9: System Leadership – Human Flourishing Through Building Trust

We are living in and through a time across the world of education, in which the decades of strategic and operational planning and results-driven outcomes no longer suffice – the current scripts are no longer satisfactory. This is exacerbated by the current coronavirus pandemic. However, I would contend that there is an inner map and that this map is embodied within the ethics, motivation and soul of leaders. Now is the time for this inner map to be ‘writ large’ in leadership and especially at system level where leaders have immense opportunity to inspire and influence.

In proposing a way of being system leaders within the context of Catholic education, the narrative is intentionally expressed personally. This intentionality is because leadership, in whichever context and at whatever level it is exercised, is always experienced personally – for the leader and for those engaging with and receiving the leadership. I contend that it is the person who animates the leadership – not just the theories and that a richer narrative will be gathered through an ethnographic approach (Calhoun, 2002). This ethnographic lens is drawn from personal experience, professional relationships and observation over decades and is grounded in relevant insights from research, theology, ecclesiology, sociology and education.