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Develop a world-class leadership pipeline.

A curriculum and framework for developing leaders and managers in education.

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The Leading Edge® Curriculum

Research from the Wallace Foundation shows that “leadership is second only to classroom instruction among school-related factors that contribute to what students learn at school (Wallace Foundation, 2004).” Moreover, school leaders have the greatest impact in schools on teacher engagement and retention (Gallup, School Leadership Linked to Engagement).
 
And yet, most leaders aren’t prepared to face the rigors and challenges of leading and managing effectively, building a leadership team, and driving toward results.
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Leadership Pipeline Support Options

To meet the need of schools and districts in developing their leadership pipeline, Proof Leadership Group developed a customized curriculum package called "The Leading Edge." The goal of Leading Edge is to provide schools with the content, slide decks, tools, and resources they need to roll out their own leadership training.
Results: Clients who use this curriculum experience higher staff engagement and retention among talented leaders, and have a stronger bench.

Proof believes in building the capacity of schools to own leadership training and development, and Leading Edge is a step in that direction.
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This curriculum has been refined and strengthened to focus on the most fundamental competencies leaders need to lead at a high-level in education.

​Using the Center for Creative Leadership’s 70-20-10 model as a guide, the curriculum offers slide decks for group presentation (the “10”), coaching protocols (the “20”), and integrated assignments and observations (the “70”) to help leaders weave the competencies into their day-to-day practice. In addition, the curriculum includes relevant articles, tools, and other resources to support learning.
 
Below are several options to engage with the curriculum:

Option 1: The Leading Edge Curriculum® (curriculum only)

Districts may choose to purchase a license to the Leading Edge curriculum.

​Includes a complete curriculum package with 10 Sessions consisting of more than 60 curricular pieces covering the following topics:
  • Developing Your Authentic Leadership Style
  • Building Trust
  • Navigating Interpersonal Conflict
  • Mastering Team Conflict
  • Building a Culture of Accountability
  • Achieving Buy-in and Commitment
  • Focusing on Results
  • Structures of Effective Management
  • The Three Skills of an Effective Manager
  • Coaching for Massive Impact
 
Each session includes slide deck, readings, coaching protocols, observation tools, and reflection assignments. Districts are granted a Limited Perpetual-use License, meaning they may use the curriculum to develop staff within their district in perpetuity (aka forever).

All curriculum materials are customized to include district logo, layouts, slide decks, and branding.

Option 2: The Leading Edge Support Package (curriculum + support)

Includes all 10 sessions and curricular pieces of The Leading Edge Curriculum® PLUS:
  • Two full-day, on-site training sessions to train-the-trainer
  • Three months of coaching support including monthly 60-minute one-on-one coaching calls and unlimited email/phone support
  • Initial session observation and feedback
  • All travel and accommodations for train-the-trainer sessions and observation/feedback support

Option 3: Try out our Teacher-Leader Curriculum or Manager Series

Developing Great Teacher-Leaders: Developing Instructional Leadership
Developing Great Teacher-Leaders contains 6 sessions with an instructional focus, helping teachers lead more effectively in their classrooms, grade levels, and in the school. The curriculum deep-dives into the following topics:
  • Becoming a Self-Aware Leader
  • Emotional Wake – Self-Awareness 2.0
  • Effective Leadership by Followership
  • Empathic Leadership – Listening and Responding
  • Building a Culture of Achievement with Your Strengths
  • Building Relationships Through Challenging Conversations
The Leading Edge Manager Series
The Manager Series curriculum package is designed to facilitate manager development and is rooted in both real-world experience in K-12 and higher education and the latest research in the field of leadership and management.

This Manager Series curriculum package consists of 6 sessions containing curricular pieces covering the following topics:
  • Developing Your Authentic Leadership Style
  • Three Skills of an Effective Manager
  • Navigating Interpersonal Conflict
  • Coaching for Massive Impact
  • Delivering Feedback for Change
  • Becoming a Great Developer of People
Interested in finding out if this curriculum is a fit for your campus or district? Click below to connect and we'll send you a curricular sample at no cost.
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Case Study

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At YES Prep Public Schools, we conducted an intensive study of leadership to determine the skills and attributes of high-performing leaders, which yielded some unexpected results.
 
Based on data from focus groups, interviews, studying relevant literature, and a review of the job functions needed to successfully lead schools, we were surprised to see that the topics that seemed most fundamental for effective leadership – the ones that had the most effect on a leader’s success on a day-to-day basis – had nothing to do with schools, instruction, or the technical aspects of the job.
 
