11 Steps When Two School Leaders Can't Work Together

You know the situation. Two members of your school leadership team who should be working closely together are barely speaking. Meetings are tense. Decisions stall because neither will yield. Staff have noticed, and some have started picking sides. Students may not understand the details, but they feel the tension in the corridors. The school is running, but it is not running well, and everyone knows it.

This is one of the most common and most damaging dynamics in school leadership. When two senior leaders cannot work together, the cost is not confined to their relationship. It radiates outward through every team meeting, every initiative, every hallway conversation, and every staffroom interaction. Research from the Learning Policy Institute consistently shows that school leadership quality is the second most significant factor in student outcomes after classroom teaching. When the leadership team is fractured, the entire school feels it.

The challenge is that most principals and board members have no playbook for this scenario. They know something is wrong, but they do not know how to intervene without making things worse. They hope the problem will resolve itself, which it almost never does. Or they take sides, which accelerates the damage. Or they ignore it until someone resigns, which wastes talent and creates instability.

This guide gives you 11 clear steps for addressing the situation when two school leaders cannot work together. These steps are drawn from my experience facilitating difficult leadership conversations in schools across Australia, the UK, USA, Singapore, Canada, India, and beyond. As the author of Step Up or Step Out (10,000+ copies sold globally), a book entirely focused on navigating difficult conversations, and as a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who regularly works with school leadership teams to rebuild trust and collaboration, I have seen this dynamic play out dozens of times. The good news is that it can be resolved. The bad news is that resolution requires courage, honesty, and often an uncomfortable willingness to name what everyone already knows.

If you are a principal, board chair, or school executive dealing with this right now, email jonno@consultclarity.org. I can help.

1. Stop Waiting for It to Resolve Itself

The first step is the hardest and the most important. You need to accept that the conflict between these two leaders is not going to fix itself. Every week you wait, the damage deepens. Staff become more entrenched in their allegiances. Communication workarounds become normalised. Decisions that require both leaders to agree simply do not get made, and the school suffers.

Conflict between senior leaders is not like a disagreement between two classroom teachers about playground duty. This is structural. It affects governance, decision making, staff morale, and ultimately student outcomes. Research published in the Frontiers in Social Psychology journal found that unresolved staff conflict in schools leads to higher teacher burnout, increased turnover, and measurable declines in school culture quality. The cost of inaction is real and it compounds over time.

Name the problem to yourself first. Say it plainly: these two people cannot work together and it is affecting the school. That honest admission is where resolution begins. If you have been telling yourself it will blow over, stop. It will not. The longer you wait, the harder the conversation becomes and the more talent you risk losing.

To book Jonno White to facilitate a leadership team intervention at your school, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

2. Diagnose the Root Cause Before Taking Action

Not all leadership conflict is the same, and the right intervention depends on what is actually causing the breakdown. Before you act, spend time understanding whether the conflict is personal (they simply do not like each other), professional (they disagree on direction, strategy, or values), structural (their roles overlap or their responsibilities are unclear), or cultural (one arrived with a mandate for change that threatens the other's established way of working).

Many school leadership conflicts that appear personal are actually structural. Two deputy principals whose portfolios overlap will inevitably clash if boundaries are unclear. A head of curriculum and a head of wellbeing will conflict if neither knows where their authority ends and the other's begins. A newly appointed principal bringing a change agenda will face resistance from an established deputy who built the current culture.

Spend time with each person individually before doing anything else. Ask open ended questions. Listen more than you speak. What you learn in these initial conversations will determine whether you need a structural fix, a facilitated conversation, or something more significant. Rushing to a solution before understanding the root cause is one of the most common mistakes school leaders make when dealing with conflict between colleagues.

A diagnostic Working Genius session can reveal whether the conflict stems from genius misalignment. Jonno White, Certified Working Genius Facilitator, has seen seemingly intractable leadership conflicts dissolve when both leaders understand their Working Genius profiles. Email jonno@consultclarity.org to discuss a diagnostic session for your leadership team.

3. Have the Conversation Nobody Wants to Have

Once you understand the root cause, the next step is to name the conflict directly with both leaders. This is the conversation that most principals and board members avoid, and it is the single most important thing you can do. Bring both leaders into a meeting and state plainly what you have observed. Not what you have heard from others, not what you suspect, but what you have directly observed.

