META-LEADERSHIP

Revealing Leadership Patterns in Every Role

The Meta-Leadership Inventory for School Leaders (MLI-SL) reveals leadership patterns across every role in your school. This research-based self-assessment measures key competencies, situational context, and the ability to connect with your community—giving you a clear picture of individual and team capacity. With these insights, schools can strategically place staff, address leadership gaps, and prepare the next generation of leaders.

Uses include:

Self-reflection for current leaders.
Team leadership competency mapping.
Growth planning for aspiring leaders.
Identifying future leadership potential.

The MLI-SL includes 44 items and 3 demographic questions, presented in random order and rated on a 5-point Likert scale. Together, they measure 3 core dimensions and 11 sub-dimensions of leadership capacity. Read the definitions below to understand more!

Partnering with Dr. Matthew Wilkens, Ph.D. for Leadership Capacity Evaluation

Meta-Leadership Definitions

Meta-leadership: A theory and evidence-based framework for generating widespread influence and cohesive action that expands a leader's domain of engagement, leverage, and efficacy. Meta-leadership centers around the leader, situational context, and ability to connect to various constituencies.

THE PERSON

The characteristics, competencies, and behaviors of the leader.

Emotional intelligence: how a person applies the competencies of self-awareness, social awareness, self-management, and social skills at the appropriate times, ways, and frequency of use with others to be situationally effective.
Systems thinking: a comprehensive understanding of a system that allows leaders to identify gaps in structures and identify the needs of diverse sets of stakeholders.
Transformative learning: the act of transforming specific frames of reference, including mindsets, habits of mind, meaning perspectives, and sets of assumptions and expectations, making these frames more open, reflective, inclusive, discriminating, and emotionally able to change.
Global mindset: a highly complex cognitive structure characterized by an openness to and articulation of multiple cultural and strategic realities on both global and local levels and the cognitive ability to mediate and integrate across this multiplicity.

THE SITUATION

An evolving, complex circumstance that continues to be defined with additional information, the passage of time, and hindsight.

VUCA: Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous environment or situation.
Sensemaking: The process of social construction occurring when discrepant cues interrupt individuals' ongoing activity and involves the retrospective development of plausible meanings that rationalize what people are doing.
Crisis management: The actions and communication of leaders that attempt to reduce the likelihood of a crisis, work to minimize harm from a crisis, and endeavor to reestablish order following a crisis.

CONNECTIVITY

The capacity, strategy, and effort used to communicate, inspire, and persuade broader participation across different constituencies.

Leading Down: Dynamic where the leader has formal authority over subordinates in the organization hierarchy.
Leading Up: The act of leading one's boss or the boss following the meta-leader.
Leading Across: Informally leading those in charge of other divisions or departments.
Leading Beyond: Influencing external stakeholders and actors outside of one’s organization.

Viewing Your Report

Thank you for completing the Meta Leadership Inventory. You took this assessment at the request of your school, and they will receive a report of your results along with those of other participants. At this time, individual reports are not provided directly; this arrangement has been pre-determined with your school. You don’t need to take any further steps. Your school may use these results as part of leadership development conversations or future planning initiatives.

WHO IS DR. MATTHEW WILKENS, PH.D?

Dr. Matthew D. Wilkens is a globally recognized educational leader dedicated to transforming K-12 institutions through innovative, student-centered approaches. As Superintendent of Romania Education Alliance and Head of School at Mark Twain International School in Bucharest, Romania, he specializes in fostering environments where students and educators thrive. A published author and expert in global leadership and change, Dr. Wilkens holds a Ph.D. from Pepperdine University and credentials from Harvard University. His expertise spans school turnaround, systems architecture, and meta-leadership, with a focus on data-driven decision-making and whole-student development, creating learning environments that encourage personal growth and excellence.