Career

Leadership, like life, is simply a series of moments, and every moment gives you the opportunity to leave a positive legacy for those around you.

What is the legacy you will leave when you leave your current position?

What will you be remembered for, or better still, what do you want to be remembered for?

What are the values, customs, traditions or ways of working that will exist beyond you because they have become the fabric of the organisation?

I think if I had my leadership time again I…

Where culture and strategy go to die

Do you plan to create real change in your school? Maybe you have a cracking strategy based on research that you just know will turn your data around. Or maybe you are striving to build a culture that promotes collaboration, deprivitisation and growth mindset.

Good on you!

How’s that working for you?

Change not happening as fast as you want it to? Alignment with the vision actually looks like exhausted teachers nodding at staff meetings and then doing what…

What is your motive for leadership?

1. You want the responsibility for serving others. Do hard things to benefit others.
2. You want the rewards that leadership brings. It’s good for me and I deserve it.

Patrick Lencioni says, Servant Leadership – is the only reason you should lead.

Not subservient leadership.

Not wobbly boundaries where everyone’s needs are served except yours.

But servant leadership. Being of service and in service to benefit the aims of the organisation.

If you are not a…

I was always that kid at school. No, not the kid that was acting out or throwing spit balls or climbing onto the roof. No, I was the kid that sat at the front, put my hand up to every question, did everything that I was supposed to and absolutely adored every single minute of school.

School was always super easy for me. There was always lots of exciting things to do, I could read, I could write, I could occasionally colour in between the lines and I had some pretty amazing teachers. So I guess …

Upon reflecting recently, I felt that my coaching had become a bit stale of late. My own coach had given me feedback, modelled some awesome strategies and reignited a spark.

I went back to some of my valued texts (both on leadership and coaching) and reminded myself of things I had forgotten.

And then, quite by accident on a podcast, I heard the quote:

"Coach the person, not the problem"

I had become lazy and slipped into problem-solving instead of coaching!!!

I often talk about not…

Are you a nice person?

Do you try to be helpful?

When people, like your kids, your team, your staff, come to you with a problem, do you love that feeling of being able to find a solution?

Me too!

Being helpful is a good thing.

Being tooooo helpful or attaching your self worth to the quality of your advice ........ well, that is the fast lane to burnout.

Most of us are so bloody busy that when someone shares their problem, we jump in after 30 seconds with advice and solutions. 

Often w…

Do you feel you are not brave enough, qualified enough, ready enough to lead confidently and authentically? 

Let me tell you a secret... You are ready to lead, NOW.

Myth 1

Leaders are men, in suits

Well, I think that Jacinda, Kamala and a bunch of other awesome women have blown that myth out of the water lately. When we only see men in power OR when the women we see are acting in a way that feels aggressive or masculine, then it is really easy to believe that you need to have balls to be a…

Every Sunday, I share a newsletter with my list, and amongst other things, I share some of the coaching conversations that I have had. It seems that many of the themes are universal, so I will share those conversations here on the blog.

Questioning Assumptions and Back to Basics

I was coaching a Head of Learning Area in a secondary school this week, and she described 3 staff with very different personalities and how they were challenging her. Lots of ah-ha moments were shared in this coaching …