distributed leadership

There's a view of leadership that it's heroic.  A great leader takes the reins and drives the herd somewhere new and exciting against all odds, fighting forces from within and without, and the exceptional things that are achieved rest solely upon the leader.

Now this might work for a general, but a principal who has this view is supremely annoying.  I really like the work of Jim Spillane out of Northwestern University on distributed leadership.  In this view, leadership is setting up the organization so that everyone in it is working toward the same goal effectively.  The actions of the leader tell less than half the story, the key is really the interactions.

Which is why I am so annoyed at Mowgli's school principal again.  They have space to set up a sensory room in the K-2 autism support classroom.  They have the space!!!  This is the number one thing that most schools don't have.  They need a little bit of money to get the space set up right.  I volunteered to help raise the money.  Apparently, they're so un-used to volunteers that this has made their heads explode.  They don't know if we can donate money or if we have to donate the objects.  They don't know if I could bring a team of volunteers in to help paint the room, they have to check with the maintenance union.  The fact that I want to make a donation to the school, and they're reaction is 'wow, I don't know if that's allowed' rather than 'wow, let's do this thing' blows my mind.  

Of course this is on top of the fact that I suspect Mowgli's fork got confiscated at the metal detector yesterday.