said it's been really great. That idea where we've given that time to sit and really nut out someone else's problem that they're having has been really powerful. That's the principal and the middle leaders in it together. So I've developed the program for 2027, what I now call Trailblazing Schools. And here's what I've factored in. The principal plus middle leaders together. When the principal is in the program with their team, the heavy lifting is shared and the middle leaders have someone backing the changes they're making. 60 minute sessions online. The whole leadership team doesn't have to leave school at the same time and nobody has to arrange relief or cover each other for a full day. And it's built for distance. I have rural, regional and remote schools that are listening in and I also have them on my newsletter list. And they can take part on the same terms as everyone else. This is why the Leaders Learning Circle has been online from the start and I've kept it. And this borrows from what works. The Leaders Learning Circle gave me the format and the way our group learns from each other. the exceptional leader programs gave me what happens when middle leaders are part of the same conversation. Peer group coaching is the core. It works because nobody in the group is the expert. Each person brings a strength and the group focuses on one person's problem at a time. And mixing sectors creates diversity. I've had government, Catholic, and independent leaders in my workshops and they hold different expectations and see the same problem from different angles. That's what makes the coaching useful. Someone from another sector. asks the question your own colleagues would never think to. And of course the leadership master classes are crafted in response to identified needs and feedback. Building capability and courage to lead confidently, make decisions and back yourself. Having difficult conversations, building coaching skills and gaining insights into the personal leadership shifts that you want to make. And of course, AI is part of it, but it's not the point. It speeds up a team that already works together. Bringing AI into the work as a strategic co-planner, a coach, a data analyst, or a researcher allows leadership teams to get out of the operational bog and get more strategic and focus on the essential humanness of our work. And we'll also be using the progress cycle. That's based on now, show, how, go, wow. And we use it each semester as a way for school teams to keep their goals moving forward. So my question for principals is, if everything comes back to you, if the thought of taking two weeks leave makes you wonder what would be waiting for you on your return, and you really want to build distributed leadership, not just talk about it in theory, is it time to invest in how you lead your middle leaders? And you can pick your next step. You could take the leading middle leaders scorecard. You see, I built a quiz, a self-assessment with 15 questions. It takes less than three minutes. It's free, and you get your results and practical action to take. Go to scorecard dot trudygraham dot com dot AU Or You could just send me a message and let me know you're interested in Trailblazing Schools for next year. Go to trudygram.com.au forward slash connect. And if you missed the links, they'll all be in the show notes. So if you'd like to be the principal who can confidently take leave and know your school is in good hands, or you'd like your middle leaders to focus more on strategic and instructional leadership. than getting bogged in operational responses. That's what I'm building for twenty twenty seven. Until next week, take care.