ABSTRACT
School leaders must understand situational context to make the best decisions. There are four situational categories that require different decision-making strategies to achieve optimal outcomes: decide; consult; build consensus; and delegate. Of the four options, “decide” is the strategy to be used the most sparingly, as top-down decision-making tends to be the least informed, has the weakest support, and often incurs the most resistance from faculty. In contrast, school leaders should use “consult” most frequently. Consultative leaders increase their perceived decision legitimacy through representative input while reserving the leader’s right to ultimately make the final decision. Decisions made from consensus often result in ineffectual compromises or create deadlocks between competing factions. Consensual decision-making also has a tendency to make the leader appear weak. School leaders need to communicate that decisions are made to further the progress of the school, even when the reasoning involved may not be obvious.
