This blog is part of our Unlocking Collective Leadership: 7 Conditions for Lasting Impact series, highlighting the conditions that help P20 systems move from individual effort to shared leadership. 

What is an Orientation Toward Improvement?

The seventh collective leadership condition, orientation toward improvement, is more than a positive attitude; it’s a way of working. It means individuals and teams regularly ask:

• What’s working?
• What could be better?
• What’s our next right step?

This condition supports inquiry, reflection, and risk-taking in the name of innovation and impact. When paired with clear systems for testing, refining, and acting on ideas, it shifts improvement from a hope to a habit.

Across our partner schools and districts, we’ve seen how this mindset leads to more staff-led innovation and sustained growth over time.

Orientation to Improve in Practice 

Educators, whether knowingly or not, practice school improvement in all facets of their work. Whether it’s refining a lesson plan or analyzing next year’s budget. School improvement in the work of all educators. What makes the difference between successful school  improvement and unsustainable efforts is whether or not schools and districts have the strategy and support to move through improvement cycles together. 

One school we partnered with in Berkeley County began its improvement journey by identifying a challenge: inconsistent instructional quality across classrooms. Rather than jumping to a solution, the leadership team facilitated collaborative inquiry walks. Educators across roles observed, reflected, and surfaced patterns together. They co-developed a cross-role improvement plan from that shared learning, grounded in real needs rather than assumptions. 

This approach was a product of collaborative thinking and a vision to improve shared outcomes. 

Within a year, the school observed an increase in instructional consistency, as indicated by observational data. But more than that, staff shared in a coaching session that they felt “more confident stepping into each other’s classrooms and actually using what we’re seeing to improve our own practice.”

Similarly, Cliffdale Middle School used an improvement lens to reframe culture and leadership through a schoolwide house system. Each house included both student and adult leadership with a designated administrator and teacher leader. This structure didn’t just build student engagement. It created space for deeper teacher collaboration and adult relationship-building. One leader reflected, “We’re seeing teachers step into leadership roles in new ways [like] coordinating events, mentoring colleagues, and showing up differently for each other.”

This is what orientation toward improvement looks like in action: shared problem-solving, not top-down directives. Co-owned change, not merely compliance.

Reflecting on Your Orientation to Improve

Improvement doesn’t happen just because we want it to. It takes attention, alignment, and an ability to reflect honestly about what’s working and what’s not.

Use these prompts to assess where your team stands:

1. Where in our current work do we make time to reflect on what’s not working, and what we can try next? If this doesn’t happen regularly, it’s worth asking: What would need to shift to make this possible?
2. When new ideas or feedback emerge, how often do they lead to action? Consider whether your team has the structures to test small changes—and to follow up on what’s learned.
3. What’s one small shift we can try this month that could have a big ripple effect? Improvement doesn’t require overhauls. It starts with one thoughtful, visible step that signals, “This is who we are.”

Resources to Support Your Orientation to Improve

Now that you’ve explored all seven conditions of collective leadership, it’s time to zoom out.

This self-assessment tool helps your team identify which conditions are already strong and where focused attention can lead to meaningful change. Use it to clarify your next steps and spark deeper conversations.

Download the Conditions Reflection and Self-Assessment Tool

Want help bringing collective leadership to life in your system? Learn more about Mira Education’s approach or reach out to start a conversation.

This blog is part of our Unlocking Collective Leadership: 7 Conditions for Lasting Impact series, highlighting the conditions that help P20 systems move from individual effort to shared leadership. 

What is Shared Influence?

The sixth condition in collective leadership, shared influence, happens when decision-making power and problem-solving responsibilities are distributed across a team and not hoarded at the top.

It honors each person’s expertise and perspective, regardless of their title.

In P20 education, that can look like:

• Teachers designing new assessment strategies
• Paraprofessionals contributing to student support planning
• Counselors leading school-wide wellness initiatives
• Cross-role district teams co-creating improvement plans

When influence is shared, leadership isn’t a job title. It’s a function of your team’s culture.

Shared Influence in Practice

Shared influence doesn’t happen by accident. It’s built through intentional structures and cultural norms that invite people into the work, not just to implement decisions, but to shape them.

When done well, shared influence leads to:

• A team culture where diverse perspectives guide key decisions,
• Systems that elevate expertise beyond formal leadership roles, and
• Opportunities for staff to lead in ways aligned with their strengths.

