Chapter 1:
The Leadership Playbook
The Soldwedel Leadership Playbook is a practical leadership guide that helps school leaders turn strategic ideas into daily leadership practices. It bridges the gap between understanding strategic management and leading it successfully. It is most help when leaders have committed to strategic management.
It focuses on these questions:
Why planning alone is not enough?
Why is it essential to shift from strategic planning to strategic management?
Why do districts become initiative-rich but strategy-poor?
What have been key lessons learned over four decades?
Why does Doing the RIGHT things come before doing things RIGHT?
The purpose of this Playbook is not simply to help you understand strategic leadership. Its purpose is to help you lead strategically every day.
The book explains.
The posters visualize.
The Leadership Conversations inspire.
The Success Stories encourage.
The Leadership Questions challenge.
The Playbook equips.
The Playbook should become the leader's coach.
It should help leaders:
Think differently.
Ask better questions.
Facilitate meaningful conversations.
Use practical tools.
Learn from real examples.
Reflect on their leadership.
Apply ideas immediately.
Build leadership capacity.
Create coherence throughout the organization.
Move from vision to measurable results.
The Leadership Playbook
Guides implementation.
"How do I actually lead this work in my district?"
After more than forty years in public education, people often ask me, "What have you learned about leadership?"
My answer has changed over the years.
When I began my career, I thought leadership was about solving problems.
Later I believed it was about creating great strategic plans.
Today I believe something different.
Leadership is helping people create a better future—and then having the discipline to make that future a reality.
Every better leadership decision creates better opportunities for students.
Why Isn't Planning Alone Enough?
Every school district has a plan.
Many are well written.
Many include thoughtful goals, inspiring visions, and carefully developed strategies.
Yet a surprising number of those plans end up sitting on a shelf.
Not because they were poor plans. Because a plan, by itself, cannot improve student learning.
It cannot change culture. It cannot build leadership capacity. It cannot inspire people to act.
Plans don't change organizations.
People do.
Planning Creates Direction
A strategic plan answers questions like:
Where are we going?
Why are we going there?
What matters most?
What are our priorities?
Those are essential questions.
But they are only the beginning.
Leadership Creates Movement
After the plan is approved, a new set of questions emerges:
How do we keep this work alive?
How do we engage people?
How do we measure progress?
How do we adjust when things don't go as planned?
How do we sustain improvement over time?
Those are leadership questions.
Not planning questions.
Why Plans Sit on Shelves
Over the years, we have identified many reasons strategic plans lose momentum:
Too many priorities
Initiative overload
Lack of ownership
Poor communication
No Goal Champions
No progress monitoring
No scorecards or dashboards
Limited accountability
Reporting accomplishments instead of impacts
Activity replacing results
No continuous improvement cycle
None of those problems are planning problems.
They are leadership and management problems.
Planning is only part of the equation. It must be combined with doing, studying, and acting. Strategic thinking and planning must need to having the knowledge, skills, and tools to live the plan.
Planning creates the destination.
Living the plan creates the journey.
A strategic plan isn't successful because it was approved by the Board of Education. It is successful because it becomes the way the organization thinks, decides, acts, learns, and improves every day.
A strategic plan is not meant to sit on a shelf.
It is meant to sit at the center of leadership.
The most successful school districts use it every day to guide conversations, decisions, resource allocation, and continuous improvement.
What a Living Plan Looks Like
You can tell a district is living its plan when:
Staff can describe the district's top priorities.
Every department aligns its work to those priorities.
Meetings begin with progress toward goals.
Decisions are supported by evidence.
Goals are visible and regularly discussed.
Accomplishments, impacts, and next steps are reported publicly.
Leaders continuously ask, "How do we know?"
Why Is It Essential to Shift from Strategic Planning to Strategic Management?
The Shift
Traditional Thinking
Develop a strategic plan.
Strategic Leadership
Build a strategic management system.
Planning becomes one component of a much larger leadership process that includes:
Vision
Alignment
Execution
Monitoring
Reporting
Continuous Improvement
That is the journey from vision to results.
Leadership Lesson
A strategic plan is a roadmap. But a roadmap does not move a vehicle.
Leadership does. The best plans in the world create little value unless leaders continually bring them to life through daily conversations, intentional decisions, measurable actions, and ongoing improvement.
A strategic plan is an event. Strategic leadership is a continuous process.
Planning tells us where we want to go. Strategic management ensures we actually get there.
Strategic management is the process of living the strategic plan every day. It ensures that vision guides decisions, priorities drive actions, evidence informs improvement, and every member of the organization contributes to achieving the preferred future.
Strategic management is...
Continuous, not periodic.
