By encouraging a single-minded focus on instructional leadership, the training, socializing, and mentoring of school leaders has unwittingly fostered a culture of caged leadership. Leaders are expected to succeed via culture, capacity building, coaching, and consensus--no matter the obstacles in their path. Those are all good things, the author says, but the mistake is to imagine that leaders can use these to successfully drive sustainable improvement without also addressing the obstacles posed by regulations, rules, and routines. The author outlines strategies for addressing those obstacles, drawing on his recent book: "Cage-Busting Leadership" (Harvard Education Press, 2013).