It also improves the quality of decisions. When multiple voices are at the table, teams are more likely to challenge assumptions, identify blind spots, and build solutions that reflect the real-world needs of their community.

At Blythewood High School, shared influence is an integral piece of the school’s identity. Structures are in place for teachers to take ownership of major school-wide decisions, including the design of the professional development plan. For their team, this means teacher-led sessions and opportunities for staff to choose professional development (PD) aligned with their own goals and growth areas.

That same spirit of shared leadership extends to students, who have helped shape their own learning experiences, influencing the extracurricular offerings available at school.

As Principal Matt Sherman puts it: “Collective leadership is not another thing on your plate; it is the plate.”

As a result, Blythewood has seen staff return year after year, with a rare occurrence of vacancies, and when openings do arise, they’re quickly filled. When staff are invited to lead, they stay.

Are you practicing Shared Influence?

A lack of shared influence can lead to burnout. When team members sense that they have no ability to influence or be influenced by others, they become more isolated, and so does the work. 

Use these three questions to reflect on a recent decision your team made that impacted people, time, or resources.

1. Who shaped the decision and how?
   Whose input was gathered? Who offered ideas? Whose feedback changed the outcome? If you’re not sure, chances are influence wasn’t widely shared.
2. Was the process transparent and inclusive?
   Did everyone understand what was being decided, how they could contribute, and when a decision would be made? Even limited decisions can be made transparently.
3.  Who led the work, and who implemented it?
   Shared influence means leadership doesn’t stop at the top. It shows up in facilitation, ownership, and accountability across roles.  If the same people always lead, the team may be stuck in hierarchy mode.

Resources for Shared Influence 

Want to dig deeper?

This self-assessment rubric helps your team explore where shared influence is working and where it may be absent. 

Use this tool to surface strengths, name opportunities, and plan your next step.

Download Assessing Your Current State, Shared Influence Rubric

Want help bringing collective leadership to life in your system? Learn more about Mira Education’s approach or reach out to start a conversation.

This blog is part of our Unlocking Collective Leadership: 7 Conditions for Lasting Impact series, highlighting the conditions that help P20 systems move from individual effort to shared leadership. 

What are Relationships and Social Norms?

As the fifth condition of collective leadership, Relationships and Social Norms form the foundation of a school’s culture. They influence how teams communicate, solve problems, and show up for one another in the daily work of improvement.

In collective leadership, this looks like:

• Building trust across roles
• Making space for honest dialogue
• Co-creating behavioral expectations that support collaboration

When these elements are in place, schools see the difference: clearer communication, stronger team identity, and higher staff retention.

One school that’s seen this firsthand is J.C. Lynch Elementary, where relationships became the starting point for a bold shift in culture.

Relationships and Social Norms in Practice 

At J.C. Lynch, a Collective Leadership Initiative school, the team set out with a bold but essential goal: improve staff culture by strengthening trust and relationships across the building.

They started by listening. Staff were invited to share honest, anonymous feedback to name frustrations, surface ideas, and shape next steps together. The result was a shared commitment to shift the culture, not just through values, but through action.

Teacher and student advisory councils were created. An open-door policy between staff and administration took hold. Professional learning was redesigned to elevate teacher leadership.

“Besides us being leaders, students have their own [committees], and they feel comfortable enough to reach out to [the principal] and let him know what’s going wrong and what’s going well with the school,” said Sherena Brown, 4th Grade Math and Science teacher. That sense of shared voice and mutual respect became a cultural norm.

Three years in, the work is paying off: the school now holds a 92% staff retention rate, has expanded participation in leadership roles, and earned national recognition for student growth.

Reflecting on Relationships and Social Norms 

Culture will always factor into the decision-making process, whether positively or negatively. As you begin adopting collectively led practices, use these prompts with your team to reflect on current culture and identify opportunities for growth:

• Are we a group of individuals or a unified team? What evidence supports your answer?
• What defines our team identity—roles or shared purpose? What do our conversations and behaviors suggest?
• Are our communication channels clear and inclusive? How do we support open, two-way communication?

Resources for Relationships and Social Norms 

Ready to align your team around shared communication norms? This tool guides small, cross-functional teams through a simple process to clarify expectations, create consistent communication protocols, and build stronger connections across staff.

Download this tool to foster deeper relationships and stronger social norms

Want help bringing collective leadership to life in your system? Learn more about Mira Education’s approach or reach out to start a conversation.

