Growth-Based vs Crisis-Based Leadership

Some schools seem to live in a permanent state of emergency. Every week brings a new urgent problem. Leaders move from fire to fire, and staff learn that the way to get attention is to make something urgent.

This is crisis-based leadership. It can feel productive. Things get done, decisions are fast, and there is a certain energy to it. But it has a cost, and that cost compounds over time.

The hidden cost of crisis mode

When a school runs on crisis, the important but non-urgent work never happens. Curriculum review is postponed. Professional development becomes a box to tick. Nobody has time to think about where the school will be in three years because everyone is focused on Friday.

Staff burn out, and the ones who can leave, do. Problems that could have been solved early grow into bigger ones. The school becomes very good at reacting and very poor at improving.

What growth-based leadership looks like

Growth-based leadership starts from a different question. Instead of “what is on fire?” it asks “what would make us better?” Crises still happen, but they are the exception rather than the operating model.

• Time is protected for improvement. Meetings have space for development, not just operations.
• Systems prevent repeat problems. When something goes wrong, leaders fix the cause, not just the symptom.
• Priorities are few and clear. Staff know what matters this year, and new initiatives are weighed against them.
• People are developed, not just deployed. Staff are seen as long-term investments rather than resources to fill gaps.

Moving from one to the other

No school switches overnight. But there are practical first steps.

Start by tracking where leadership time actually goes for two weeks. Most teams are surprised by how much is reactive. Then ask which crises were predictable. Many were. Each predictable crisis is a system waiting to be built.

Next, ring-fence a small amount of time each week for improvement work, and defend it. Even an hour a week of genuine thinking time changes the direction of a team.

Finally, watch what you reward. If the people who shout loudest get the fastest response, you are training the school to run on crisis. Reward the colleague who spotted a problem early and quietly fixed it.

Crises will still come

Growth-based schools are not immune to emergencies. What changes is how they cope. A school with strong systems, clear priorities and rested people handles a real crisis far better than one already running on empty.

The paradox is that the best preparation for a crisis is a school that is not constantly in one.