Leadership Development Programs.
A year-long developmental journey that builds leadership capacity across the school—and leaves that capacity inside the institution.
Our Approach.
Most leadership development happens in isolated moments—an annual retreat, a workshop, a conference. The learning is real, but it rarely sticks. When people return to the daily demands of school life, old patterns reassert themselves and new practices fade.
Washington Partners takes a different approach. Our leadership development programs are designed as a sustained journey across the academic year, allowing leaders to develop new practices over time and apply them in the context of real challenges as they arise.
A Developmental Arc Across the Year.
The program unfolds across four interconnected phases, each building on the last.
-
Leaders begin by developing greater clarity about their own leadership—how they make decisions, how they show up in relationships, and what impact they have on the people around them. Through structured reflection, dialogue, and coaching practices, leaders build the self-awareness that underlies all effective leadership.
-
The focus expands to the leadership team itself. Participants develop practical tools for building trust, improving communication, navigating conflict constructively, and making decisions together more effectively.
-
As individual and team capacity grows, attention turns to the broader school. Leaders explore how to create environments where faculty and staff feel safe to speak honestly, collaborate across differences, and engage in meaningful problem-solving together.
-
In the final phase, teams apply the relational and leadership skills they have developed to real organizational challenges—aligning around strategic priorities, working through complex problems, and strengthening their collective ability to think and act together.
What an Engagement Includes.
Leadership Communities.
A distinctive feature of our programs is the Leadership Communities model. Rather than gathering a large group for periodic workshops alone, this structure combines:
Monthly large-group learning sessions for a broader leadership cohort
Small peer leadership circles where leaders reflect, support one another, and apply learning in real time
Individual leadership development goals and, where included, individual coaching
This model creates shared leadership language, deepens collaboration across departments and divisions, and builds the kind of ongoing learning culture that makes development stick.
01
Building Capacity Inside the School.
A defining feature of Washington Partners' programs is co-facilitation. Rather than delivering a program to your school, we develop it alongside a leader inside your institution. That person builds facilitation and leadership development capability throughout the engagement—ensuring that the practices we introduce take root and can be carried forward independently.
This approach makes our model significantly more cost-effective than traditional consulting while also producing something more durable: leadership capacity that lives inside the school, not in an outside provider.
02
A Multi-Year Pathway.
While the core program runs for nine months, it is designed as part of a longer arc of development. The journey typically begins with a smaller senior leadership cohort—often the Head of School and divisional or senior leaders. Over time, the work cascades outward through the organization as members of the initial cohort bring the practices into their own teams and departments.
Many schools extend this work to students as well—developing skills in reflective leadership, dialogue, and collaborative problem solving that strengthen school culture while building students' own capacity to lead.
03
The Goal.
Our aim is to help your senior leadership team operate with greater coherence, clarity, and confidence. When a leadership team functions well, the entire school benefits—alignment spreads more naturally, culture strengthens, and strategy becomes something the whole organization can move toward together.
“Tony Daloisio and his Washington Partners colleagues have provided invaluable support to me as a school leader and to the teams I’ve led at two independent schools.
From leadership coaching to improving team effectiveness to strategic planning and execution and change management, Washington Partners’ insights and counsel have enabled us to innovate and succeed in the face of the constant onslaught of challenges schools and school leaders face.”
Peter Becker, Head of School, Taft
