To publish 10 August 2026
Leadership is not simply something we do—it is something we learn.
Grounded in more than three decades of national and international research and practice, this fully revised third edition of Coaching Leadership offers a powerful approach to leadership learning through coaching. It shows how coaching can deepen reflection, strengthen professional relationships, and create meaningful change in schools.
Through essential coaching skills, new practical tools, and reflective activities, with real-life case studies, leaders are invited to inquire into their own practice—individually or in partnership with coach or mentor—to develop the dispositions needed for today’s schools, including moral purpose for equity, culturally responsive practice, and a strong sense of efficacy and agency.
Both practical and research-informed, this book is for leaders committed to learning, partnership, and leading change through action research.
“Coaching Leadership bridges a persistent gap in the school leadership literature: between what we know about leadership and how it can be enacted in practice. Robertson offers a coherent and compelling account of leadership as learning, illuminating how individual capabilities and collective capacity are cultivated in schools.”—Niclas Rönnström (PhD/Docent) Associate Professor, Stockholm University
Dr Jan Robertson is internationally recognised in educational leadership, and this book draws on more than three decades of research and practice using coaching approaches to leadership and learning. Her career has taken her from New Zealand schools, into teacher education and educational leadership. She became the inaugural director of New Zealand’s first educational leadership centre at the University of Waikato and, as a Fulbright Scholar in 1992, spent seven weeks visiting researchers and leadership centres across the United States. She later directed the Centre for Leadership in Learning at London’s Institute of Education before returning to New Zealand, where she became Academic Director of the National Aspiring Principals’ Programme (NAPP) from 2011–2016. Jan continues her work as an academic consultant on the creative shores of Waiheke Island.