This blog is part of our Unlocking Collective Leadership: 7 Conditions for Lasting Impact series, highlighting the conditions that help P20 systems move from individual effort to shared leadership. 

What is Work Structures?

Work Structures are the fourth condition of collective leadership. They include the rhythms and routines that guide how a school or team functions, such as calendars, schedules, meeting structures, planning processes, and communication norms.

In collective leadership, these structures are designed to support shared priorities. That means:

• Protecting time for collaboration
• Aligning day-to-day operations with long-term goals
• Reducing friction and confusion in how work gets done

When this condition is in place, teams gain clarity, coherence, and the capacity to lead well, without burning out. Work feels purposeful. Meetings get smarter. And people can spend less time navigating logistics and more time driving improvements.

One school that has put this condition into action is Maryville Elementary, whose intentional focus on instructional improvement has led to increased staff and student engagement, as well as a decrease in student referrals. 

Work Structures in Practice 

At Maryville Elementary, sustainable work was about more than managing busy schedules. It began with aligning around shared priorities for feedback and instructional expertise. The staff came together to reimagine observation practices, increasing two-way informal feedback among teachers. This shift strengthened staff culture and had a clear, positive impact on students.

Through behavioral learning walks, the school cultivated a culture of vulnerability and shared learning, intentionally focusing on improving student engagement and outcomes.

The results speak volumes: academic performance rose from Below Average to Average on the 2024-2025 School Report Card, and student referrals dropped by more than 76 percent.

When teams prioritize collaboration and continuous learning, meaningful change follows. This is the power of collective leadership in action.

Pressure or Progress? A Team Check-In on Work Structures

Gather the team and ask the following prompts:

• What gets prioritized in our schedule—and what consistently gets squeezed out?
• How do our routines and meetings support (or stall) meaningful work?
• Which structures help us work collaboratively, and which reinforce silos?

Resources for Work Structures

Ready to take a closer look at how your team’s work structures support shared leadership? Use this reflection tool to track your time, identify misaligned routines, and find one shift you can make toward stronger collaboration.

Download the Time Tracker Tool

Want tools, examples, and reflection prompts delivered straight to your inbox? Subscribe to the Unlocking Collective Leadership email series to dig deeper into each condition and explore how to bring collective leadership to life in your school or district.

This blog is part of our Unlocking Collective Leadership: 7 Conditions for Lasting Impact series, highlighting the conditions that help P20 systems move from individual effort to shared leadership. 

What is Capacity and Resources?

Collaboration becomes more than a buzzword when schools have the right resources in the right places and the flexibility to use them well. It becomes a daily habit.

Capacity and Resources is the third condition of collective leadership. It’s about how people, time, funding, space, and expertise are leveraged to support shared goals. When this condition is off, progress can feel like pushing uphill.
Some questions to consider:

• Do your structures match your goals?
• Are you investing in people’s ability to lead, or asking them to figure it out on the margins?

Without a clear foundation for support, even the strongest teams can’t sustain momentum.
One school that tackled this head-on was Walker-Gamble Elementary, where rethinking how time was used became a breakthrough for both student growth and teacher collaboration.

Capacity and Resources in Practice

When schools rethink how they use what they already have, like time, talent, and trust, big things can happen. In our partner work, we’ve seen how capacity unlocks stronger collaboration and smarter problem-solving. 

Walker-Gamble, a school we’ve partnered with through the South Carolina Department of Education’s Collective Leadership Initiative, was committed to seeing its students grow. For their team, this meant prioritizing the amount and quality of instructional time in each day’s schedule. Through a time auditing process, their team reimagined their bell schedule together to protect planning time and provide additional time for cross-team collaboration. 

The result? A sharper focus on instruction, stronger team cohesion, and national recognition. Walker-Gamble was named a 2023 National ESEA Distinguished School for Exceptional Student Performance and Academic Growth and continues to see steady gains in student outcomes and staff engagement.

Curious what this looks like in practice? Read more about Walker-Gamble’s collective leadership journey.

Pressure or Possibility? A Team Check-In on Capacity

When the work starts to feel unsustainable or stalled, it’s often a signal that something deeper needs adjusting. Use these questions to reflect as a team:

• Where does leadership work currently happen in our schedule, and where does it get squeezed out? Naming this openly can reveal the invisible toll it’s taking on your team.
• Do our structures and staffing models support distributed leadership or reinforce traditional hierarchies? You might find it’s time to rethink who has protected time, decision-making power, or access to information.
• What are the “unspoken” resource barriers our team faces, and how are we addressing them? Whether it’s time, tech, PD, or trust—naming these gaps is the first step to closing them.

