The Courage to Be Assessed

Four Key Factors for Establishing a Trusted School

Trust is not a soft accessory to school leadership. It is the operational infrastructure on which mission, morale, learning, and community confidence depend.

Leadership development begins with the humility to see what others experience. This article presents the TrustED® 360 as a tool for personal growth, helping school leaders receive structured feedback, identify specific areas for development, and modeling the very openness, accountability, and trust-building posture they desire throughout the school community.

Every school leader wants to be trusted. Far fewer willingly invite the people they lead to evaluate whether that trust is actually present. The difference between those two postures is the difference between aspiration and accountability. A leader may intend to communicate clearly, support teachers, champion the mission, and lead with integrity. But leadership is not measured only by intention. It is also measured by the experience of those being led.

The TrustED® 360 offers school leaders a disciplined way to face that reality. It gathers stakeholder feedback related to the components and behaviors of trusted school leadership, creating a picture of how the leader’s practices are perceived by those within the leader’s span of influence. Chapter 9 of my book, TrustED®: The Bridge to School Improvement, describes this as the beginning of an authentic path toward trusted leadership: openness, willingness, and a commitment to allowing others to provide feedback and then intentionally using that feedback for professional and personal improvement.[1]

This process requires courage. Feedback can confirm strengths, but it can also reveal gaps. A leader who sees himself as relational may learn that employees experience him as unavailable. A leader who believes she communicates well may discover that expectations feel unclear. A leader who values collaboration may learn that teachers feel consulted after decisions have already been made. Such findings can be painful, but they are also gifts. Blind spots are most dangerous when they remain unnamed.

“Leadership is not measured only by intention. It is also measured by

the experience of those being led.”

The personal development value of the TrustED® 360 lies in its ability to convert feedback into a plan. Informal feedback is often noisy. One parent is angry. One teacher is frustrated. One board member is highly affirming. One assistant principal thinks everything is fine. Leaders can overreact to the loudest voice or dismiss a real pattern because it arrived through an uncomfortable messenger. A vetted 360 assessment helps separate isolated opinion from recurring signal. It places personal development in the context of quantifiable patterns rather than emotional episodes.[1]

Research on feedback supports this disciplined approach. Hattie and Timperley’s work on feedback emphasizes that effective feedback clarifies where one is going, how one is doing, and what the next step should be.[10] Those questions apply to leaders as much as to students. A school leader needs to know the leadership target, the current level of trust, and the specific practices that will close the gap. Multisource feedback research also suggests that feedback can support performance improvement when it is credible, behaviorally focused, accompanied by reflection, and connected to follow-up action.[9]

The TrustED® 360 also allows leaders to model a culture of learning. Faculty and staff are frequently expected to examine student data, revise instruction, participate in observations, and engage in professional growth. When leaders ask others to submit to evaluation but avoid meaningful evaluation themselves, trust erodes. When leaders willingly invite feedback, they communicate a different message: growth is not a requirement for some; it is a value for all.

“Growth is not a requirement for some; it is a value for all.”

A School Level Example

Consider the experience of one school leadership team that had been working hard to strengthen faculty culture after a demanding season of change. The head of school and the administrative team believed they were communicating more frequently than ever. Weekly meetings were held, board updates were shared, and major decisions were explained after they were finalized. From the leaders’ perspective, communication had improved. From the faculty’s perspective, something still felt unfinished.

When the leader invited feedback through a 360-style process, the responses were not hostile but illuminating. Teachers generally affirmed the leader’s integrity and commitment to the mission. Yet a recurring theme emerged: faculty did not feel they had meaningful input early enough in decisions that affected classroom life. The issue was not whether the leader cared. The issue was whether staff experienced that care as collaborative leadership before the decision was already made.

To the leader’s credit, the response was not defensive. At the next faculty meeting, the leader named the pattern plainly: 'I have heard that you trust my motives, but you do not always experience the process as one that includes your voice soon enough.' The team then adopted several concrete commitments. Before major policy or program changes, the leadership team would identify the stakeholders most affected, gather input through a short, structured process, explain how the feedback shaped the decision, and clarify which constraints could not be changed. The leader also began sending a brief monthly note titled 'What We Heard / What We Are Doing,' connecting faculty feedback to visible action.

The change did not solve every problem, nor did it eliminate disagreement. It did something more important: it made the leader’s humility visible. Over time, faculty began to see that feedback was not disappearing into a report or being treated as a complaint. It was becoming part of the school’s leadership rhythm. In that school, the assessment did not function as an event. It became a turning point in how leaders listened, decided, explained, and rebuilt trust.

“Feedback builds trust when stakeholders can see that their voices have shaped a

leader’s next faithful step.”

