school and non-school contexts provide considerable
evidence about four sets of leadership qualities and practices in different contexts that accomplish
this goal.10 We have organised these core practices into four categories: building vision and setting
directions; understanding and developing people; redesigning the organisation; and managing the
teaching and learning programme. Each includes more specifi c sub-sets of practices: 14 in total. To
illustrate how widespread is the evidence in their support, we have compared each set of practices to
a widely known taxonomy of managerial behaviours developed by Yukl11 through a comprehensive
synthesis of research conducted in non-school contexts.
• Building vision and setting directions. This category of practices carries the bulk of the effort to
motivate leaders’ colleagues. It is about the establishment of shared purpose as a basic stimulant
for one’s work. The more specifi c practices in this category are building a shared vision, fostering
the acceptance of group goals and demonstrating high-performance expectations.12 These specifi c
practices refl ect, but also add to, three functions in Yukl’s managerial taxonomy: motivating and
inspiring, clarifying roles and objectives, and planning and organising.
• Understanding and developing people. While practices in this category make a signifi cant
contribution to motivation, their primary aim is building not only the knowledge and skills that
teachers and other staff need in order to accomplish organisational goals but also the dispositions
(commitment, capacity and resilience) to persist in applying the knowledge and skills. The more
specifi c practices in this category are providing individualised support and consideration, fostering
intellectual stimulation, and modelling appropriate values and behaviours.13 These specifi c practices
not only refl ect managerial behaviours in Yukl’s taxonomy (supporting, developing and mentoring,
recognising, and rewarding) but, as more recent research has demonstrated, are central to the ways
in which successful leaders integrate the functional and the personal.