Leadership & Culture – Growing a School That Values Talk
Introduction – When Leadership Becomes Conversation
In many Bangladeshi schools, talk is shaped more by hierarchy than by collaboration.
A recent qualitative study of secondary schools found that “Bangladesh is still struggling with the orthodoxy of leadership, which suggests a hierarchical relationship between followers and leaders, posing considerable constraints on teachers’ collaboration in the school environment.” — Debnath (2025), School Leadership Approach to Teacher Collaboration.
Teachers in the same study described limited professional discussion and cases where some had never observed a colleague or been observed themselves. When professional talk is constrained, so is improvement.
But there is a way forward. Schools thrive when leaders treat communication not as management, but as learning — when leadership itself becomes dialogue. This section shows how to move from talking at to thinking with, building a culture where every conversation grows practice, trust, and impact.
1️⃣ Leadership Actions vs Cultural Outcomes
Why leadership talk shapes culture
Every school has a language — a rhythm of how people speak, question, and respond. When that language becomes one-way, culture closes. When it becomes dialogue, culture opens. The small, almost invisible choices leaders make — tone, transparency, curiosity — ripple through the whole organisation.
The table below shows how these micro-actions translate into what teachers feel each day. Each row is a decision point: moving from communication as direction to communication as collaboration.
| Leadership Action | Why It Matters | Cultural Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Speak to include, not instruct. | Replace top-down briefings with open questions and genuine invitations to contribute. | Teachers hear that their voices shape direction, not just follow it. Meetings become shared thinking sessions — energy goes up, defensiveness goes down. |
| Narrate your thinking. | When you decide, explain how you weighed the evidence. | Makes reasoning transparent and models intellectual honesty. Staff start to justify their own classroom choices with clarity instead of guessing “what SLT wants.” |
| Be visibly curious. | Drop into lessons, ask “What’s the idea behind this?” instead of checking off a list. | Shows that leadership is about learning, not surveillance. Teachers begin to open classrooms and seek feedback willingly. |
| Listen longer than you talk. | Create silence and space so others can think aloud. | Builds trust and models restraint — real talk takes time. Staff feel safe sharing uncertainty; reflection replaces compliance. |
| Celebrate questions as much as answers. | Spotlight thoughtful inquiry in meetings and newsletters. | Shifts attention from performance to process. The community values curiosity; professional dialogue becomes routine, not rare. |
| Reflect aloud when things don’t work. | “We tried this, it didn’t land — here’s what we learned.” | Normalises fallibility and continuous learning. Teachers mirror that honesty with students and peers; reflection becomes cultural, not seasonal. |
Leaders don’t just set tone; they are tone. Culture forms in the echo of their conversations.
2️⃣ Coaching Cultures – Leadership Through Listening
Why coaching is the language of growth
Leadership talk becomes powerful when it stops being evaluative and starts being developmental. Coaching supplies the structure — time, intention, and equality. In strong schools, coaching isn’t something done to teachers; it’s something leaders do with them, to think through challenges together.
Active Ingredients for Coaching Cultures – Five habits that turn coaching from formality into culture:
| Active Ingredient | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
| 1️⃣ Shared Purpose | Everyone understands why coaching exists — to improve learning, not to appraise performance. When purpose is shared, resistance falls. |
| 2️⃣ Skilled Listeners | Coaching fails if leaders dominate the airtime. Skilled listening models patience, empathy, and the art of letting others think aloud. |
| 3️⃣ Protected Time | If coaching is squeezed between duties, it signals it’s optional. Ring-fenced time shows respect and keeps reflection consistent. |
| 4️⃣ Non-Evaluative Feedback | Teachers open up when they know feedback isn’t a verdict. Descriptive talk (“I noticed…”) builds safety and genuine dialogue. |
| 5️⃣ Reflective Closure | Every coaching conversation should end with a question, not an instruction — helping teachers define their next step in their own words. |
Small habit, big shift: when leaders help teachers hear their own thinking, culture changes quietly — and permanently.
3️⃣ Starter Moves for Leaders
From principles to practice
Big ideas take root through small, deliberate moments. The moves below are manageable and powerful in repetition. Each turns everyday communication into a tool for reflection, belonging, and shared purpose.
| Move | What It Looks Like in Practice |
|---|---|
| 1️⃣ Ask, Don’t Announce | Replace one announcement with a question: “What’s working best in our classrooms this week — and why?” |
| 2️⃣ Narrate a Decision | When introducing change, explain how you reached it — make reasoning visible. |
| 3️⃣ Hold a 10-Minute Reflection | Pick one initiative and ask: “What evidence have we seen that it’s making a difference?” |
| 4️⃣ Open a Door | Invite a colleague to observe you. Show that feedback flows both ways. |
| 5️⃣ Spotlight a Question | End each briefing with a professional question worth pondering. |
| 6️⃣ Model Uncertainty | When you don’t know, say so — it builds credibility. |
| 7️⃣ Protect Talk Time | Ten minutes of structured discussion each week shifts tone from instruction to dialogue. |
Talk-rich schools are built one honest exchange at a time. The goal isn’t perfect communication — it’s shared ownership of improvement.
4️⃣ Local Lens – Leadership Talk in Bangladesh
Grounding practice in local evidence
Evidence spotlight — “Bangladesh is still struggling with the orthodoxy of leadership, which suggests a hierarchical relationship between followers and leaders, posing considerable constraints on teachers’ collaboration in the school environment.” — Debnath (2025). See: full paper (ERIC).
Debnath also notes “authoritarian attitudes in dealing with staff” and reports that some teachers had “never observed other teachers’ classes, nor had their own classes been observed.” These findings reflect the challenge many leaders face: good intentions constrained by inherited systems of authority.
Yet the same research points to opportunity: transformational leadership — built on shared vision, trust, and collaboration — is both possible and needed. Bangladesh’s strong communal roots can become the foundation for open professional dialogue.
- Make dialogue routine: add five-minute reflection circles to existing meetings.
- Reverse isolation: start voluntary peer observation to share insight.
- Model humility: “We’re learning this together.”
- Train for communication: leadership development that emphasises vision, trust, and collaborative culture.
In contexts shaped by hierarchy, leadership through conversation isn’t soft — it’s strategic. It builds the collective efficacy that isolation erodes.
5️⃣ Conclusion – Leadership as Conversation
Building a talk-rich culture isn’t about style; it’s about substance. When leaders open up communication, they don’t just improve relationships — they improve the conditions for learning itself. The evidence is clear: schools where leaders listen, question, and reflect see stronger teacher collaboration, higher trust, and more consistent improvement.
The more leaders speak with, not at, their staff, the more thinking multiplies. Culture isn’t built by slogans — it’s built by repeated, thoughtful talk.
👉 Next: Implementation Roadmap – A Practical Plan for Change
