Helping Leaders Grow: The Importance of Renewal and Self-Development for Sustaining and Retaining School Leaders

• In Event: Developing School and District Leaders Through Coaching

Abstract

Given the complexity of contemporary leadership, the often overlooked importance of leaders’ personal growth and renewal, and its relationship to sustainability and productivity (Schwartz, 2013), this paper presents learnings from a mixed-methods longitudinal study about how a developmentally-oriented leadership preparation course influenced graduates’ leadership practice years after course completion. Findings posit a new, research-based model for leadership development that draws from adult-developmental theory and 20 years of research learnings from educational leaders. This paper highlights a) practicing leaders’ sharings about renewal, and b) key components of the new model (Author, 2012) that relate to self-development. This paper offers strategies for helping leaders build internal capacities needed to successfully lead and sustain themselves in today’s schools and emphasizes implications for policy.

Authors

• Eleanor E. Drago-Severson, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Jessica Blum-DeStefano, Teachers College, Columbia University