It's just great leading.

Successful school leadership starts and ends with you: who you are, what you believe in, and why you do the things you do.

At Makana Leadership our purpose and beliefs drive all that we do. Why? Because social justice matters. 

MAKANA MISSION

Our Mission is simple: 

To help great leaders become even better.

To do this, we need to change the way we think about leadership to ensure it always leads to meaningful impact, both inside the classroom and beyond. It needs to lead to social justice. To do this, we need to bring like-minded people together.  

Inspired by the true story of Makana, our mission always begins with the WHY. This is our reason for being, or core purpose: 

Empowering people to lead with purpose in order to do the right things that bring about social change. 

The old way of continuing to run schools in order to comply with regulators, or to hit quotas and benchmarks, no longer applies. It is outdated and fanciful. Instead, we need to look at what we do through a different lens. We need to redefine leadership to ensure that what we do as leaders impacts not only on what goes on inside the classroom, but also outside in society. 

Of course, we all want to raise standards, but this is not WHY we joined the profession. Nobody became a teacher because they love marking, mounting displays or hitting performance management targets. We did so, because we understand the need for social justice; we want to inspire and make a difference. We want to leave a legacy. We want our children and young people to be happy, and to flourish and thrive, both at school and in society. Above all, we want achievement for all in a just society, no matter what the child’s background or circumstances. 

This is our WHY, the reason we do what we do. 

MAKANA PRINCIPLES

The success of the Makana Mission hinges on three key principles or tenets:

  1. That the change is sustainable, deep-rooted, and impacts on pupil outcomes

  2. That the change is purposeful, pivotal and adds value 

  3. That the change is authentic and nourishes the community, to ensure that people continue to thrive

In many ways, these become our scorecard. This is how we hold ourselves to account and would hope you do too should we get to work with you. Every time we work with an organisation, we must evaluate how effective our support has been against these three principles. Unless the changes that we make are sustainable, purposeful and authentic, and that they improve outcomes, add meaningful value, and ensure people thrive, then we will not have achieved our objective. Why? Because social justice matters.

MAKANA VALUES

To help us stay true to our mission and vision, we have a set of values that guide and help us make the right decisions, particularly in challenging circumstances. They also help us stay true to our three principles above. If our mission and vision tell us WHY and WHERE we want to get to, our values tell us HOW to get there.

At Makana Leadership, we have three core values:

LOYALTY by trusting and looking out for each other, regardless 

INTEGRITY by being authentic and doing what you believe in, always  

DETERMINATION by being tenacious and never giving up, no matter what

These values should stand the test of time. We should not have to justify them to anyone, as we believe that they are at the heart of what we are trying to achieve.

MAKANA CORE BELIEFS

Beliefs are simply a perception of reality, or how we chose to see the world. We can all change our beliefs, if we so wish. They are intended to empower us as opposed to limiting what we believe is possible. If we do not believe that what we want to change is possible, then we are more likely to fail. Doing what you believe in as a leader - even when others aren't watching - is at the heart of what it means to be authentic. 

At Makana Leadership, we believe that:

1. Schools need to be outward-facing to embrace and engage their community in order to create an equitable and just system.
2. Authentic leadership is the key to achieving this by bringing like-minded people together to create purposeful and sustainable change.
3. Every young person will succeed at school, regardless of circumstance or background. No excuses, no exceptions; children first.

It is through the pursuit of these three core beliefs that we will fulfil our vision. Why? Because social justice matters.

MAKANA VISION

Our vision is:

A just society with an equitable education system that ensures achievement for all.

Our ideal state is that every school leader in the country is empowered to be able to engage all stakeholders so that purposeful change has a real and tangible impact on society, as well as inside the classroom.

To achieve this, we need to ensure that every school is led exceptionally well at every level so that every young person - regardless of background - fulfills their potential, whatever that may be. This starts and ends with you as an authentic leader.

In order to do this, we will commit to helping organisations deepen their understanding of system leadership and reform, inequality, equity, diversity, organisational culture, strategy, team development, poverty, professional learning, and most importantly, social justice.

Alongside this, we will continue to be advocates for change across the system as we lead the way in redefining leadership within the context of a long term plan for education that includes an accountability framework that is fit for purpose.

As a company, we are not afraid of being disruptive from time to time in order to challenge and pursue our goals. This is our moral imperative and drives all that we do. 

Why? Because social justice matters.

(And as for our WHAT, well that's almost incidental. But if you still want to find out more about the things we do and get up to, then do have a look on our website.)

#OnCultureOnPurpose