Leadership by Design: Growing Leaders with Intention

As an ambitious and aspirational educator, I've always been the person who says ‘yes’ first and works out the details later.

For the most part, that instinct has served me well, especially through the early stages of my career in regional Queensland teaching HPE, and then throughout a 3 year stint in the UK. 

When I moved to London, I was 24 and had all of three years teaching under my belt. And yet, I naively carried the confidence of someone ten years more experienced. A whirlwind two-week classroom contract in an independent school north of London quickly turned into two months, then over two years. And it was somewhere early in that stretch that my Physical Education background quietly influenced my first real leadership experience. Suddenly, I was running a whole extra-curricular sport program: coaches, weekend fixtures, training schedules, the lot. Nobody stopped to reflect on if I was really ready. I said yes anyway. I always did.

But, here’s the thing, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. It's only with hindsight (and many more years of development) that I can see how much I was making up as I went. Nobody had shown me how to lead that program. I'd just been handed the whistle and a fixture list. 

On further reflection, this has essentially been the scenario alongside many of the ‘next steps’ throughout my career.

It's not because schools don't value leadership. It's because leadership often arrives faster than the support needed to develop it.

Everyone leads something: a class, a team, a conversation, themselves. 

Since joining Future Anything as Director of Professional Learning in early 2024, I've been exploring a gap in our own work. We've spent years guiding teachers and schools to innovate teaching and learning, without giving the same attention to the personal growth and strategic leadership that actually makes those changes stick. 

The middle is being asked to hold more, sooner

Talk to almost any principal at the moment and you'll get some version of a common story. The domino effect of leadership change is a real issue. When experienced leaders move on faster than expected, the people stepping up to fill the gap are often early in their careers. The middle of the profession is being asked to carry more, sooner, with a lot less runway to get ready for it. 

A focus on both personal and leadership growth

Leadership doesn't wait for the title to catch up. The teacher who isn't in the leadership meeting today might be in it tomorrow, covering a colleague on leave, stepping into an acting role, or simply having a hard conversation with the person next to them. Anyone who's had a new role start mid-year knows the feeling of being inducted into months of shared language, culture, and change already underway. 

So, what will actually make this difference to help future proof a school's leadership pipeline? 

The answer: Intentionally building leadership capability and a shared language early, and across a whole staff. 

What if every teacher had access to a whole school approach to leadership?

For me, it wasn't until years later upon returning back to Queensland, through an Aspiring Leaders Program with the Department of Education, that I really began to refine my leadership craft. Nic, too, came through the same program. We both recognise the power of these pathways for developing leaders. Ultimately, it’s not about trying to replace that kind of program. It’s about helping schools to build a foundation internally.

So, what if every school had the chance to build a common language, shared tools, and early access to the conditions that set everyone up to lead, regardless of position? Because you shouldn't need a badge to know yourself, grow others, or lead change. 

In practice, this can start small. A single keynote for your whole staff, built around a simple question, such as:

• What happens when every teacher is a leader?
• Does culture eat strategy for breakfast?

From there, a two-hour masterclass can go deeper on a single driver, for example:

• Grounded Identity: building each person's own Leader DNA profile, skills, strengths and stretch zones, so your team shares a language for how they contribute best together.
• Relational Trust: co-creating an above-and-below-the-line charter and learning strategies for disagreeing well, so trust holds when conversations get hard.
• Adaptive Change: learning to unlock the blockers, win the first followers, and build momentum through quick wins, so good ideas stick instead of stalling.

Small, repeatable pieces that build the language across a whole staff.

As a leader who's been fortunate to access quality leadership development throughout my career, I'm passionate about helping every teacher and leader access the support, tools and frameworks to be their best. 

Leaders build leaders.

When I think about the schools I've had the privilege to work alongside, the most successful leaders are the ones who model and inspire, and intentionally create leadership around them. They know themselves. They grow their people. They lead strategic change.

That's how improvement becomes sustainable. 

And that’s the foundation of our Approach to Leadership.

If you want to see more about our Approach to Leadership and our programs, check out our Teacher PD brochure to see how this work could shape your school year.