A Set of Choices

Leading Strategically: Achieving Ambitious Goals in Education by Elizabeth A. City and Rachel E. Curtis
Harvard Education Press, August 19, 2025

Leading Strategically is a steady, practical book for leaders trying to move a school from good intentions to measurable progress. What stands out is the authors’ emphasis on strategy, not as a longer to-do list, but as a set of choices. They push leaders to name a small number of priorities, align time and resources to those priorities, and make peace with the reality that focus requires saying no. In independent and international schools, where programs can multiply quickly and every initiative has a constituency, that clarity is both hard to come by and overdue. The book also recognizes that schools are communities, not systems you can “optimize” from a distance. Strategy only works when people understand the why, trust the process, and see how decisions connect to the school’s mission. Often, leadership teams share a vision but lack a shared method for deciding what comes first, what can wait, and what should stop. Santelises’ foreword adds weight and realism, reminding readers that strategic discipline matters most during constraint and transition. This is a strong resource for heads, division leaders, and leadership teams who want to replace initiative fatigue with coherent, sustainable direction.