In my recent reading on the topic of leadership development, I came across the acronym VUCA: volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.

It’s actually how the military refers to the highly complicated environment in which its people operate, but executives across industry and education have now adopted VUCA to depict the climates in which they currently lead. For those of us who are deployed to schools and considered the “boots on the ground,” we certainly recognize this to be an apt description.

The Need

Within this disturbing climate, developing the leadership pipeline poses a critical talent challenge spanning recruitment, selection, preparation and development. According to a 2014 report from School Leaders Network, one quarter of the country’s principals leave their schools each year while more than half of new principals are not retained after their third year. The same report identifies North Carolina as one of the ten worst states for retaining principals to lead the same school (2.7 years to 3.5).

The average tenure for urban superintendents is no better, averaging 3.2 years as referenced in a 2014 survey conducted by the Council of the Great City Schools. The human resource costs due to churn are rated, conservatively, at $5,850 per hired principal and as high as $20,000 per senior leader.

We know that stable leadership is critical. Highly developed, consistent leaders hire and retain highly qualified teachers. The research suggests that an effective teacher has the greatest impact on student achievement and schools with higher teacher turnover have lower achievement. Research by Marzano, Waters and McNulty (2005) indicates that a school leader’s effect on students contributes up to 25 percent of the total school influences on a child’s academic performance.

Leading change requires strong, consistent leadership across multiple years. Logically, the effect of principal churn disrupts the school community, costing positive momentum in performance and culture, stalling students’ learning. Maintaining strong leaders in place over multiple years has a positive effect on both culture and achievement, particularly in areas of high poverty.

Given that educational leaders wield wide influence, both positive and negative, it is imperative to close the capability gap and build out the leadership pipeline. We must improve preparation programs, invest in continuous leadership development, prioritize retention efforts, and value and build leadership at all levels. Our children, our teachers, our communities, and our schools deserve highly qualified leaders and we have a responsibility to provide an affordable, world-class structure to both produce and develop them.

The Support

So given the “it’s crazy out here” account that one superintendent gave me just today, how can we best support our leaders, whether they are teacher leaders, superintendents, principals or school board chairs?

We know that leaders must learn to think in more intricate ways, learn faster, react quicker, connect the dots, recognize trends and see around the curve. In addition to bolstering competencies, they must deepen their skills in problem solving, critical thinking, systems thinking, learning agility and self-awareness. The work is too great for one person; working in teams is integral to success.

Our Research & Development department NC New Schools/Breakthrough Learning, through research and work with local and national thought partners, is developing the next generation of our leadership services to improve both social and human capital. Focus is on bolstering vertical development, individual ownership of development and collective leadership.

A new era of innovation in leadership development identifies the need for leadership to occur across a network of people in order to continuously clarify direction, establish alignment, and to garner commitment. Our new frontier is collective leadership, the way to break through VUCA.

Barbara Zwadyk is director of leadership development and a leadership coach for NC New Schools/Breakthrough Learning.