Rather, we learned that great leadership is more fundamental and transferable. Great leaders:

  • Are first and foremost authentic. They lead from the inside out. The best way to lead is to be who you are. Authentic leaders know their values, strengths, ideal environments for thriving, motivations, and culture, and they help others discover this for themselves.
  • Manage people, not projects. They activate performance, praise consistently, and value team members. As a result, they retain more individuals than the average manager.
  • Build teams, not groups. Groups are individuals working in the same direction. Teams work together to get results that would be otherwise unattainable.
  • Are infinitely excellent. They think beyond the finite and look for innovative ways to work.
  • Coach to the need. They provide more than rote coaching on predefined skills. They meet people where they are and coach them to where they want to go.
  • Communicate effectively. They know their communication style and the style of their team members and strive for clarity. 

Program

To this end, we developed a rigorous curriculum covering topics such as Understanding Your Leadership Style, Develop Self-Awareness, Managing Myself and the Authority/Friendship Continuum, Managing my Network: Building Your Web of Influence, Three Skills of an Effective Manager, Coaching as a Management Skill, Managing Change and Transition, and Building a Strong Team.

Method and Results

This curriculum utilized monthly sessions with a heavy emphasis on experiential, on-the-job learning and application. Consistent, guided observation, coaching, and active reflection led to growth. The curriculum achieved the following results:
 
  • 100% of participants agree/strongly agree that curriculum had a significant impact on their development
  • 100% of participants would recommend the program to their peers
  • More than 97% of participants were retained in the organization year-over-year while participating in the Leading Excellence fellowship
  • 20% took on higher-level leadership within two years of beginning the fellowship, with three taking over schools in the district
  • Engagement, as measured by Gallup’s Q12 evaluation, hit over 92% compared to a system average of 84% with qualitative feedback supporting the idea that the program significantly altered engagement.

Interested in finding out if this curriculum is a fit for your campus or district? Click below to connect and we'll send you a curricular sample at no cost.
Find Out More

Who We Serve:

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Download the free guide to building your leadership pipeline!

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Client Feedback

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“Dustin and his team at Proof Leadership have been instrumental in helping to take our leadership development programs to the next level. We purchased two different leadership development curriculums from Proof, and both were tailored to specifically meet our needs: Dustin and his team ensured that they were aligned to our Leadership Competencies and differentiated to support our emerging leaders at various stages in their leadership development. As a result, our leadership development programs produced extraordinary results this year: 94% of participants were retained, and 22% were promoted to take on greater leadership roles! We look forward to continuing to build on this success, and look forward to working with Dustin and his team in the future.”

​-Aubrey Lynch, Senior Manager of Employee Relations and Engagement, and Christine Nelson, Chief of Staff, DSST Public Schools


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“Dustin has helped us diagnose, design and launch a 10-month leadership program at KIPP San Antonio for more than 12 Assistant School Leaders that develops their ability to lead people authentically. The program he designed for us is incredibly thoughtful and integrated to drive forward change and the feedback and the insights he's given me as I direct this Leadership Pipeline Program have strengthened my own understanding of leading people and allowed me to provide better coaching to program participants."

​-Kurtis Indorf, Chief Academic Officer, KIPP-San Antonio


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“After a few short conversations Dustin was able to identify key areas that would significantly improve the management culture in our office. He created and led a series of highly interactive and engaging trainings that effectively taught the skills our team was missing. His ability to immediate create a high-trust environment allowed all participants to openly share relevant experiences and concerns. Since the first training was so well received our organization contracted him to create a customized training series for all of our staff. He has given our leadership team the shared language that was missing and I’m confident this will have a long lasting impact.”

​-Katherine Taylor, Program Director, Genesys Works

Anonymous Participant Feedback

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​“I expected to be pushed in my thinking about what it means to be a leader and to be given skills and strategies to help me improve. I think I got all that and more. I really don't think I would have grown as much this year without this program there to force me to take a step back and reflect on how the year was going and why it was going that way. The sessions were well placed throughout the year, giving me pushes when they were necessary.”


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“I think that my Business School experience had a big role in creating my expectations. I saw things that looked familiar and assumed we'd be doing lots of case studies. But then the delivery was a lot less theory and a lot more application, which I appreciated!”


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“This program has accelerated my growth by providing me with concrete strategies aligned to management and leadership best practices. We've then been able to collaborate with our peers and mentors to reflect and collaborate on how to best implement the strategies to our specific roles. This individualization has been incredibly powerful.”


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