**3. Active and visible leadership**

A hallmark of good educational leaders is how they succeed in developing strategic visions for their institutions [10]. Then they can act as role models for students and teachers and contribute to an effective and attractive environment that is conducive to learning. A challenge for every school leader is to maintain the balance between pursuing long-term development goals and adapting them to a rapidly changing reality. The values to which the school community has committed itself should prove to be viable. Reform policies can only be coherently integrated into the life of schools and classrooms if a capacity building approach for professional school leadership pays attention to topics like; reducing complexity, coordination, learning context, energization, connections for learning and system-wide change. The knowledge, skills and commitment of teachers as well as the quality of school leadership, are important factors in achieving high quality educational outcomes. The ability to inspire students as role models has an undoubtedly positive impact on young people's future [27, 28, 29].

For this reason, it is essential to ensure that those recruited to teaching and school leadership posts are well suited for their professional practice and provide a high standard of initial education and continuing professional development for teaching staff at all levels [30]. This will contribute to enhancing the status and attractiveness of the educational profession [8]. Counts [22] argues that school leaders, by increasing their courage, intelligence and vision might become a social force of magnitude.

Twenty-first century school leaders need to recognize and concretize given goals and negotiate different interests, needs and requirements in the school organization. When school leaders design and construct the content of a development process in a dialog with students and teachers, the opportunity for organizational learning and sustainable school development will increase [8]. School leadership linked to the achievement of learning in organizations will play an important role for development and change of the school organization's culture. Organizational learning in schools is essential for continuous development and renewal from within, and encourages a proactive stance instead of a reactive position from teachers and students [31]. A precondition for successful school development is, as previously pointed out, an active and visible leadership [18].