Collective leadership requires shared effort, but it also requires shared investment. These questions can help you identify what’s missing and where to begin making real, structural shifts.

Resources for Capacity and Resources

Ready to take a closer look at your own team’s capacity and resources? Use this tool to explore the structures that support or limit your team’s capacity. We recommend using this tool with a cross-role group and identifying one small shift you can make to increase shared leadership by reallocating time, tools, or support.

Download the Capacity and Resources Reflection Tool

Want tools, examples, and reflection prompts delivered straight to your inbox? Subscribe to the Unlocking Collective Leadership email series to dig deeper into each condition and explore how to bring collective leadership to life in your school or district.

This blog is part of our Unlocking Collective Leadership: 7 Conditions for Lasting Impact series, highlighting the conditions that help P20 systems move from individual effort to shared leadership. 

What is Supportive Administration?

Supportive Administration is the second condition of collective leadership. It refers to the visible, formal support that leaders provide to staff across all roles.
In collective leadership, this looks like:

• Aligning on shared goals
• Creating clear, coordinated plans
• Backing teams with the resources and structures they need to lead

It’s about more than agreement—it’s about shared direction and active reinforcement. When formal leaders and staff are moving together with clarity and consistency, schools are better positioned to turn ideas into action and make improvement stick.

One district that’s seen the impact of this approach firsthand is Clarendon County, where leaders prioritized formal supports to grow teacher leadership across their schools.

Supportive Administration in Practice 

Over the last several years, the Clarendon County School District has undergone multiple consolidations, resulting in shifts in both its district identity and the way school teams work together. Despite this unexpected change, the district continues to experience growth.

During the 2023–2024 school year, the number of teachers who saw themselves as leaders jumped by 78%, speaking to the power and impact of a supportive leadership team.

When administrators model trust, make space for teacher voice, and follow through on shared decisions, leadership doesn’t just expand; it sticks. Clarendon County’s experience shows what’s possible when support isn’t just offered, but embedded.

Making Leadership Visible

Being a supportive administrator takes more than good intentions. It requires visible, tangible practices that help staff feel seen, supported, and aligned. Use these questions with your team or as part of an individual reflection to examine how leadership shows up in your daily work.

1. What does visible support look like to your team, and are they experiencing it consistently?
2. How is space created for others to lead?
3. Are your systems and routines reinforcing collective ownership, or working against it?
4. What’s one tangible thing you can do this week to show alignment and trust?

Resources for Supportive Administration

Inviting others into your practice allows you to see the work from a different perspective. You can build trust across teams and invite others into the improvement process by fostering intentional feedback loops. This tool walks leaders through a simple process to invite others into decision-making, starting with small steps and building to deeper, sustained collaboration. Use it to build trust, create feedback loops, and shift the leadership culture in your school.

Download the facilitation tool to make your leadership more inclusive, visible, and trusted.

Want help bringing collective leadership to life in your system? Learn more about Mira Education’s approach or reach out to start a conversation.

This blog is part of our Unlocking Collective Leadership: 7 Conditions for Lasting Impact series, highlighting the conditions that help P20 systems move from individual effort to shared leadership. 

From Buy-in to Co-ownership 

Collective leadership allows educators to share the work in a way that builds ownership rather than buy-in. It’s more than task delegation. It unleashes educators’ collective expertise to solve problems and serve each student better.

Leadership thrives in schools where staff culture supports shared responsibility across roles, not just titles. In this approach, a team of educators shares leadership work in ways that move learners and learning communities toward improvement and innovation.

The Mira Education collective leadership development model aligns school and systems teams’ practice to support the following seven conditions shown to build collective efficacy, educator retention, and effective instructional and leadership practice:

• Vision and strategy
• Supportive administration
• Capacity and resources
• Work structures
• Relationships and social norms
• Shared influence
• Orientation toward improvement 

Collective Leadership in Practice 

Since 2017, Mira Education, in partnership with the South Carolina Department of Education, has supported schools across the state through the Collective Leadership Initiative (CLI). By building systems rooted in collective leadership, participating schools have seen measurable improvements in both staff and student outcomes.

Notably, between 2018 and 2023, the percentage of teachers who identified as leaders increased by 71%. In the 2023–2024 school year, 94% of CLI schools improved teacher retention.

