Reimagining School Leadership for a Complex World
In February 2026, researchers and practitioners contributed to an important global conversation about the future of education leadership.
At the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI) in Qatar — one of the world’s leading conferences on education systems improvement — Dr Kerry Elliott, Menzies Senior Research Fellow at the ANU Leadership & Complexity Lab, and Willie Thompson, Founder of Rising Team, presented insights from the Menzies School Leadership Incubator and the Rising Team for Schools platform.
Their symposium explored a pressing question facing education systems worldwide:
How do we prepare school leaders to navigate increasing complexity while strengthening the conditions for student success?
The leadership challenge facing education systems
Across the world, school leaders are operating in environments shaped by rapid technological change, social disruption, and growing expectations of education systems.
These pressures are forcing a rethink of leadership itself.
Traditional leadership models — often centred on individual authority and hierarchical decision-making — are increasingly misaligned with the interconnected and adaptive nature of modern education systems.
Research presented at ICSEI highlighted the growing importance of distributed, collaborative and context-responsive leadership — approaches that strengthen the collective capacity of school communities to learn, adapt and improve together.
Rather than relying on a single leader, this perspective positions leadership as something that emerges through teams, relationships and systems.
Building leadership capability in teams
A key focus of the presentation was the Rising Team for Schools platform, a technology-enabled leadership development tool co-developed through the Menzies School Leadership Incubator.
The platform supports school leadership teams to build stronger collaboration, trust and shared responsibility — key conditions for what research describes as collective efficacy, the shared belief that teams can work together to improve outcomes for students.
Early research findings from implementation across more than 20 schools indicate the platform is helping to strengthen:
- Structured and purposeful collaboration within leadership teams
- Psychological safety and trust among team members
- Shared responsibility for decision-making and improvement
These shifts are significant. Evidence suggests that when leadership teams build strong collective efficacy, schools are better able to respond to complex challenges and sustain meaningful improvements in learning outcomes.
Importantly, digital platforms such as Rising Team for Schools may also enable leadership development at scale, addressing longstanding barriers including geographic isolation, time constraints and the high cost of traditional leadership programs.
Leadership in a complex world
Dr Kerry Elliott also presented emerging research from the ANU Leadership & Complexity Lab, which is advancing a new research agenda focused on complexity-informed leadership.
This work recognises that the systems leaders now operate within — including education systems — are increasingly interconnected, dynamic and unpredictable.
From this perspective, leadership is not simply about directing others, but about enabling people and organisations to navigate complexity together.
Preliminary research from the Lab has identified several core leadership capability themes that appear essential for navigating complex environments. These include:
- Sense-making and forecasting
- Psychological safety and trust
- Judgement and ethical decision-making
- Communication and shared meaning-making
- Innovation and adaptive learning
- Distributed agency and empowerment
- Wellbeing and resilience
- Continuous learning and adaptation
These capabilities operate simultaneously across individual, collective and system levels, reinforcing the idea that leadership must be understood as a broader social and organisational capability rather than a purely individual trait.
Building the leadership pipeline
The ICSEI symposium also explored the broader state of leadership development within the Australian education system.
Despite the critical role of leadership in shaping school performance and student outcomes, research suggests that leadership development pathways for school leaders remain fragmented and uneven.
The discussion highlighted the need to rethink how leadership capability is developed across the education system — from aspiring principals through to system leaders.
Something is shifting in how we understand leadership. Across schools and systems, educators are discovering that the most powerful leadership isn’t about commanding change—it’s about enabling it together.
This is not incremental improvement. This is transformation.
If you sense this shift in your own work, you’re not alone. Join a growing movement of leaders reimagining what’s possible in education.
