Turning Leadership Decisions into Follow-Through
By Dr. Jimmy D. Shaw Jr.
At your next leadership meeting, take one decision from the previous meeting and ask a simple question: What happened because we made it?
Someone may report that the email went out, the materials were shared, or the training took place. Those are useful updates. Keep going. What did people do with what we provided? What changed in their practice? What do we know about whether it helped students?
That conversation can reveal where the work needs attention. It can also reveal something about our leadership. Did we leave people with a decision they could carry out, or did we leave them to fill in the details?
In Seeking a Learning University, I describe coaching and monitoring as a continuing part of the work. We gather evidence, respond to it, and return to see what happened. That rhythm gives a leadership decision a life beyond the meeting.
Make the decision specific enough to carry
“We need more student engagement” may express a real concern. A team still has to decide what adults will do differently and why that action is worth trying.
Consider a hypothetical school team that wants students to explain their reasoning during a lesson. The team chooses one response routine for teachers to practice. Before moving on, leaders agree on who will model the routine, when teachers can practice it, and who will visit classrooms to learn how it is being used.
They also name the person responsible for bringing the follow-up back to the leadership team. That person coordinates the work; the rest of the team still has responsibilities. The coach may model and give feedback. The principal may remove a scheduling barrier. Teachers bring their experience of trying the routine.
Before the meeting ends, ask the people involved to describe their next steps. If the answers do not fit together, the team has more clarifying to do.
Agree on the evidence before reviewing the results
A completed task tells us something happened. We also need evidence of the practice we intended to improve and the learning it was meant to support.
In our hypothetical example, an observation could show whether teachers gave students an opportunity to explain their reasoning and how teachers responded to those explanations. The teacher team could examine a small, agreed sample of student responses to see what students understood and where their reasoning broke down.
Keep those roles clear. Collaborative planning teams lead the analysis of student work. The Instructional Leadership Team, or ILT, looks at adult practice and the support adults need, connecting that evidence with what teacher teams report.
Decide what improvement would look like and when a useful review can happen. Gather enough evidence to guide the next decision without turning every classroom visit into a paperwork assignment. One encouraging observation deserves attention, but it should not carry a claim about the whole school.
Let the evidence change the next decision
At the review, begin with what the team agreed to do and what actually happened. Then ask what the evidence allows you to say.
If the routine was rarely used, look at the conditions for implementation. Was the expectation clear? Did people see it modeled and have a chance to practice? Was the promised support delivered? Address the gap before declaring that the approach failed.
If the routine was used but students’ explanations remain weak, the team has a different problem to work on. Perhaps the prompt needs adjustment. Perhaps teachers need help responding to an incomplete answer. Look closely enough to choose a manageable change rather than launching another broad initiative.
If the evidence shows improvement, name what contributed to it. Recognize the people doing the work and decide what should continue. If the evidence is incomplete or inconsistent, say so and identify what you need to learn next.
Every review should leave the team with a decision: continue the approach, adjust it, stop something that is not helping, or gather the evidence needed to decide responsibly. Record the reason and the next review point.
Include the leader in the accountability
When follow-through is weak, leaders need to examine our own commitments. Did we deliver the support we promised? Did we follow up soon enough to help? Did we make it possible for people to tell us the work was getting stuck?
The expectation still matters. So does our responsibility to help people meet it. A teacher should be able to bring an unsuccessful attempt into the conversation and receive honest feedback, practical coaching, and a clear next step.
That is how clarity and accountability can support transformation. People know what they are working toward, take responsibility for their part, and use what they learn to improve.
Take one decision all the way through
For your next meeting, choose one decision already on the table. Write down the action, the person coordinating it, the support others owe, the evidence you will review, and the date you will return to it.
Then begin the following meeting there. Give that decision enough attention to learn whether it is helping before adding more work.
I explore this approach in Seeking a Learning University: Turning Meetings into Movements Using the CRT-CM Model.
Book details, the Amazon ordering link, and free printable tools: https://431llc.net/book/
Which decision from your last meeting needs an honest review before you make another one?
