Meeting Systems to Support Multi-Leader Collaboration

Being a leader of a school or non-profit organization is hard work. Being THE leader is even harder. If you have been leading solo for some time and are feeling the burn, this makes sense. But what if we told you there’s another way, that leadership doesn’t have to be lonely, that the responsibilities that come with the balcony view don’t have to create vertigo?

Before you decide to step out of a leadership role, let’s consider what it would take to welcome someone else in to co-lead with you. At The Teaching Well, we’ve had success building a co-leader model connected directly to our values, because we know that when each leader is balanced by another, greater sustainability can be achieved. 

But let’s get real about the amount of time it takes to build and sustain true alignment. The short answer is – a lot!

First, alignment doesn’t mean agreement, but it means moving forward together in an agreed-upon way. At The Teaching Well, our Executive and Deputy Directors have multiple sync sessions with each other every week. At some of these meetings the rest of the Director Team is also included. Each meeting is an opportunity to build or sustain relationships, calibrate and align on practices, policies, and personnel, as well as get the work done together. Below is a list of the different configurations TTW’s leaders utilize:

TTW leaders aren’t just meeting to meet. They meet with intention to move the organization forward and be sustained by each other. Without that intentional design, this many meetings has the potential to accelerate some common pitfalls like over-syncing, development of co-dependence that slows down the work, and confusion for the team when roles and authority overlap too much. 

It’s lonely at the top. Humans are designed for social collaboration. So it’s time to start designing our teams with that in mind. Bring a co-leader to the balcony with you!

If you are curious about the 6 Human-Centered Values that TTW’s co-leaders live by, as mentioned by Lindsey in the podcast, you can find them below.