Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Transformational Leadership
Transformational Leadership
These seven dimensions or characteristics for transformational leadership clearly align to the
AdvancED
Standards for Quality (see table below):
SKILLS
AND
Simply stated, a transformational leader must establish and ensure that the elements of
the system (curriculum, instruction, and assessment) connect and align to the organizations
purpose.
Leaders, regardless of their roles, want lasting results for the organizations they serve.
They are expected to implement changes or reforms that have direct, immediate, and lasting
impacts on student achievement a task not easily accomplished without practicing systems
thinking and implementing a process for continuous improvement. Everyone who serves in a
leadership capacity in a school or school system fully realizes that regardless of the size,
configuration, or challenges, positive change can occur for a short period of time.
Transformational leaders however, make lasting, widespread improvement by following a
process that ensures all parts of the school or system are connected and share a common purpose
(systems thinking). The AdvancED Standards, based on systems thinking and educational
research, are best practices for school improvement and transformational leaders. It is just a
matter of perspective.
References:
AdvancED. (2011). Standards for Quality.
Bass, B. (1998). Transformational leadership: Industry, military, and educational impact.
Mahwah, NJ: Eribaum Associates.
Bass, B, & Avolio, B. (eds.) (1994). Improving organizational effectiveness through
transformational leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA. Sage.
Fullan, M. (2011). Coaches as system leaders, Educational Leadership, 69, (2), 50-53.
Hargreaves, A., Fink, D. (2006). Sustainable leadership. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.
Leithwood, K, Begley, P. T, & Cousins, J.B. (1994). Developing expert leadership for future
schools. London: Falmer.
Leithwood, K., & Riehl, C. (2003). What we know about successful school leadership.
Philadelphia: Temple University Laboratory for Student Success.
Mourshed, M., Chijike, C., & Barber, M. (2010). How the worlds most improved school
systems kept getting better. McKinsey Quarterly.
Reeves, D. (2009). Leading change in your school. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision
and Curriculum Development.