In this paper, we critique the study of school leadership for its normative, singular, and evolutionary tendencies. Through an empirical study of leadership we offer an approach that suggests new possibilities for the field. Through the use of a qualitative, grounded theory methodology, we developed profiles of principals that illustrate a variety of different leadership types. We describe the types of leadership that teachers and principals negotiated in the contexts of reform and principal succession. Our exploratory analysis suggests that different types of leaders were considered effective in different settings. The notion that there are many effective types of leadership distinguishes our work from much of the leadership literature, which tends to maintain that one kind of leadership is effective in any setting.