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stated goals, professionals must move toward collective leadership at
every level—organization, program, team, coach, teacher, and family.

Although collective leadership is being used by some, our field can
accelerate it through intentionality. We can look for ways to do this in
our daily work, whether we are teaching children, coaching teachers, or
working in networks, coalitions, or collective impact initiatives. The way
in which we are working toward quality and educational goals is just as
important (if not more so) than what is being achieved along
the way.

The Dawn of Systems Leadership: Senge, Hamilton, and Kania
In 2015 an article related to collective leadership written by Peter Senge,
Hal Hamilton, and John Kania was published in the Stanford Social
Innovation Review. In it they describe a systems leader as the type of
leader needed for successful system-change initiatives: “At no time in
history have we needed such systems leaders more. We face a host of
systemic challenges beyond the reach of existing institutions and their
hierarchical authority structures” (28). Senge, Hamilton, and Kania
describe competencies (which they call “capabilities”) and strategies
for those who want to become system leaders. Systems leaders are
described as those who can see the bigger picture and entire system,
foster reflection and learning, and shift the focus of a group from
solving problems to “co-creating the future” (29). These skills are the
same skills needed to successfully lead an early childhood program,
organization, or initiative. This article is important to the development
and application of collective leadership in that it connects ideas that
are foundational to collective impact and systems thinking and applies
them to leadership.

Collective Impact and Systems Building
One of our favorite resources on collective leadership is The Collective
Leadership Framework (W. K. Kellogg Foundation 2007). This frame-
work outlines an approach to community development grounded in
principles of collective leadership, with a goal to enable communities
and organizations to create sustainable and systemic change. In this
framework, organizations begin with building relationships around
a shared purpose. Once a clear plan is developed with systems for
accountability, communication, and roles based on talents and passion,
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