It doesn't end when the plan is approved.
Leadership-driven, not document-driven.
The plan doesn't lead; people do.
Action-oriented, not activity-oriented.
It focuses on meaningful results, not just completed tasks.
Evidence-informed, not assumption-driven.
Decisions are guided by data, reflection, and learning.
Focused on improvement, not compliance.
The goal is to become better, not simply to complete the plan.
Strategic planning creates the plan. Strategic management ensures the plan becomes the way the organization leads, decides, acts, learns, and improves.
Strategic management is the disciplined process of transforming a strategic plan from a document into the daily work of leadership.
The 8 Dimensions of Strategic Management given to us by the Strategy Management Group refer to the comprehensive framework used to evaluate and mature an organization's capacity to build, execute, and sustain strategic success. These dimensions define the complete lifecycle of strategy, from initial vision and planning to daily operational alignment, measurement, and continuous improvement
These 8 Dimensions provide the framework to help leaders look at what they are doing and make the shifts necessary to get them where they need and want to be.
Why Do School Districts Become Initiative-Rich and Strategy-Poor?
Most school districts don't struggle because they lack good ideas.
They struggle because they have too many good ideas competing for limited time, people, and resources.
Over time, initiatives accumulate. New programs are introduced, grants require additional work, state mandates increase expectations, and well-intentioned leaders launch improvements to solve immediate problems. Individually, each initiative may have merit. Collectively, they can overwhelm the organization.
The result is an organization that is busy—but not always strategically focused. The results create chaos, confusion, and frustration.
Ten Reasons Districts Become Initiative-Rich and Strategy-Poor
1. Everything Becomes a Priority
When everything is important, nothing truly receives the attention it deserves.
Without disciplined prioritization, leaders continually add new work without removing existing work.
2. Leadership Becomes Reactive
Urgent issues begin to replace important priorities.
Instead of leading from the strategic plan, leaders spend their time responding to the latest crisis, mandate, or opportunity.
3. Initiatives Are Not Aligned
Departments launch worthwhile projects independently.
Without a common framework, efforts become fragmented and disconnected from district priorities.
4. Success Is Measured by Activity
Organizations begin celebrating what they completed rather than the impact they achieved.
The question becomes:
"What did we do?" instead of "What difference did it make?"
5. The Strategic Plan Is Viewed as a Document
Once approved, the plan is placed on a shelf while daily decisions are driven by habit, urgency, or individual preferences.
The plan stops influencing leadership.
6. Resources Become Scattered
Time...
budgets...
professional learning...
technology...
staffing...
are distributed across dozens of initiatives rather than concentrated on a few strategic priorities.
7. Accountability Is Unclear
Without clearly defined ownership, initiatives continue because no one evaluates whether they remain essential or effective.
8. Progress Is Rarely Monitored
Districts often measure implementation at the end of the year rather than using ongoing scorecards, dashboards, and leadership conversations to adjust throughout the process.
9. Leaders Struggle to Say "No"
Good opportunities are accepted simply because they are available.
Strategic leaders understand that every "yes" should be weighed against the organization's highest priorities.
10. The Organization Loses Sight of Its Preferred Future
The greatest danger is not having too many initiatives.
It is forgetting why those initiatives exist.
Without a clear and compelling preferred future, initiatives become isolated projects rather than coordinated steps toward a shared vision.
The Leadership Lesson
School districts rarely fail because they lack effort.
They struggle because effort is spread across too many directions.
Strategic leadership is the discipline of creating focus. It helps leaders decide not only what to do, but also what not to do. When priorities are clear, resources are aligned, and progress is monitored, the organization has the capacity to achieve meaningful and lasting results.
"Strategic leadership is not about doing more things. It is about doing the RIGHT things—and having the discipline to stop doing the rest."
The greatest threat to a strategic plan is not a lack of good ideas. It is the accumulation of too many good ideas that compete with the work that matters most.
What Have Been the 15 Leadership Lessons I've Learned Over Four Plus Decades
1. Leadership begins with purpose.
People are inspired by knowing why their work matters before they are asked what to do.
2. Do the RIGHT things before doing things right.
Efficiency without strategic direction simply helps organizations move faster in the wrong direction.
3. Planning is the beginning—not the destination.
A strategic plan creates direction. Strategic management turns that direction into measurable results.
4. Vision creates alignment.
When people share a compelling picture of the future, their decisions become more consistent and purposeful.
5. Focus is a leader's greatest discipline.
The organizations that achieve the most are not those that do the most, but those that remain committed to what matters most.
6. Culture always influences results.
Processes matter, but culture determines whether people embrace change, collaborate, and continuously improve.
