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There is developing interest in how professional identity can support educational leaders’ management of change. This article explores the conceptualisation and interplay of identity formation with adaptive and contingent forms of educational leadership. The article draws on qualitative data obtained from two New Zealand school principals and significant others, as each principal negotiated their way through the beginnings of a second principalship and associated change processes. Findings from this first year of a three-year study identified influential factors within each principal’s personal, and professional identities. A comparison of findings with the respective literatures revealed a potential fusion between identity formation and concepts within the broad fields of adaptive and values-based contingency leadership.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to share New Zealand findings from the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP) which relate to intrapersonal dimensions of leadership that promote principals' sustained success over time. Design/methodology/approach -Multi-site case study methods were used to describe the ongoing success of ten educational leaders, using ISSPP qualitative protocols for data gathering and cross-case inductive analysis. Findings -Findings identified the following influential intrapersonal factors that impacted positively on principals' leadership behaviours over time: their physical, mental and intellectual well-being; their levels of resiliency; and critical self-reflection. Practical implications -In light of these research findings, it is argued that these intrapersonal factors of a successful principalship are optimised when supported by an external agent. Originality/value -First, there are few research studies that have investigated how school principals maintain their success over time; second, principals traditionally receive mentoring or coaching support in their professional work but less so in their personal development. This paper advances a case for an external agent to help critique a principal's personal paradigm in order to promote wellbeing in the form of increased self-awareness and an understanding of why they think and act as they do.

This paper traverses changes in perceptions of the school principal's role, from sole to distributed leadership practices. A brief commentary on selected New Zealand literature is followed by a case study of a secondary co-principalship that identifies adaptive strategies and success factors in this joint role. The potentiality of the national Leadership Strategy (2018) and Educational Leadership Capability Framework (2018) to impact these distributed features will then be explored. The paper concludes with suggestions for future directions for distributed leadership practice in New Zealand.