The tone of this conversation matters enormously. You are not taking sides. You are not assigning blame. You are naming reality and inviting both leaders to engage with it. This is exactly what my book Step Up or Step Out was written to help leaders do. Difficult conversations are not difficult because the content is complicated. They are difficult because the emotional stakes are high and most people have never been taught how to navigate them.

A useful framework is: state the facts, describe the impact, and make a clear request. For example: I have observed that decisions in leadership meetings are consistently stalled because the two of you cannot reach agreement. The impact is that staff are confused about direction and morale is dropping. I need the two of you to find a way to work together effectively, and I want to support you in doing that.

The preparation stage of this conversation is where most leaders fall down. If you want a proven framework for preparing, delivering, and following through on exactly this kind of conversation, Step Up or Step Out provides a three stage model that thousands of school leaders have used successfully. You can find the book at https://www.amazon.com.au/Step-Up-Out-Difficult-Conflict/dp/B097X7B5LD.

4. Separate the People from the Positions

In school leadership conflict, it is easy to reduce two complex human beings to their worst behaviours. She is difficult. He is stubborn. She undermines everything. He refuses to listen. These characterisations might feel accurate, but they are obstacles to resolution because they lock people into fixed identities rather than addressing specific behaviours.

One of the most effective techniques I use when facilitating these conversations in schools is to help both leaders articulate their underlying needs rather than their stated positions. The deputy who resists every new initiative may not be opposed to change. They may be afraid of losing what they built. The principal who pushes hard for reform may not be dismissive of the existing culture. They may be under pressure from the board to show results.

Patrick Lencioni's Working Genius framework is particularly powerful here. When I facilitate a Working Genius session with a leadership team in conflict, patterns often emerge immediately. One leader might have the genius of Invention (they love creating new ideas) while the other has the genius of Tenacity (they are driven to maintain and complete existing work). Neither is wrong. They are wired for different types of work, and without understanding this, they interpret each other's natural strengths as deliberate obstruction.

Working Genius does not excuse poor behaviour. What it does is depersonalise the friction so both leaders can see the dynamic for what it is: a difference in wiring, not a character flaw. Jonno White has facilitated Working Genius sessions where decades old grudges began to dissolve within 90 minutes because both leaders finally understood why they had been driving each other crazy. Email jonno@consultclarity.org to explore whether a Working Genius session is the right starting point for your team.

5. Bring in an External Facilitator

Some leadership conflicts can be resolved internally. But when two senior leaders are entrenched, when the principal is one of the people involved, or when previous attempts at resolution have failed, you need someone from outside the system. An external facilitator brings three things that no internal person can provide. First, neutrality. They have no history, no allegiances, and no stake in the outcome. Second, psychological safety. People will say things to an external facilitator that they will never say to their principal or board chair. Third, expertise. A skilled facilitator has frameworks, tools, and experience that most school leaders simply do not have because conflict resolution is not part of most education leadership training.

The cost of a good external facilitator is typically between $2,000 and $7,500 depending on the scope and duration of the engagement. Compare that to the cost of losing a senior leader, running a recruitment process, disrupting the school for six months while a new person settles in, and losing the institutional knowledge that walks out the door. External facilitation is not an expense. It is insurance against a far more costly outcome.

When selecting a facilitator, look for someone who has worked specifically with school leadership teams and who uses diagnostic tools rather than generic team building activities. International travel for the right facilitator is often far more affordable than schools expect. Many organisations find that flying in a specialist costs less than engaging a local provider who lacks education sector experience.

Jonno White, Certified Working Genius Facilitator and bestselling author of Step Up or Step Out, facilitates leadership team interventions for schools across Australia and internationally. His Working Genius masterclass at the ASBA 2025 National Conference achieved a 93.75 percent satisfaction rating. To arrange a confidential conversation about your school's leadership dynamics, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

6. Use Assessment Tools to Depersonalise the Conflict

When two leaders are in conflict, every conversation carries the weight of personal history, hurt feelings, and accumulated frustrations. One of the most effective ways to shift the dynamic is to introduce an objective assessment tool that gives both people a shared language for understanding their differences.

Working Genius reveals the six types of work that energise or drain each person, immediately explaining why certain projects cause friction. DISC profiling shows communication style differences, often the single biggest source of day to day conflict between leaders. CliftonStrengths (StrengthsFinder) helps both leaders see each other's natural talents rather than just their irritating habits.

The power of assessment tools is that they move the conversation from you are the problem to we are wired differently and here is how we can work with that instead of against it. In one school I worked with, two deputy principals had been in conflict for over three years. Within a single Working Genius debrief, they discovered that one had the Genius of Wonder (constantly asking why are we doing this) while the other had the Genius of Tenacity (constantly pushing to finish what was already started). Each had been interpreting the other's genius as obstruction. The shared language changed everything.

