Beyond the Stipend: Making Middle Leadership Desirable

It was my first Divisional Leadership Team (DLT) meeting in the middle school. It was the Friday before our preservice week began, and our DLT team was on campus for a full day of professional development and planning. I looked out at the group and boldly asked, “Why are you here?” None of these team leaders were new to the role, and I wanted to know what kept them coming back.

Unfortunately, not every school environment cultivates a desirable image for their middle leadership roles. Too often, the roles are promoted under the guise of distributed leadership—a proven, effective leadership approach in improving schools—but are actually a way to reduce the tasks of a senior leader. The roles feel burdensome and undervalued. Often, when we look at the responsibilities bestowed on middle leaders, we see reasons not to do it: a meager stipend, administrative tasks, budgetary coordination, preparing agendas, after-school meetings… and yet many of us contribute to our school through these middle leadership roles over and over. Many of us voluntarily put our hands up to do this role. So the question is: What makes middle leadership roles positions worth having? If schools are committed to getting the right people in the right middle leader positions, they need to look beyond a financial incentive and focus on opportunities for growth, impact, and recognition.

To make the middle leadership roles more desirable, the first step is to ensure the role description focuses on growth and positively contributing to the school community. For example, instead of saying teacher leaders must report one day before all staff, frame it as teacher leaders will receive targeted teacher leadership training in advance of the school year. Ensure the goals outlined in the job description focus on how the teacher leaders will be contributing to the formation and implementation of schoolwide goals. Instead of saying they must attend bi-weekly, after-school meetings, say they are responsible for bringing their expertise and experience to contribute to our collaborative conversations about our vision and mission. Simple tweaks to how the middle leader role is presented can have a big impact on how it is received and who is committed to the role.

Additionally, senior leadership should communicate actively to their middle leaders and the school the importance of this position in impacting student learning. A middle leader’s proximity to teachers and students holds invaluable information about what teaching and learning actually look like across the school, and their feedback should be taken seriously. There are scores of research studies about how these positions impact student learning and teacher effectiveness. Further research states that team leaders, in particular, have the greatest impact on teachers’ effectiveness, professional learning, and curriculum implementation (Handy, 2025). A possible activity is to do a “Three Quote Draw” with middle leaders, using quotes specifically about middle leadership effectiveness or leadership. This activity gets people talking and sharing and reiterates the power of these positions.

Three Quote Draw Activity:

• Begin with a card deck with quotes about leadership and middle leadership. Some should be affirming, some challenging, and others thought-provoking.
• Everyone begins with three cards. Each person selects one card they like the most and passes the others to the left.
• The dealer takes the cards from the last person and puts them at the bottom of the deck, giving the person on their left two new cards.
• Give participants one minute to review their new cards and again select one to keep. 
• Repeat for at least five minutes. In the end each person should have one card. Facilitate a conversation about the quote each person chose.

Another step to making middle leadership roles more desirable is to ensure the role provides professional growth and potential advancement opportunities. I believe the best middle leaders—be they team leaders, instructional coaches, curriculum coordinators, or Assistant Principals—come from inside the organization. This is because they have already shown their commitment to contributing to the organization, carry institutional knowledge, and maintain positive morale within the institution. There may be members of your staff who are interested in pursuing higher leadership; they need opportunities to lead others and develop their leadership style. Tapping others and mentoring them to be effective leaders is an investment of time, but is time well spent. Within the middle leader structure, look for opportunities for them to facilitate a focus group, run a book club, or lead some internal professional development around an area of expertise. Further investment in a school’s internal capacity is distributed leadership done well; it reduces the over-reliance on senior leadership and allows for shared ownership of the work and systems. When middle leaders have the opportunity to positively contribute to the organization, they are more likely to stay. On the other hand, be careful that middle leader roles are not viewed just as a stepping stone to something higher. These roles are valuable, and middle leaders need opportunities to lead and share their expertise with others.

Building a desirable middle leadership culture in international schools presents its own challenges. International schools are often transient places where students and staff may change often, a change in leadership can shift direction, and geopolitical factors of the host country can influence priorities. However, one way to make the middle leader role more effective is to set manageable priorities as a school in response to these factors, not in spite of these factors. Schools should see middle leaders as integral to navigating these challenges. If turnover is an issue, involve middle leaders in building sustainable systems for curriculum documentation and retention. If the school’s vision and direction has shifted, skill up your middle leaders to participate in leading, implementing, and reflecting on the change. If the host environment is influencing teachers’ satisfaction and efficacy, invest in your middle leaders to learn about realistic optimism. Regardless of the challenges, middle leaders should be part of setting and following the direction the school is heading.

Finally, if we want middle leadership to be a desirable position, current middle leaders and those not yet in the position need to see their work celebrated and highlighted. Maybe faculty meetings can begin with shoutouts where you are naming and noticing the contributions of particular middle leaders. Share with the other senior leaders the accomplishments of the middle leaders. Write an email of gratitude.

There is no way around it: being a middle leader is extra work. But when the right people are doing the right work for the right reasons, middle leaders will have an answer to “Why are you here?” that reflects satisfaction, empowerment, and a deeper commitment to the organization.

Reference

Handy, K. (2025). The impact of different levels of instructional leaders in international schools [Doctoral dissertation, University of the Cumberlands].