Page 5 - Leadership Platform

Introduction

Successful leadership can only be built on a carefully-thought-out set of
values and beliefs. When justified and pulled together coherently, these form
a platform which defines what a leader does and why they do it. A leadership
platform underpins and guides the decisions and actions that play out day-to-
day across the school.

A leadership platform provides a ‘stable’ (though not static) foundation upon
which we base decisions, evaluate issues, pose questions and design inquiries.
It is what guides action and enables others to know what we are as leaders and
what they stand for.

In putting together a platform, you are not committing to it forever. It is as much
a process as a fixture – everything except your most deeply held values may
mature with new knowledge and experience.

It should therefore not be a cumbersome document, to the contrary, the more
it evolves the shorter (but deeper) it gets. In this booklet we give you one way
of constructing a platform but if you have other ideas of how you would like to
do it, just let us know.

We have included a couple of examples of platforms written by fellow middle
leaders. Other examples can be found at:

www.ied.edu.hk/apclc/links/leadership_platform.html

BUT, be careful, you cannot clone someone else’s platform — each person, each
leader, each context is different.

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