7. Leadership is about people before programs.
Sustainable improvement comes from developing people, not simply implementing initiatives.
8. Alignment multiplies impact.
When mission, vision, goals, budgets, staffing, professional learning, and daily decisions reinforce one another, organizations achieve far more than isolated efforts ever could.
9. Evidence should inform—not intimidate.
Data is not about proving success or assigning blame. It is about learning, improving, and making better decisions.
10. Activity is not the same as impact.
Being busy does not guarantee progress. Great leaders continually ask, "What difference did our work make?"
11. Leadership is a conversation.
The most important work of a leader is asking thoughtful questions, listening deeply, building understanding, and creating shared commitment.
12. Continuous improvement is a way of thinking.
Improvement is not an event or a project. It is a mindset of reflection, learning, adjustment, and growth.
13. Every person contributes to the preferred future.
The strategic plan belongs to everyone, not just the superintendent or leadership team. People are more committed when they see how their daily work advances the district's goals.
14. Great leaders leave behind capacity, not dependency.
Success is measured by how well an organization continues to thrive because leadership has been developed throughout the system.
15. Leadership is measured by the lives we improve.
The ultimate purpose of strategic leadership is not producing plans, reports, or scorecards. It is creating better opportunities, experiences, and outcomes for students, staff, families, and communities.
What Have You Learned about Leadership During Your Time in Education?
The Thread That Connects Them All
Strategic leadership is the disciplined process of helping people work together to create a better future—and ensuring that future becomes reality through focus, alignment, evidence, and continuous improvement.
One observation
"Leading the RIGHT Things." Is still my signature phrase.
But after months of reflection in documenting this Leadership Series, I think I've uncovered the deeper lesson beneath it:
Great leaders create clarity.
They create clarity of purpose.
Clarity of vision.
Clarity of priorities.
Clarity of expectations.
Clarity of evidence.
Clarity of accountability.
And ultimately, clarity about what matters most.
What matter most are the RIGHT things.
Why Does Doing the RIGHT Things Come Before Doing Things Right?
Organizations often become consumed with improving efficiency, implementing programs, and solving immediate problems. They work hard to do things right—improving processes, meeting deadlines, and completing initiatives.
But before asking "How can we do this better?", leaders must first ask a more important question:
"Is this the right work to be doing?"
Doing the wrong things exceptionally well still leads an organization in the wrong direction.
Strategic leadership begins with choosing the right destination before improving the journey.
Doing Things Right
Doing things right focuses on:
Efficiency
Productivity
Consistency
Compliance
Quality execution
Process improvement
These are all important.
But they answer only one question:
"How well are we doing this?"
Doing the RIGHT Things
Doing the RIGHT things focuses on:
Purpose
Vision
Priorities
Student success
Organizational alignment
Long-term impact
These answer a different question:
"Should we be doing this at all?"
An Illustration
Imagine a school district invests tremendous energy in improving a reporting process.
The meetings are efficient.
The reports are beautifully designed.
Everyone meets deadlines.
The district is clearly doing things right.
But what if the reports measure information that no longer matters?
What if they don't help teachers improve instruction or leaders make better decisions?
The organization has become more efficient...
...at doing the wrong work.
The Leadership Sequence
This is the sequence I believe has emerged from your work:
Identify the RIGHT things.
Define your purpose, vision, priorities, and desired outcomes.
Align the organization.
Ensure people, resources, budgets, and initiatives support those priorities.
Do those things right.
Execute with excellence, consistency, and accountability.
Continuously improve.
Measure progress, learn, adjust, and improve over time.
Notice that excellence in execution comes after clarity in direction.
The Leadership Lesson
Great leaders understand that effectiveness always comes before efficiency.
There is little value in becoming highly efficient at work that does not advance the organization's mission or improve outcomes for students.
Leadership begins with making wise choices.
Management ensures those choices are implemented well.
A Signature Principle
Doing the RIGHT things makes us more effective.
Doing things right makes us more efficient.
Great leaders pursue both—but always in that order.
This principle explains why the work we do naturally progresses through the Five Leadership Framework Posters:
Create a Bold Vision — Decide where you're going.
Create a Preferred Future — Define what success looks like.
Define Strategic Priorities — Choose what matters most.
Move Strategy to Action — Execute with discipline.
Report Results — Learn, improve, and sustain success.
Only after the first three steps has the organization truly identified the RIGHT things. The last two steps are about doing those right.
To me, that's the essence of strategic leadership. It's not a choice between effectiveness and efficiency. It's recognizing that effectiveness must come first. First decide what deserves the school district's energy, then commit to doing that work exceptionally well.
