Collaborative Leadership

Six Influences That Matter Most

"Collaborative Leadership brings together the essence of how leaders maximize impact. DeWitt unpacks Hattie’s six leadership keys, adds his own considerable insights and makes the whole phenomenon of efficacious leadership come alive with vignettes, and ‘meet, model, and motivate’ ideas in each chapter. Above all, he makes it personal. Be a better leader, he urges, and then shows the way."

"Peter DeWitt's brilliant book is by a proven leader for other leaders. It shows that collaborative leadership means more than distributing responsibilities, including others in decision-making, or managing data teams. Collaborative Leadership is about working or laboring together to accomplish extraordinary things. It is about defining directions as a community and also implementing them to best effect. DeWitt is a hugely accomplished writer, stellar blogger on social media, and the most humble leader you could meet. You will be unable to put this truly inspiring and deeply practical book down."

Collaborative Leadership has confirmed a core truth in education:  We must create an educational learning community grounded in trust and responsibility, not testing and accountability. DeWitt has provided a framework to challenge our current thinking, make us reflect, and perhaps even become a little uncomfortable with current practices as school leaders. He has challenged us to have higher expectations of ourselves and those around us—to work collaboratively, simultaneously building trust and responsibility between all stakeholders striving to reach shared goals.

"To most educators, leadership books have about as much impact as the leaves that cover my lawn each fall. But Peter DeWitt’s advice in Collaborative Leadership is of hardier stuff. Like the leaf that clings to the tree long after the winter has arrived, this book will stay in readers’ thoughts and affect their actions for many seasons to come. DeWitt delivers a strong message on how to begin this necessary work, where to focus, and most importantly how you grow as a leader."

"As I read Collaborative Leadership: Six Influences That Matter Most, I kept being reminded of the great quote by the late business guru Peter Drucker, 'If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old.' Peter DeWitt has hit the mark; he teaches all of us how to truly take a deeper dive into the important aspects of collaborative leadership and provides a new model and pathway to get us there through proven influencers. His personal leadership journey, stories from the field and practitioner's lens breathes life into the ideas."

"It is time we realized that the top-down model of leadership often guarantees failure in professional communities. Peter DeWitt offers us a way forward with a revolutionary new approach to leadership that recognizes that everyone’s brain is required for complex change—not just the brain of the “leader.” If you want to have an impact, you should study this book and put these ideas into practice as soon as you can."

“This book is much more than about collaborative leadership. It feels collaborative for it has a generous and inclusive tone and is packed with the authentic voices and stories of students, parents, teachers, leaders and researchers. It provides a strong case for being collaborative and will inspire all who read it to reflect on their understanding of what it means to be a collaborative leader and on how they can increase their educational impact through greater collaboration.” 

"Peter DeWitt's comprehensive combination of Hattie's evidence, personal and practical experience, clear, useable frameworks and illuminating blogs and articles make the case for collaborative leadership a cause for immediate action."

"In this compelling book on leadership, Peter DeWitt tackles comprehensive and convincing reasons for the need to be collaborative. He accompanies his reasons with recommendations that guide. Supported by valued research and accompanied by stories from leaders in the field, DeWitt pulls no punches. He shares, with honest reflection, his own experiences as he grew as a leader, writer, and professional developer. The stories and the research combine to deliver a book that informs and guides. It is the kind of book one keeps close after reading, a go-to as the reader develops themselves as a collaborative leader for this century."

"Peter DeWitt's excellent book Collaborative Leadership builds bridges from evidence to practice, providing a wealth of ideas for developing a collaborative vision, strategy and frameworks for action. DeWitt presents real insight into the potential benefits of collaborative leadership, and this book should surely encourage its adoption. It might also encourage all educators to see the value of evidence based practice and to consider how we might gather, compare and act on our own evidence to improve student experience."