L10. Pass the baton
Delegate responsibility with trust. Empowerment develops others and strengthens capacity.
Resources to support growth in this behaviour
Whether this behaviour has been chosen through Step 1. Diagnose, highlighted through reflection or coaching, or identified as a school or trust priority, you can now follow the steps below to develop and embed it in your daily leadership practice.
Step 2. Learn: Read Everyone Succeeds: 54 Leadership Behaviours to Transform Your School to understand what great leadership looks like in practice. Each behaviour is grounded in research and real examples from schools and businesses.
Step 3. Reflect: Use the Everyone Succeeds Workbook to apply ideas to your own context.
Guided reflection, practical actions, and space for planning turn understanding into improvement.
Step 4. Apply: Work through the Leadership Toolkit for this behaviour. Use the Pass the Baton toolkit to delegate with clarity, support colleagues effectively, and build a culture where responsibility is shared confidently.
Step 5. Coach and practice: Use the Pass the baton Coach and Practise Frameworks to strengthen the behaviour through coaching questions about delegation and support, rehearsing handover so responsibility truly transfers.
These can be used individually or with colleagues to embed key behaviours.
Step 6. Plan: Set measurable goals using the 90 Day Leadership Planner.
Turn improvement into action by tracking your focus and progress over time, with completed examples for different career stages.
Step 7. Lead: Apply your learning to real situations through the Scenario Finder.
Over fifty scenarios link directly to the behaviours that help you solve the challenges that matter most in your school.
One book suggestion
Turn the Ship Around! – L. David Marquet (2012).
This text strengthens your practice by showing how distributing responsibility grows confidence, clarity and ownership across a team. Buy the book.
References from the Everyone Succeeds book
Blanchard, K.H., Zigarmi, P. and Zigarmi, D., (2013). Leadership and the One Minute Manager: Increasing Effectiveness Through Situational Leadership II. Rev. ed. New York: William Morrow.
Grove, A.S., (1995). High Output Management. New York: Vintage.
Hersey, P., Blanchard, K.H. and Johnson, D.E., (2012). Management of Organisational Behaviour: Leading Human Resources. 10th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Hyatt, M., (2019). Free to Focus: A Total Productivity System to Achieve More by Doing Less. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
Landsberg, M., (2015). The Tao of Coaching: Boost Your Effectiveness at Work by Inspiring and Developing Those Around You. 3rd ed. London: Profile Books.
Ugchukwu, F. O., & Joo, S. H. (2013). The effects of leadership style and task complexity on knowledge sharing, skill development, and task performance. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 28(7/8), 746-760.
Yukl, G. (2010). Leadership in Organisations. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.