The Leadership and Organizational Development program provides support to individual leaders, schools and districts, and other educational institutions. Our work assists leaders in maximizing their effectiveness for the benefit of the organizations and the people they serve.

The Leadership and Organizational Development team consists of more than 40 school leaders who serve as coaches, expert consultants and facilitators. The team is committed to being a resource and stimulus for schools and districts to grow and continue to improve, bringing a systematic, research-based approach to help our partners maximize their organization’s strengths, while attending to their areas of needs.  The team helps leaders and organizations identify their most critical goals, and develop initiatives and specific actions to achieve those goals.

We provide leadership coaches to school leaders across Central and Western New York. Participants range from those new to their position to those with more than a decade of experience; those struggling to find their way and award-winning leaders.  Coaches are available to anyone wishing to be better tomorrow than they are today.  Our leadership coaches enter into confidential relationships with those they coach and help them to better serve their school community. We provide coaching for individual leaders as well as leadership teams.

The Center provides comprehensive strategic support to school districts and other educational organizations. We use Bryson’s definition of strategic planning as “a disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an organization is, what it does, and why it does it.” We believe the strategic plan must be owned by a broad range of stakeholders representing the full spectrum of the school community. The process to develop the plan must be transparent and inclusive, while the plan must draw on the strength of the community, in a responsible and achievable manner. Most importantly, the plan must produce action. In order for the plan to be meaningful, it must ignite change that ultimately results in higher student achievement, improved student life, and a greater sense of fulfillment for faculty and staff. A successful plan ignites a passion for real and sustained improvement in the entire school community.

The Center does not create the plan for the district. We provide thoughtful support, facilitation and research to guide the school community through the strategic planning process. We work with stakeholders to help the district see its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. We will then help the district identify the most critical goals; we then work with the district to develop specific initiatives around the goals and support the district in developing action plans to achieve those goals over a three- to five-year period of time.

Leadership planning and retreats: We work with leadership teams, boards of education and community groups to build and enhance relationships to support increased efficacy and success.

Curriculum and program evaluation: Teams of Warner School of Education experts are assembled to conduct curriculum and program audits, including reviews of programs for students with disabilities and programs for English language learners. We are especially interested in helping districts move to a more equitable and just culture, and are available to consult on issues of equity and access.

Annual professional performance review support: We provide trained, certified individuals to support a school’s annual professional performance review requirements to conduct third-party, outside evaluations.

Problem solving: We are available to support schools and districts as they tackle unique and sometimes unforeseen problems. Our specialists can provide facilitation and support as educational institutions take on new challenges ranging from safety issues to cultural issues to planning and facilities issues.

The Center offers a Leadership Coaching Certificate program in partnership with the Ramerman Leadership Group, a local executive leadership development firm.

Leadership coaching assists the leader in developing specific leadership skills, enhances individual effectiveness, and ultimately secures organizational performance. There are two fundamentals beliefs in leadership; it’s a learnable practice and all leaders have the responsibility to develop others. This program creates a better understanding of one’s self as the foundation for leading change and transformation.