A DISC workshop adds another layer by revealing how each leader's communication style creates friction. The high D leader who fires off blunt emails is not being rude. The high S leader who needs time to process is not being obstructive. When both leaders understand these dynamics, daily interactions become less charged. Jonno White facilitates both Working Genius and DISC sessions for school leadership teams. Email jonno@consultclarity.org to discuss which assessment tool is right for your team's situation.

7. Establish Clear Boundaries and Role Definitions

If the root cause of the conflict is structural, as it often is, then no amount of facilitation will fix a problem caused by poorly defined roles. Two leaders whose responsibilities overlap will continue to clash until someone draws clear lines. This means documenting who has authority over what, who makes which decisions, who needs to be consulted versus informed, and how disagreements are escalated.

In many schools, these boundaries exist informally based on tradition and personality rather than formal documentation. That works when relationships are strong but collapses immediately when trust breaks down. A practical exercise is to have both leaders independently list every major decision area in their portfolios and categorise each as mine, yours, or ours. Compare the lists. Where they agree, document it. Where they disagree, that is exactly where the conflict lives and where you need to make a clear allocation.

The discomfort of making these decisions is temporary. The relief of having clarity is lasting. I have seen school leadership teams go from weekly arguments to smooth collaboration within a single term after clarifying role boundaries. The key is that the boundaries need to be documented, communicated to staff, and reviewed quarterly until they become embedded in the team's operating rhythm.

For more on how role confusion and structural issues create leadership dysfunction, check out my blog post '15 Key Signs Your School Leadership Team Has Silos'.

8. Create Structured Communication Protocols

When two leaders are in conflict, communication is usually the first casualty. They stop talking directly, start communicating through intermediaries, cc the principal on emails as a defensive measure, and avoid bilateral meetings. This communication breakdown accelerates the deterioration of the relationship and creates confusion for everyone around them.

Part of the resolution process should include establishing structured communication protocols. This means scheduled weekly one on one meetings between the two leaders with a clear agenda, agreed channels for urgent decisions, and rules of engagement for how they communicate in front of staff. These protocols feel forced at first, and they are meant to. The goal is to rebuild the habit of direct communication in a structured, low risk environment.

Over time, the structure can relax as trust rebuilds. But in the early stages of conflict resolution, structure is your friend. It removes the ambiguity that allows avoidance and creates regular touchpoints where both leaders must engage with each other constructively. Schedule the first four meetings and make attendance non negotiable. After the fourth meeting, review together whether the frequency and format are working.

DISC profiling is particularly useful at this stage because it reveals how each leader prefers to communicate. A leader with a high Dominance style wants direct, brief communication. A leader with a high Steadiness style wants warmth and consistency. When you understand these preferences, you can design communication protocols that work for both parties rather than favouring one style over the other. To book a DISC workshop for your leadership team, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

9. Set Clear Expectations and Accountability

After the facilitated conversation, the role clarification, and the communication protocols, both leaders need to know exactly what is expected of them and what the consequences are if the conflict continues. This is not a threat. It is a responsible leadership decision.

You can say: I have invested time, resources, and external support in helping the two of you work together more effectively. The school needs you both to be functioning as a cohesive leadership team. I expect to see measurable improvement in how you communicate and collaborate over the next term. I will check in with both of you monthly, and I will also be listening to what staff and students are experiencing.

Without clear accountability, facilitated conversations become pleasant events with no lasting impact. The research from Edutopia on managing conflict in school leadership teams is clear: healthy conflict requires ongoing attention, clear norms, and recommitment when those norms are broken. A single intervention is rarely enough. Build in review points at 30, 60, and 90 days after the initial intervention.

Patrick Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions of a Team model places avoidance of accountability as the fourth dysfunction. When leaders know that someone is watching and measuring their progress, they are far more likely to do the hard work of rebuilding the relationship. If you are struggling with accountability structures in your leadership team, Jonno White facilitates leadership team offsites that establish clear norms, commitments, and review processes. Email jonno@consultclarity.org to discuss your situation.

10. Know When to Make a Structural Change

Sometimes, despite best efforts, two leaders genuinely cannot work together. The conflict is too deep, too personal, or too rooted in fundamentally incompatible visions for the school. When you have followed all the preceding steps, invested in external facilitation, provided assessment tools, clarified roles, established protocols, and set clear expectations, and the situation has not improved, it is time to make a structural decision.

