Week 3: Leading Before You Have the Title

Leadership in schools is not limited to those with formal authority. Participants will explore how influence, initiative, and accountability build credibility from any seat at the table. They will examine the difference between managing tasks and modeling leadership, and how small daily actions can earn deep trust across teams and departments. This session empowers both emerging and experienced enrollment leaders to lead through ownership, optimism, and example, especially when influence must travel in every direction: across teams, upward to senior leadership, and even with Boards. True leadership begins when people stop waiting to be asked and start taking responsibility for impact. The most effective leaders know that influence does not come from the power of their role but from understanding what drives others and removing the barriers that keep them from moving forward.

You will leave with: a framework to map your influence network, identify where trust needs to deepen, and focus your leadership energy where it matters most.

Grounded in research from: Liz Wiseman’s Impact Players; Clay Scroggins’ How to Lead When You’re Not in Charge; and Jonah Berger’s The Catalyst