Over the course of a decade the ISSPP has employed multiple perspective case studies (with and without observation) and surveys to understand successful school leadership. Three major books from the ISSPP have reported the major findings to date from this project. A fourth book to be published in 2012 documents the stories of seventeen successful principals. In this paper it is argued that the ISSPP provides a model for future research on school leadership. Mixed methods will explore and develop theory and provide rich understandings, whilst description of the work of school leaders in an anthropological/phenomenological sense will provide greater detail about the lived experience of successful school leaders.