That decision might be reassigning one leader to a different portfolio, moving one to a different campus if your school has multiple sites, agreeing on a managed departure for one of the leaders, or in rare cases, accepting that both leaders may need to move on. None of these decisions are easy, but continuing to tolerate a dysfunctional leadership team is not an act of patience. It is an abdication of responsibility to the students, staff, and community the school serves.

The key is that you can only make this decision with integrity if you have genuinely attempted resolution first. If you skip straight to structural change without doing the work, you send a message to the rest of your staff that conflict leads to someone losing their job, which guarantees that nobody will ever raise a concern again. Document every step you have taken so that if you do need to make a structural change, the decision is defensible and fair.

For guidance on having the difficult conversation that accompanies a structural change, Step Up or Step Out provides a proven framework that principals and board chairs have used in exactly this scenario. You can find the book at https://www.amazon.com.au/Step-Up-Out-Difficult-Conflict/dp/B097X7B5LD.

11. Build Conflict Resilience Into Your Leadership Culture

The final step is not about resolving this particular conflict but about building a leadership culture that handles future conflict better. Every school leadership team will experience tension, disagreement, and occasionally genuine conflict. The question is whether your culture treats conflict as a crisis to be avoided or as a natural part of working together that can be navigated constructively.

Schools that build conflict resilience invest in regular team health checks, use assessment tools proactively rather than reactively, bring in external facilitators for annual offsites before problems emerge, and normalise difficult conversations as part of leadership practice. They do not wait until two leaders are barely speaking to ask for help.

Patrick Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions of a Team model places fear of conflict as the second dysfunction, directly below absence of trust. Schools that build trust proactively create the conditions where disagreement can happen without destruction. Working Genius, DISC, and CliftonStrengths assessments used in an annual leadership retreat build the shared language and mutual understanding that makes conflict constructive rather than corrosive.

The most effective schools I have worked with schedule an annual leadership team offsite focused entirely on team health, not strategy. They review their Working Genius team map, discuss how communication patterns have shifted, address emerging tensions before they become entrenched, and recommit to their shared norms. This investment of one day per year prevents the kind of leadership conflict that costs schools months of productivity and their best talent.

Seven Warning Signs That Two School Leaders Are in Conflict

Sometimes the conflict between two leaders is obvious. They argue in meetings, contradict each other in front of staff, or openly complain about each other to colleagues. But more often, school leadership conflict is subtle and operates below the surface. Here are seven warning signs to watch for.

The first sign is avoidance of bilateral meetings. If two leaders who should be meeting regularly are consistently cancelling, rescheduling, or finding reasons not to meet, that is a red flag. The second sign is communication through intermediaries. When two senior leaders start routing messages through the principal, an executive assistant, or another colleague rather than speaking directly, the relationship has broken down. The third sign is decision paralysis on cross portfolio matters. Projects that require both leaders to agree stall indefinitely because neither will move first.

The fourth sign is staff choosing sides. When you notice that staff are gravitating toward one leader and avoiding the other, the conflict has leaked into the broader culture. The fifth sign is competing narratives. Both leaders tell different stories about the same events, decisions, or conversations, and staff receive contradictory messages. The sixth sign is increased formality. Two leaders who used to communicate casually now send formal emails, cc the principal on everything, and document every interaction as though building a case.

The seventh sign is talent loss. Good staff leave because the leadership dysfunction makes the school an unpleasant place to work, and exit interviews reveal the leadership tension as a contributing factor. If you recognise three or more of these signs, the conflict is real, it is affecting your school, and it needs to be addressed. Return to step one.

Why Leadership Conflict Costs You Your Best Teachers

Teacher retention is one of the most pressing challenges facing schools globally. Australian schools are experiencing a significant teacher shortage, with research from the Grattan Institute and the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) consistently identifying school leadership quality as a top factor in teachers' decisions to stay or leave. When the leadership team is visibly dysfunctional, talented teachers start looking elsewhere.

The mechanism is straightforward. Teachers look to their leaders for direction, consistency, and support. When two senior leaders are in conflict, direction becomes unclear because different leaders give different instructions. Consistency disappears because decisions change depending on which leader you ask. Support becomes unreliable because leaders are too consumed by their own conflict to notice what staff need.

