Embracing MESSY Leadership: How the Experience of 20,000 School Leaders Can Transform You and Your School

School leadership is messy, but coaching conversations offer an opportunity to step back from the demands of everyday work and focus on developing leadership capabilities.

Although every coaching conversation is personalized and every context is unique, many school leaders face similar issues. In Embracing MESSY Leadership, Alyssa Gallagher and Rosie Connor—directors of global educational leadership nonprofit BTS Spark—synthesize the experience gained from coaching more than 20,000 school leaders around the world and highlight the universal challenges.

Here, the authors unpack the key traits and mindsets of the MESSY leadership model. This model embraces the human side of school leadership and provides practical strategies and tools that strengthen leadership capabilities. Coaching conversations that encourage leaders to adopt these mindsets will make it easier to lead in a complex world:

Intentional coaching conversations tap into the potential power of school leaders and develop them to their fullest. Let Embracing MESSY Leadership structure those conversations and create school leaders that matter.

Praise for Embracing MESSY Leadership

“In these volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous times (VUCA), we need to have a new way of leading. MESSY provides that leadership direction.”
—Andy Hargreaves, research professor, Boston College visiting professor, University of Ottawa, Canada president and cofounder, ARC Education

“This is probably the most practical leadership toolkit that I have read in a long time. I would absolutely recommend it to all levels of school leaders.”
—Sir Mark Grundy, chief executive, Shireland Collegiate Academy Trust, UK

“Easy to read, the leader stories and scenarios were very relatable. The strategies are practical and achievable for anyone. I would recommend it especially to aspiring and early career leaders but also leaders entering new environments that may be presenting previously unencountered challenges.”
—Angela Falkenberg, president, Australian Primary Principals Association

“I have been advocating for the importance of school leaders who build relationships and not just relate. This book, Embracing MESSY Leadership, is absolutely needed, timely, and relevant in the ongoing leadership efforts in transforming schools.”
—Professor David Ng, associate professor of policy, curriculum, and leadership, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

“Gallagher and Connor shine a spotlight on the complex web of leadership and the coaching capabilities required to address familiar and unfamiliar problems in dynamic situations. Brimming with scenarios, tools, and frameworks, this book is timely for leaders committed to improving their own leadership capabilities and those they lead.”
—Jenny Lewis, former executive director of ICSEI; former CEO of Commonwealth Council for Educational Administration and Management

“At Global School Leaders, we know that school leadership enables schools to thrive. But we also know that school leadership is difficult, complex, and often lonely. We are happy to see a book that recognizes this and is not afraid to name and talk about the messy nature of school leadership.”
—Azad Oommen and Tamara Philip, cofounder and director of programs (respectively), Global School Leaders