Linda Lambert

Linda Lambert is best known for her work in Constructivist Leadership and Leadership Capacity. Constructivist Leadership proposed a new and unique conception of leadership in which leadership is separated from person, individual authority and discrete skills and framed as a learning and cultural process. Leadership is defined as “purposeful, reciprocal learning in community.” The learning dimension is constructivist in nature, involving reflection, inquiry, dialogue and action. Learning experiences are designed through these processes and result in individual and organizational change. A quarter century after the introduction of Constructivist Leadership, conceptions of leadership have evolved into understandings that capture leadership as a process of learning, culture and capacity. 

The organizational concept of “Leadership Capacity” is based upon Constructivist Leadership and defined as “broad-based, skillful participation in the work of leadership.” Leadership Capacity, therefore, is a function of the breadth and depth of participation and skillfulness. High leadership capacity means full and skillful participation by organizational participants. Preparation in these two concepts is pursued through collaborative, constructivist means.  

Linda Lambert, Ed. D. is professor emeritus at California State University, East Bay, and president of Lambert Leadership Development. She has served in multiple leadership roles, including principal, district administrator, director of reform initiatives, and consultant at local, state, national, and international levels. Her pioneering work in leadership led to invitations from the U.S. State Department and foreign ministries to consult in Thailand, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Canada, Great Britain, Mexico, Lebanon, and, most extensively, Egypt. Her work has been translated into Chinese, Malay, Hebrew, Lithuanian, and Spanish. Major consulting and research foci include constructivist leadership, leadership capacity, women in leadership and organizational development.  

In addition to dozens of articles and book chapters, Lambert is the lead author of The Constructivist Leader (TC Press, 1st Ed.1995, 2nd Ed. 2002), Who Will Save Our Schools? (Sage,1997), Women’s Ways of Leading (Dog Ear, 2009) and Liberating Leadership Capacity: Pathways to Educational Wisdom (TC Press, 2016). She is the author of Building Leadership Capacity in Schools (1998), Leadership Capacity for Lasting School Improvement (2003), and three historical novels known as The Justine Trilogy. Her first novel, The Cairo Codex, won a Nautilus, Independent Book Publishers and Best Books awards for fiction. Other awards include International Book of the Year from NSDC (The Constructivist Leader, 1997), Outstanding California Educator, Phi Delta Kappa and CSU Professor of the Year. She lives in Santa Rosa, California, with her husband, Morgan Lambert.