These shifts in staff culture are translating into stronger student outcomes. Three CLI schools have earned national recognition for student achievement, and one school reduced office referrals by more than 75% within two years of joining the initiative.

This approach is not just about improving schools. It’s transforming how they work.

Small Shifts to Activate Collective Leadership

The best way to start reframing and reimaging your approach to leadership isn’t with a full rollout plan, but honest dialogue. The goal isn’t to have all the answers. It’s to surface the expertise already in the room and think differently about how you work together.

Here are some small but impactful next steps:

Gather a team of educators in different roles (administrators, teachers, instructional coaches, etc.) to discuss the following prompts:

• What untapped expertise already exists in our school/district? What evidence do we have about the presence of that expertise? (Note: Avoid relying on word-of-mouth.)
• Where and in what ways do we leverage expertise, and how can we expand those opportunities for others?
• What ongoing challenge do we face that would benefit from leveraging expertise to explore potential solutions? 

Use the conditions matrix and this discussion tool to identify a condition your team wants to focus on to address your identified ongoing challenge.

Resources for Collective Leadership

Creating change and improvement is complex, challenging work. Collective leadership provides mutual support toward shared goals, allowing teachers and administrators to build collective efficacy and work better together. This discussion tool is a reflection guide to help you approach and navigate the Collective Leadership Conditions Matrix to gain insight into your team’s work.

Want help bringing collective leadership to life in your system? Learn more about Mira Education’s approach or reach out to start a conversation.

This blog is part of our Unlocking Collective Leadership: 7 Conditions for Lasting Impact series, highlighting the conditions that help P20 systems move from individual effort to shared leadership. 

What is Vision and Strategy?

Vision and Strategy comprise the first condition of collective leadership. It’s the shared North Star that guides a team’s decisions, priorities, and daily work.

In collective leadership, this means:

• Co-created: Developed collaboratively by the full team, across roles and titles
• Clearly defined: Specific enough to inform decisions and drive alignment
• Communicated and lived: Used consistently to shape culture, strategy, and practice

When teams get this right, everyone knows where they’re headed—and how they’ll get there together.

One school that embraced this condition early in its collective leadership journey is Dr. Rose Wilder Elementary School, where clarity of vision laid the foundation for deeper collaboration and stronger results.

Vision and Strategy in Practice 

While few teams have the authority to craft a new vision statement for their school or district, all should have the opportunity to define what the vision means for their team in their current time and context. As a result, they’re more likely to have the chance to develop the strategy intended to meet the goals aligned with the vision.

Take Dr. Rose Wilder Elementary in Clarendon County. When two schools merged, the leadership team knew they couldn’t just graft one school’s identity onto another. Instead, they needed to create something new, together. So they approached the moment with intention:

• They set a mindset across the community: We’re building a new school,
• School leaders met one-on-one with staff from the former Summerton school to learn what was working and what needed attention,
• Committed to preserving effective practices while addressing persistent pain points, and
• Opened up the conversation, hosting family town halls to share transparently and invite feedback.

This wasn’t vision on paper. This was vision lived out loud. And the results spoke volumes: for the first time ever, Dr. Rose Wilder earned an Excellent rating on the state report card.

When vision is co-created and strategy is shared, results don’t just improve; they stick.

Turning Vision and Strategy Into Shared Action 

Most teams don’t need a new vision. They need a shared one. Whether you’re launching a new initiative, tackling a persistent challenge, or navigating change, co-creating vision and strategy helps your team move in the same direction. 

Gather the team and start here:

• What is our team currently working on, or something coming up, that could benefit from a co-created vision and strategy?
• If this effort we are currently working on were wildly successful, what would you see, hear, think, and say?
• What are the next three to five action steps to make the shared vision a reality?
• What can each team member contribute to ensure the wildly successful vision is realized?
• What resources and/or supports are needed to make those contributions?

Resources for Vision and Strategy

Ready to start the conversation? This facilitation guide offers step-by-step support for co-creating vision and strategy with your team, from identifying key stakeholders to building consensus. It’s designed to help teams move from ideas to shared action through a collective leadership lens.

Download the Vision and Strategy Facilitation Guide

Want tools, examples, and reflection prompts delivered straight to your inbox? Subscribe to the Unlocking Collective Leadership email series to dig deeper into each condition and explore how to bring collective leadership to life in your school or district.