When Leadership Becomes Culture

I believe that leadership stops being something granted to a select few and becomes something grown when done right... and in a community.

That’s what happens when schools begin to see shared leadership not as a structure but as a culture.

The Radical Shift: Giving Up "Our" Spaces

When I think about leadership becoming culture, I always go back to my largest team and our final two years together at the Western Academy of Beijing. Our team made a radical decision that changed our culture: the way we saw ourselves, our work, and our community.

We gave up our classrooms..

Reimagining What a Team Can Be

Our small grade-level EAL and Learning Support pullout rooms had always been tucked just off the main hallway, small enough to fit a few students and an educator, but also a fishbowl for students who needed support.

So we decided to reimagine the whole Grade 3 completely.

The larger of the two spaces became our new Community Office.

We shifted a few IKEA cabinets and used them as cubbies for our bags, lunch boxes, and workout gear. One wall became the calendar space with a three-week projection of learning, and dates of all the things that keep a school in busy mode. We added bookshelves for teacher resources, a space for our teaching assistants, a place to house confidential files, and of course—a home for the mini fridge, microwave, and coffee machine (because we knew collaboration couldn’t thrive if one of us was always running off to make a cup of tea mid-conversation).

Two tables were clustered together to form one large workspace with all the materials you could need.

It quickly became the hub of our educational team.

Where Everyone’s Voice Mattered

Every morning started in that HUB. Every afternoon ended there. Through those fishbowl windows, students could peek in and see us collaborating—adding notes, making plans, and thinking aloud.

The room told a new story: everyone’s voice mattered. Each of us had a piece of the puzzle, and together we could see the whole picture. The sign outside read Grade 3 Collaboration Space. And near it, we hung our family photos.

We wanted to make something clear: this wasn’t my classroom, or her room, or their pullout space. It was ours. And that first cultural shift happened when a student brought in their family photo and added it to the wall. Then another. And another.

Students Designed the Learning Spaces

We took it a step further.

We wanted to "de-teacher" the classrooms to ensure they no longer “belonged” to individual teachers.

Each color-coded room—blue, purple, orange, red, green—had once reflected a teacher’s personal setup. But now, students designed the spaces based on their learning needs.

The green room became a quiet space for focus. The blue room turned into a lively hub for community gatherings. Every room had a purpose, and every teacher had the flexibility (and the expectation) to move between them.

Though I began and ended my day in the Blue Room with my assigned home base group, I taught math in the Purple Room, led science in the Green Room, supported designers in the Red Room, and co-taught writing in the Orange Room.

By shifting how we saw ourselves as educators, we modeled flexibility as a form of leadership.

Everyone Brought Something to the Table

On our team, there were no paraprofessionals, no “assistants”—just teachers.

Each of us brought a unique strength to the table:

• Teachers carried the yearlong progression and standards in mind.

• Learning Support and EAL teachers understood the needs and created scaffolds and structures for all learners—because, as Lee Ann Jung reminds us, “If it’s good for some, it’s probably good for all. Just give it to everyone.”

• Teaching assistants brought cultural insight, a deep understanding of the community and country, and different educational experiences, which empowered a willingness to share new ideas and perspectives.

Because we did it together, leadership grew naturally from within.

The Ripple Effect of Shared Leadership

That’s what shared leadership looks like when it becomes culture. It's not about titles or roles—it’s about trust, respect, and shared ownership of the work and the learning.

And when teachers model that kind of collaboration, students notice. They start to lead too.

My Challenge For You

What would it look like if your team designed a space—or a routine—that made everyone feel equal at the table? Where collaboration wasn’t an event, but a way of being?

Imagine how that could become the culture of your grade level and then ripple out to become the culture of your school.