Dark mornings and an inbox that’s already demanding more of you before you’ve finished your first coffee. Add to that the unspoken expectation that you should be refreshed, re-energised, and powering through new priorities with enthusiasm following the Christmas break and it’s no wonder this time of year can feel heavy. 

But what if, instead of going through the motions of Blue Monday (and indeed the whole of January and February), we used it as an opportunity to explore? 

Our personal values sit (too) quietly beneath the surface of our leadership. They influence how we make decisions, how we relate to others, and how we behave when things are going well. Unfortunately, it is often under pressure, when time is tight, stakes are high, or uncertainty rises that our values become most visible. 

Taking up a new senior or executive leadership role in education is both a privilege and a responsibility. The first 100 days are often described as the period in which leaders lay the cultural and strategic foundations that shape their tenure. For school and trust leaders, this window is not about quick wins or surface-level change, but about establishing a climate of trust, safety, and purpose where adults and young people can flourish into the long-term. 

Although it often goes ‘unseen’, culture is sensed across an organisation. We have all had the feeling of walking into an organisation and within moments getting a feel for whether there is a good or bad ‘vibe’. Culture is no backdrop - it’s an operating system and an ecosystem.

At the executive level, where systemic decisions ripple across schools, staff, and students, wise compassion is a leadership necessity. When embedded in the relational fabric of educational leadership, it fosters psychological safety, enhances performance, strengthens culture, and drives values-aligned change. 

Education leadership is complex with common patterns persisting across the leaders we coach. Stakeholders, external pressures and flux, and the emerging challenges at a local and global level are making an already tangled web, unfathomable.  

Leaders must be able to competently and confidently navigate uncertainty, lead innovation, and respond to challenges with clarity and foresight. But not all thinking is developed equally. To lead effectively, it helps to know when and how to think strategically, when to think systemically, and when to use systems thinking. 

At what point does being a leader really hit home?

In her first guest blog for us, our Associate Coach Maggie describes the moment it happened for her and shares her experience of growing into the leader that she is today.

“And this was it – the lightning bolt moment when I realised that I was the Headteacher and leader and should have all the answers.”

The phrase “doing more with less” has become a familiar refrain in education; a mantra repeated so often it risks becoming background noise to a deficit model. But for school and trust leaders facing real-terms funding cuts, rising costs, and growing expectations, it is the reality.  

Leading under financial pressures demands high-quality and wise strategic leadership. But it isn’t enough to be strategic in your thinking; it calls for clarity, courage, creativity and connection, the ability to maintain educational quality while navigating complexity and constraint. 

As we enter the final half of the summer term, we outline key thoughts for school leaders to consider as they review their strategy and consider the upcoming academic year.  

The retention crisis continues in the education sector. This is no secret or surprise. Great teachers continue to leave the profession. Not because they’ve stopped caring, but because the system is become too heavy. For those we are speaking to, the downsides far outweigh the up. 

Too often, teachers are expected to absorb system failures through their personal effort at the expense of their own wellbeing, and wear exhaustion as a badge of honour. The result? A profession with mis-aligned purpose and drained of sustainability. 

At its very core, leadership it's about understanding people, and it is best to start with yourself.  

Self-awareness is one of the most powerful tools a leader can cultivate. It keeps your ego in check, sharpens your emotional intelligence, and allows you to connect and lead with authenticity. But how should you lead when others around you lack it?

In a job interview once, I was asked the question “Are you in teaching for the love of the subject, or for the love of teaching?”. I remember at the time thinking “I have no idea what answer you want from me here”. I was whole heartedly in it for the love of teaching! Which I exclaimed with buckets of enthusiasm! But I had be burned for this attitude before, with previous interview panels unimpressed by my non-core discipline degree. Real life is not separated out into subjects, it is complicated, integrated and colourful. It takes many routes that are not standardised. 

All leaders need a degree of confidence- you are not likely to last long in your position without it. But what is the marker of too much confidence? And what happens with confidence is masking a lack of competence?  

When confidence outpaces competence, the results can be quietly corrosive. An unchecked overconfidence in one’s own leaderships undermines the very culture and climate that education leaders are entrusted to nurture. 

Self-awareness underpins leadership. A truly transformative leader must be on an ongoing journey of developing their self-awareness. It incorporates self-evaluation and reflection, a willingness to receive and act on feedback, mindfulness practices, and continuous learning. It also involves embracing vulnerability, recognising one’s strengths and areas for growth, and adapting to changing contexts.  

Self-awareness is a big buzzword in leadership - often touted as the cornerstone of personal growth, emotional intelligence, and effective leadership. But beyond buzzwords and self-help slogans, what does it actually mean to be self-aware? Because generally speaking, we don’t actually have a secure grasp of what this construct actually is. 

Coaching, when delivered well, is incredibly powerful. It has the power to transform lives with ripple effects expanding out into whole organisations and communities. Where school and education leaders are concerned the reaches go far beyond professional growth.

Traditionally, the image of a leader has centered around a strong, unwavering figure, leading their team from the front, trailblazing the way through uncharted territory to guide and instruct their followers through challenges towards a target destination. More recently, other analogies paint a slightly different picture of leadership including but not limited to: leading from the back like a shepherd guiding the flock; the bridge builder – who connects people, ideas and opportunities; the firefighter – a crisis orientated leader, thriving under pressure and solving problems; and the chess master – a strategic leader planning ahead. 

GOVERNANCE! It may not be something we typically think of in our day-to-day work, but it is always there! Governance ensures that we are ethical in our work, that we understand our responsibilities and that we are held to account for our professional decisions and actions. But whilst these are important and necessary components, governance has a whole lot more to offer our schools! 

Education is a complicated entity; and for many reasons. Wicked problems have multiple root causes; they have multiple symptoms; they have multiple solutions and as such it makes them incredibly challenging to solve, if in fact, they ever can be solved in their entirety. What makes them ever more challenging is that they themselves are constantly evolving and changing as are the causes, symptoms and solutions. 

Leadership development has become a buzzword in the corporate and educational sectors alike. However, many courses and programmes still fall short of empowering participants to deliver meaningful, lasting impact in their organisation. If we want to truly empower leaders to sustainably grow, inspire, and transform their organisation, we need to take a holistic approach that uses human development principles as a foundation and focuses on personal and professional growth, self-awareness, and system maturity. Without doing so we are missing out on the impact by and to the collective ‘whole’.

Ever worked with an inauthentic leader? The physical reaction will tell you all you need to know about why discovering who you truly are and showing up as you could unlock so much potential in your organisation.