Executive leadership: Another lever in the system?

The leadership challenges facing most headteachers can at times be daunting but for those leading schools in difficulty, the challenges are acute. This article draws upon the personal experience of an executive leader in a school facing difficult circumstances. It will firstly, outline and analyse this model of leadership and secondly, look at how executive leadership can contribute to improvement in a challenging school context. The article concludes that executive leadership is a powerful lever for change when it is able to mobilize and release leadership energy between and across schools. However, it is suggested that securing long-term improvement in schools in difficult circumstances will require much more than system leadership currently offers. It will require deeper, more distributed forms of leadership that connect people together and draw upon the yet untapped and underdeveloped resources for collaboration.