Personal leadership development through the TrustED® 360 should not be reduced to fixing weaknesses. The assessment also identifies strengths that can be stewarded. A leader with strong Foundation scores may be especially effective in clarifying mission, values, and beliefs. A leader with strong Superstructure scores may be particularly trusted in relationships and culture. A leader with strong Deck scores may bring clarity, order, and communication. Knowing one’s strengths allows the leader to serve the school more intentionally, rather than simply carrying every responsibility by virtue of title.

The most important personal response to 360 data is humility. A defensive leader can weaponize data, explain it away, or blame respondents for misunderstanding. A trusted leader listens. Listening does not mean every perception is fully accurate, but it does mean every perception deserves attention. The goal is not to prove the leader’s self-image correct. The goal is to become more trustworthy in stakeholders’ actual experience.

“The goal is not to prove the leader’s self-image correct. The goal is to become more

trustworthy in stakeholders’ actual experience.”

A wise personal development plan should include a limited number of priorities, specific behaviors, accountability support, and a timeline for reassessment. For example, a leader working on communication may commit to weekly written updates, clearer meeting agendas, and follow-up summaries. A leader working on visibility may block time for classroom walkthroughs and informal teacher conversations. A leader working on input may create structured processes for teacher voice before decisions are finalized. The plan should be concrete enough that others can see the change.

The TrustED® 360 is valuable because it helps leaders face the questions they might otherwise avoid. It does not call leaders to perfection. It calls them to integrity: to align intentions, behaviors, and stakeholder experience. Personal growth begins when a leader is willing to say, 'I want to know how my leadership is experienced, and I am willing to act on what I learn.' That posture builds trust before the first improvement strategy is even implemented.

For the individual leader, the most productive response is to translate the report into two or three visible commitments. These commitments should be specific enough for faculty and staff to recognize. A leader might say, 'You told me that communication needs to be clearer; here is the weekly rhythm I am committing to.' Or, 'You told me that I need to be more visible; here is when I will be in classrooms and common areas.' Visible commitments turn private feedback into public trust-building.

The leader should also invite accountability from a trusted coach, board chair, supervisor, or peer. Personal development rarely succeeds through private intention alone. The TrustED® 360 creates the evidence, but coaching and accountability help convert evidence into habit. When a leader returns to stakeholders months later and can point to changes in practice, the assessment becomes more than a report. It becomes a testimony that trusted leaders are still learners.

“The assessment becomes more than a report when stakeholders can

point to changed leadership habits.”

©2026 Toby A. Travis. All Rights Reserved.

End Notes

[1] Toby A. Travis, TrustED®: The Bridge to School Improvement (2021), Chapter 9, especially 'The Value of a School Leader 360 Assessment' and 'Putting Data to Work.'

[2] Kenneth Leithwood, Karen Seashore Louis, Stephen Anderson, and Kyla Wahlstrom, How Leadership Influences Student Learning (The Wallace Foundation, 2004); Karen Seashore Louis et al., Investigating the Links to Improved Student Learning (The Wallace Foundation, 2010).

[3] Jason A. Grissom, Anna J. Egalite, and Constance A. Lindsay, How Principals Affect Students and Schools: A Systematic Synthesis of Two Decades of Research (The Wallace Foundation, 2021).

[4] Robert J. Marzano, Timothy Waters, and Brian A. McNulty, School Leadership That Works: From Research to Results (ASCD, 2005).

[5] Michael T. Hitt and Pamela D. Tucker, 'Systematic Review of Key Leader Practices Found to Influence Student Achievement,' Review of Educational Research 86, no. 2 (2016): 531-569.

[6] Richard DuFour, Rebecca DuFour, Robert Eaker, Thomas W. Many, and Mike Mattos, Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work, 3rd ed. (Solution Tree, 2016/2018 editions).

[7] Learning Forward, Standards for Professional Learning (2022), emphasizing equity, curriculum, professional expertise, leadership, resources, data, learning designs, implementation, and outcomes.

[8] Anthony S. Bryk and Barbara Schneider, Trust in Schools: A Core Resource for Improvement (Russell Sage Foundation, 2002); Megan Tschannen-Moran, Trust Matters: Leadership for Successful Schools, 2nd ed. (Jossey-Bass, 2014).

[9] James W. Smither, Manuel London, and Richard R. Reilly, 'Does Performance Improve Following Multisource Feedback? A Theoretical Model, Meta-Analysis, and Review of Empirical Findings,' Personnel Psychology 58, no. 1 (2005): 33-66.

[10] John Hattie and Helen Timperley, 'The Power of Feedback,' Review of Educational Research 77, no. 1 (2007): 81-112.

About the Author

Dr. Toby A. Travis is the author of the award-winning book, TrustED®: The Bridge to School Improvement, and the developer of the TrustED® School Leader 360. He has served as a teacher, principal, academic director, head of school, superintendent, consultant, and graduate faculty member, helping schools and school leaders build cultures of trust that support mission fulfillment, stakeholder confidence, and continual school improvement.