Leadership 2.0: When Your People Believe They Make a Difference in the Success of the Organization

Nov 18
4 min read

By Cheri Dixon

For years, I led schools that most people had written off. The kind of places where morale was low, turnover was high, and the phrase “it’s just always been this way” hung heavy in the air. When I walked into my first turnaround school, I remember thinking, “This isn’t a leadership problem…it’s a belief problem.”

That realization changed everything.

In every successful organization, whether it’s a school, a business, or a nonprofit, there’s one common thread: collective efficacy. It’s a fancy term for something simple but powerful: the shared belief among a group that together, they can make a difference.

When leaders intentionally build a culture where people believe their work matters, performance skyrockets. Not because of new initiatives or fancy strategic plans, but because people start showing up differently. They take ownership. They collaborate. They care.

That’s the heartbeat of Leadership 2.0. It’s no longer about the leader being the hero of the story. It’s about creating a team of heroes who believe they are the story.

1. Start with Belief

When I walked into those turnaround schools, the first thing I noticed wasn’t the test scores…it was the faces. People were tired. Defeated. Just doing the job, not living the mission.

So before we ever talked strategy, we talked belief. I asked simple questions:

“Do you believe what you do every day matters?”
“Do you think we can change the trajectory of our school together?”

Most people didn’t know how to answer. Years of failure had chipped away at their confidence.

Leaders often skip this step. We assume belief is automatic because people were hired for a reason. But belief isn’t a job requirement; it’s a culture requirement.

You can’t demand belief, but you can build it. You do that by creating early wins, celebrating progress (not perfection), and making sure every person can see how their role connects to the larger mission.

When people begin to see results, and see that their work contributes to those results, belief starts to grow roots.

2. Build the “We” Culture

Collective efficacy can’t exist in a culture of “me.” If people feel like they’re working for you instead of with you, the organization’s success will always have a ceiling.

In my leadership journey, I learned that trust isn’t built in meetings or memos…it’s built in moments. It’s the five minutes you take to check in with someone who’s struggling. It’s admitting when you don’t have all the answers. It’s inviting others to help design the solution instead of handing them a plan to execute.

When you do that consistently, something powerful happens; your people start trusting each other. That’s when collaboration becomes natural. That’s when people start saying, “We’ve got this,” instead of “You need to fix this.”

And that shift? That’s gold.

3. Empowerment Is the Secret Ingredient

Empowerment isn’t about giving people permission…t’s about giving them confidence.

In one of my schools, I had a teacher who was brilliant but burned out. She’d stopped volunteering for leadership roles and just kept her head down. I invited her to co-lead a new instructional team with me. Her first response was, “Why me?”

I told her, “Because you see things other people miss. And our students need that.”

That one sentence changed everything. She didn’t just lead that team, she transformed it. And she later told me, “I just needed someone to believe in me again.”

Leaders don’t create impact by controlling everything. They create impact by equipping and empowering the right people to carry the mission forward.

If you want your organization to thrive, build leaders at every level…people who know they’re trusted, valued, and capable of making decisions that drive results.

4. Make the Work Personal

Here’s the truth: people don’t give their best effort for a paycheck or a plaque. They give it because they believe their work means something.

When leaders connect the dots between daily work and the organization’s purpose, it changes how people show up.

In education, we did this by constantly reminding staff, “Every decision we make touches a child’s future.” In business, that might sound like, “Every product we deliver impacts a customer’s experience.” In healthcare, “Every patient interaction affects a life.”

The point is, people will go above and beyond when they know the “why” behind the work.

5. Lead with Heart and Clarity

Leadership 2.0 isn’t soft leadership…it’s smart leadership. It’s understanding that you can hold people accountable andcare about them deeply at the same time.

Leaders who combine empathy with high expectations get results. They model what it means to think with their head and lead with their heart. and that combination inspires others to do the same.

Final Thoughts

Collective efficacy isn’t a buzzword. It’s the fuel behind every thriving team. When your people believe in the mission, trust each other, and know their work matters, results follow. Every. Single. Time.

As a leader, your greatest job isn’t to set the vision. It’s to make people believe they have the power to bring that vision to life.

That’s Leadership 2.0.

Because when your people believe they make a difference in the success of the organization, they will.

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