School leaders must be visionaries for their institutions, constantly deciding what to preserve going forward and what to leave behind, all while simultaneously present in the lives of our students, parents, faculties, and staff and surrounding communities. Moreover, to be effective they must understand the legacies, definitions, and beliefs about leadership in their school and its surrounding community and country.

A complex, relentless job to be sure.  

That’s why Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky’s metaphor of the “balcony to the dancefloor;” when leaders need to metaphorically step away (head up to the balcony) while in the midst of their daily work (the dance floor) is such a powerful strategy for school administrators.

This workshop will bring the metaphor to life by answering the following questions: 

• How to better manage yourself within these dynamics 

• How to understand your own experience of leadership and its impacts on your leadership style now

• How to gain greater insight into how people in your school define leadership

• How to strengthen your communication strategies when you support people in your school community through their feelings of loss that inevitably accompany change

Please join Rosalind Wiseman, consultant to overseas schools and the Office of Overseas Schools, as she shares the foundational learnings from the 2021 LSOP training. Rosalind will be introduced by Mark Ulfers, Director of the Office for Overseas Schools.