The leadership inside and outside the schools envisioned in the context of output-oriented new public management reforms reacts upon the complexity and visibility of changes in a school environment. Thus, the main purpose of this conceptual article is to explore the under-theorized and under-researched relationship of the new public management mix of autonomy and accountability on the one hand and leadership styles (as they are practiced by school principals) on the other hand. We investigate this relationship in an effort to reposition the ongoing discussion of whether a new public management policy mix leads to a new leadership-styles hybrid.