Components of Leader Success

We often write about what gets heads of school in trouble, but with this post turn our attention to the flip side--what makes for leadership success at the C-level (chief executive). Heads of school need to think of themselves as C-level leaders, because they are, in fact, the chief executives of their schools. As such, they share much in common with leaders at that level regardless of industry.A recent McKinsey scan of C-level leaders reveals that the "magic" of success really breaks down into predictable components:

• Communicating priorities;
• Valuing, building and leading teams;
• Spending serious time on culture; and
• Understanding the CEO's unique leadership contribution.

Interestingly, these are among the things that we identified as lacking in the leaders who inspired our recent post on "the toxic trifecta."