The teachers who leave first are usually the ones you can least afford to lose, the high performers who have options and will not tolerate a dysfunctional workplace when better alternatives exist. You are left with staff who are either too invested to move or not competitive enough to have other offers. Neither outcome serves your students.

For more on how leadership dysfunction drives team fragmentation, check out my blog post '15 Key Signs Your School Leadership Team Has Silos'.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know if two school leaders are genuinely in conflict or just have different working styles?

Genuine conflict shows measurable impact on school operations. Decisions stall, staff receive contradictory directions, meetings become unproductive, and team morale declines. Different working styles create occasional friction but do not prevent the team from functioning effectively. If the tension between two leaders is affecting how the school operates, it has moved beyond style differences into conflict that requires intervention.

Should the principal mediate the conflict or bring in someone external?

If the principal is not involved in the conflict and has strong facilitation skills, internal mediation can work for minor disputes. For entrenched conflicts, situations where the principal is part of the dynamic, or cases where previous internal attempts have failed, external facilitation is significantly more effective. An external facilitator brings neutrality, psychological safety, and expertise that no internal leader can fully provide.

How long does it take to resolve leadership conflict in a school?

Most leadership conflicts require 2 to 4 months of structured intervention to show meaningful improvement. This includes initial assessment, facilitated conversations, role clarification, and ongoing review. Simple structural conflicts may resolve faster once role boundaries are clarified. Deep personal conflicts may take longer and may require ongoing support throughout the year.

Can Working Genius really help resolve leadership conflict?

Working Genius does not resolve conflict directly, but it depersonalises it. When two leaders understand that their friction stems from different types of work energy rather than character flaws, the dynamic shifts significantly. As a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, Jonno White has seen this framework transform leadership team dynamics in schools across Australia and internationally. Email jonno@consultclarity.org to discuss whether Working Genius is the right starting point for your team.

What if one leader is clearly at fault and the other is not?

Genuine one sided conflict does occur, but it is less common than most people assume. Even when one leader's behaviour is clearly problematic, the system around them has usually adapted in ways that sustain the dynamic. Address the individual's behaviour directly using a framework like Step Up or Step Out, but also examine the structural and cultural factors that allowed the conflict to persist.

How much does external facilitation cost for school leadership teams?

External facilitation for school leadership teams typically costs between $2,000 and $7,500 depending on scope, duration, and the facilitator's expertise. This includes diagnostic assessment, facilitated sessions, and follow up support. Compare this to the cost of losing a senior leader (recruitment, onboarding, and disruption can exceed $50,000) and the investment becomes clear. Email jonno@consultclarity.org for a custom quote based on your school's specific needs.

Get Help Before It Gets Worse

If you are reading this article, chances are you have a specific situation in mind. Two leaders at your school who are not working well together, and you are trying to figure out what to do about it. The most important thing I can tell you is this: do not wait. Leadership conflict does not resolve itself, and every week of inaction makes the eventual resolution harder and more costly.

Jonno White is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, keynote speaker, and bestselling author of Step Up or Step Out with over 10,000 copies sold globally. He has facilitated leadership team interventions for schools across Australia, the UK, USA, Singapore, Canada, India, and beyond. His Working Genius masterclass at the ASBA 2025 National Conference achieved a 93.75 percent satisfaction rating. He also delivers DISC workshops, CliftonStrengths sessions, and full day leadership team offsites designed to rebuild trust, clarify roles, and transform how your leadership team communicates.

Email jonno@consultclarity.org to arrange a confidential conversation about your school's leadership dynamics. Every engagement begins with understanding your specific context, your team, and your goals. Whether you need a diagnostic Working Genius session, a DISC communication workshop, a mediated conversation, or a full leadership team offsite, international travel is often far more affordable than clients expect, and many organisations find that flying Jonno in costs less than engaging high profile local providers.

About the Author

Jonno White is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, bestselling author of Step Up or Step Out, and leadership consultant who has worked with schools, corporates, and nonprofits across the UK, India, Australia, Canada, Mongolia, New Zealand, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, USA, Finland, Namibia, and more. He hosts The Leadership Conversations Podcast with 230+ episodes reaching listeners in 150+ countries and founded The 7 Questions Movement with 6,000+ participating leaders. Based in Brisbane, Australia, Jonno works globally and regularly travels for speaking and facilitation engagements. Organisations consistently find that international travel is far more affordable than expected.

To book Jonno for a leadership team intervention, conflict resolution facilitation, or school executive offsite, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

While Jonno is included as a service provider in this article, readers should note his authorship in the interest of full transparency.

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