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. 

The roots of the issue run deep- into a wider system shaped by government policy, chronic underfunding, narrow accountability frameworks, and a deeply embedded culture of martyrdom in education. 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. I have always been of the view that absolutely yes, a knowledge base is essential but ultimately knowledge can be learned, what truly makes a great teacher is the ability to engage students and foster their curiosity and teach them the skills to find things out for themselves. 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.  

Through this evolving process, leaders deepen their understanding of themselves and how their actions, emotions, and decisions impact others, ultimately enhancing their ability to lead with authenticity, empathy, and resilience and support others on their own journeys of self-awareness. 

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. 

Recent research has sought to unpack this question with more academic rigour. In their 2022 paper, Defining Self-Awareness in the Context of Adult Development, Carden, Jones, and Passmore conducted a systematic literature review that distilled the concept of self-awareness into a more structured and nuanced framework. Drawing from this and other sources, this blog explores what self-awareness truly entails- and why it's so essential in today's complex world. 

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 ‘wicked problem’.

This is because it is a complicated entity; and it is such 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. 

So how can we as education leaders in particular look at the wicked problem of education and begin to tease out golden solutions that are pre-emptive, effective and sustainable? Just as Ebenezer Scrooge's transformation offers lessons on accountability, empathy, and foresight; we can learn from this narrative to ensure our influence on education is positive, impactful, and enduring.

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.

Leading beyond the processes means focusing on the people, values, and broader purpose of education. Recently we asked “What Are Your Top 3 Leadership Words?” - a tough question to answer. There were a range of responses but several key themes emerged: trust, vision, empathy and communication (which encompasses a whole host of leadership qualities!). Unsurprisingly no-one responded with anything that was process or operationally focused. People want leaders that can lead people.

Being a Leader in the UK today is not for the faint-hearted. The pressures of educational leadership, particularly in the current climate, are immense. Whether it’s managing staff, ensuring pupil outcomes, liaising with parents, or navigating government policies, Leaders are tasked with a wide array of responsibilities that impact the entire school community. The accountability of a leader is stretched further when education feels like the last remaining pillar of some communities and the leadership goes beyond the school gates. But as the role of the Leader seems to range from finding paperclips (a client told us this last week!) for a teaching assistant to standing in front of their board to explain student progress despite budgetary shortfalls and with an Ofsted knock looming it is critical to ask what accountability for school leaders should really look like?

Leadership shapes the learning environment, setting the climate and culture for what a learning environment and organisation should be. Among the many key figures, Leaders stand at the forefront, influencing and guiding the organisation forward. However, there is a key challenge persisting within the realm of Leader leadership: what factors contribute to the longevity of a Leader's tenure, and what makes them stay?

The recruitment and retention crisis in UK schools has been making headlines for years and is an ongoing urgent issue with growing teacher shortages, increasing workloads, and concerns over pay. Recent data shows that more teachers are leaving the profession than entering it, while those who remain often face burnout. As this crisis deepens, it threatens not only the quality of education and learning experiences for students (data has shown that each 1% increase in teacher retention is associated with improved student performance (National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER), 2021)) but the wellbeing and future opportunities of all those involved, restricting the capacity for the system to evolve.

Addressing this issue requires a multi-faceted approach. In this blog, we will examine the underlying causes of the recruitment and retention crisis and discuss potential strategies to address it.

The move by the UK government to abolish the one-word Ofsted judgements in favor of a more nuanced scorecard system has sparked considerable debate. While this change is largely welcomed and has the potential to reshape the landscape of educational assessment in a positive way, it also brings with it a set of challenges that must be carefully navigated.

Our perspective is the lens through which we view the world and makes sense of it.

As an educational leader in a world rich with diversity and complexity, the ability to broaden and enhance our perspectives is potentially the most valuable capability to possess. It offers a myriad benefits that enrich our lives, relationships, connection and understanding of the world around us. Developing it can unlock the potential of whole organisations, connect with stakeholders you never thought possible, and provide a gateway of innovation, talent potential, and system maturity.