Part 2: Understanding Leadership Styles and Frames to Influence School Culture

In the first post of this series, I explored how leadership is inherent in the role of the teacher librarian (TL) and school library professionals, even if it’s not always formally recognised. We discussed the value of building fluency in the language of leadership as a strategy for visibility and advocacy. Now, let’s go deeper.

This post focuses on how TLs can use two powerful leadership concepts – leadership styles and leadership frames – to read their school context, build influence, and strategically design library proposals and projects.

Why Leadership Styles and Frames Matter

There is nothing more frustrating that pitching a great idea to a school leadership team only to have it fall on deaf ears. If this is happening repeatedly, it may be worth considering whether it is not the idea that’s the problem; it’s the way it has been framed, and who it’s been framed for.

Every school leader and leadership team is different. Understanding leadership styles and frames may make it easier to “read the room”, by explaining how particular leaders might think, prioritise and act.  This insight can inform how to shape the messages of  the school library so that they align with leadership perspectives.

Leadership Styles: Patterns of Behaviour That Influence Decisions

Leadership styles describe the typical behaviour patterns of leaders. Three key categories help TLs make sense of how school leaders approach decision-making:

• Traditional styles (Lewin, Lippitt, & White, 1939):
  • Autocratic: top-down, directive
  • Democratic: collaborative, inclusive
  • Laissez-faire: hands-off, minimal involvement
• Emotional styles (Goleman, 2014):
  • Visionary, Coaching, Affiliative, Democratic, Pacesetting, and Commanding
    These reflect emotionally intelligent approaches to motivating others.
• Conceptual styles:
  • Transformational (Bass, 2005): inspires through vision
  • Transactional (Weber, 1947): focuses on structure and outcomes
  • Servant leadership (Greenleaf, 1998): prioritises empathy and service

Knowing the leadership style of your principal or leadership team helps you pitch ideas in a way that resonates. For example, a transformational leader may respond best to a visionary idea tied to long-term student growth, while a transactional leader may want clear KPIs and policy alignment.

Leadership Frames: Lenses for Strategic Communication

Bolman and Deal (2021) propose that leaders see the world through one or more of four leadership frames:

1. Structural: Focus on roles, systems, policies, data
2. Human Resource: Emphasis on relationships, collaboration, and wellbeing
3. Political: Awareness of power dynamics, influence, and competition for resources
4. Symbolic: Values, culture, vision, and meaning

As a school library professional, your proposals may gain greater traction when you align them with the dominant frame of your school leaders—or better yet, address multiple frames. Frames may change according to the principal’s personal goals or the school’s strategic goals. External impacts such as new Government requirements or the school’s timeline can also shift the frame in focus. For example, if the Admin Team is preparing for a school review, they might take a stronger structural focus, to ensure the school is running optimally and that data they share is positive and strong; if the school is celebrating it’s 50^th year, the focus is more likely to be symbolic, with time spent reflecting on the values and culture that has developed over this time.

Primary School Example: Framing a Literacy Intervention

Let’s say you want to introduce a structured reading intervention program for Years 1–3.

• Structural: Align the program with early literacy benchmarks and school targets.
• Human Resource: Highlight how it reduces teacher workload and supports student confidence.
• Political: Anticipate timetable pressures and suggest shared support staff resources.
• Symbolic: Position the initiative as a whole-school commitment to a culture of reading.

If your principal leads with a commanding style, focus on outcomes, compliance, and implementation efficiency. If they have a servant leadership style, highlight how the program nurtures student wellbeing and strengthens collaboration.

Secondary School Example: Proposing an Academic Integrity Program

You propose a new digital academic integrity and AI literacy program for senior students.

• Structural: Show how the program supports research task requirements and aligns with senior curriculum standards.
• Human Resource: Include teacher professional development to ensure consistent messaging.
• Political: Respond to concerns about AI misuse and resource pressures.
• Symbolic: Reinforce the library’s leadership in ethical digital citizenship.

A democratic leader may appreciate your collaborative process. A transactional leader will want to see performance indicators and curriculum alignment.

Practical Strategy: Match Your Message to the Style and Frame

Next time you prepare a proposal:

1. Identify your audience’s leadership style (e.g., transformational, commanding).
2. Select relevant leadership frames to guide how you shape your message.
3. Use the language your school leaders use in their communications, strategic plan, or improvement goals.

For example:

• “This initiative supports our strategic pillar on student agency…”
• “We’ve mapped the program to the Year 11 research capabilities and school academic integrity policy…”
• “This strengthens cross-faculty collaboration and reduces duplication of effort…”

Framing is not manipulation—it’s translation. It’s about speaking the language of leadership to ensure your message is heard.

What’s Next in the Series?

The final post will focus on building leadership practice—how school library professionals can lead from where they are, use power and influence ethically, and strengthen their advocacy through intentional professional learning.

Advocacy on its own may not be heard. But when backed by strategic, informed leadership, it becomes something much harder to ignore.

References

Bass, B. M. (2005). Transformational leadership theory. In J. B. Miner (Ed.), Essential theories of motivation and leadership (Vol. 1, Organizational behaviour series, pp. 361–385). M.E. Sharpe.

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2021). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership (7th ed.). Wiley.

Goleman, D. (2014). What makes a leader: Why emotional intelligence matters (1st ed.). More Than Sound.

Greenleaf, R. K. (1998). The power of servant-leadership. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Lewin, K., Lippitt, R., & White, R. K. (1939). Patterns of aggressive behavior in experimentally created social climates. The Journal of Social Psychology, 10(2), 271–299.

Feature image: Photo by Kevin Grieve on Unsplash