Couverture de Education Leaders | Strategic School Leadership

Education Leaders | Strategic School Leadership

Education Leaders | Strategic School Leadership

De : Shane Leaning | School Leadership & Organisational Development Coach
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Strategic school leadership insights for education leaders who want to drive meaningful change and build thriving school communities.


What if the most powerful leadership strategies were hiding in plain sight? Education Leaders uncovers the evidence-based approaches that separate truly effective school leaders from the rest. Through compelling interviews and strategic deep-dives, organisational coach Shane Leaning reveals the real challenges facing today's education leaders, and the practical solutions that actually work.


Every other Tuesday, discover how renowned educators and thought leaders tackle school improvement, staff development, and cultural transformation. You'll learn actionable strategies you can implement immediately to build confidence in your leadership and create lasting impact in your school community.


On alternate weeks, Shane delivers focused episodes that address the leadership challenges you face daily: managing diverse teams, driving innovation, building organisational identity, and implementing sustainable change. Each episode offers clear, research-backed frameworks for developing your leadership capacity.


Whether you're a department head questioning your next move, an assistant principal navigating complexities of a big team, or a superintendent driving district-wide change, Education Leaders provides the strategic insights you need to lead with confidence.


Consistently ranked #1 schools podcast in Education category across multiple regions.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Épisodes
  • Education Leaders LIVE | February Reflections

    Education Leaders LIVE | February Reflections
    Mar 6 2026
    Teachers spend years learning to coach people. Ask questions, not give answers. Build trust before expecting vulnerability. Hold space. Stay quiet when staying quiet is the hardest thing.Then they get promoted. And most of it disappears.Chris Scorer — school leader, data specialist, and co-host of Education Leaders Live — said it plainly this month: "You'd never walk into a classroom and tell kids to do something just because you're telling them to. Yet leadership very often does exactly that."If you've ever watched that gap open up — between what you know good leadership looks like and what actually happens under pressure — you're in the right place. You're not the only one who's seen it.This is Education Leaders Live, the monthly companion show to the Education Leaders podcast. Each month, host Shane Leaning and Chris Scorer sit down with the listeners who show up live to unpack the best conversations from the feed. This month they hit a milestone — Episode 150 — and three conversations that kept pulling at the same uncomfortable question.Why coaching programmes fail If you've ever launched a coaching initiative in a school and watched it quietly dissolve, Gene Tevonetti's research will probably explain why. After working with hundreds of schools, he found it's almost never the method that fails. It's one unresolved question that nobody answered at the start: what gets shared, what stays private, and who actually agreed on that before the coaching began? Confidentiality isn't just a detail. It's the foundation — and most schools pour it last.Why smart leaders make terrible decisions You're not irrational. You're human. Shane walked through five cognitive biases that show up constantly in school leadership — anchoring, availability, the endowment effect, groupthink, and optimism bias. Chris brought an unexpected angle: Richard Thaler built behavioural economics to help people understand how we actually make decisions, not the tidy rational-actor fiction economists had been selling for decades. Then it came out he'd run workshops for Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk on how to use that same understanding to manipulate people through their websites. Chris was genuinely heartbroken. He contrasted it with Tim Berners-Lee, who simply gave the internet to the world with no IP, no commercial conditions, nothing. "With great power comes great responsibility," Shane said. It might be the most honest five seconds of the month.The future of British international schools (Episode 150 milestone) Simon Probert introduced an idea that's quietly reshaping how the best international schools think: rooted cosmopolitanism. There's a difference between raising students to be "global citizens" — a well-meaning idea that can leave young people belonging to nowhere — and students who are deeply anchored in their own culture and genuinely open to the world. As demographics shift in international school cities like Shanghai, this stops being philosophical. What is your school actually for? Do all your stakeholders agree? And if they don't, whose job is it to sort that out?Chris also had his "Chris Solves the World" moment. One practical step that any international school could take tomorrow. It involves language. Worth staying for.You can join Shane and Chris live every last Thursday of the month at educationleaders.live, on LinkedIn, or on YouTube — 6pm Shanghai / 10am UK. Bring your thoughts, your pushback, and your own stories from the field. That's what this show is built for.If this is your world, we'd genuinely love to have you in the room.👇 Which of these three conversations is living in your head right now? Let us know.Join Shane's Intensive Leadership Programme at educationleaders.co/intensiveShane Leaning, an organisational coach based in Shanghai, supports school leaders globally. Passionate about empowment, he is the author of the best-selling 'Change Starts Here.' Shane is a leading educational voice in the UK, Asia and around the world.You can find Shane on LinkedIn and Bluesky. or shaneleaning.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    52 min
  • The Future of British Schools Abroad | A Conversation with Simon Probert

    The Future of British Schools Abroad | A Conversation with Simon Probert
    Mar 2 2026

    What does it mean to lead a ‘British’ school in an international context today? If your school promotes ‘global citizenship’ but struggles to feel truly grounded in its local community, this conversation is essential. Shane is joined by headteacher and author Simon Probert, who argues that the future success of our sector depends on moving beyond a ‘rootless’ global identity. He introduces the powerful concept of ‘rooted cosmopolitanism,' building a school identity that is deeply connected to its local place and culture while maintaining its global outlook.

    You’ll learn why the term ‘global citizen’ can be problematic and loaded with privilege, and how to intentionally localise your curriculum, traditions, and community practices. The episode provides practical strategies for fostering genuine belonging, implementing effective co-leadership models between international and local leaders, and designing inclusive staff cultures that bridge cultural divides.

    Resources & Links Mentioned:

    Simon's LinkedIn

    Hartmut Rosa's 'Uncontrollability of Culture

    The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

    Stuart Hall's writings on culture and identity


    Episode Partners

    International Leaders Conference

    Teaching Walkthrus


    Join Shane's Intensive Leadership Programme at educationleaders.co/intensive


    Shane Leaning, an organisational coach based in Shanghai, supports school leaders globally. Passionate about empowment, he is the author of the best-selling 'Change Starts Here.' Shane is a leading educational voice in the UK, Asia and around the world.


    You can find Shane on LinkedIn and Bluesky. or shaneleaning.com

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    28 min
  • Communication Masterclass | How to Paraphrase

    Communication Masterclass | How to Paraphrase
    Feb 23 2026

    You explained it clearly, they nodded, and two weeks later three people did three completely different things. This episode tackles one of the most common and costly communication breakdowns in school leadership: assuming that because you said it, it landed. Shane draws on research from Cornell and Stanford, including the "tappers and listeners" study, to explain why even experienced leaders consistently overestimate how clearly their message has been received, and why just knowing about these biases isn't enough to fix them.

    The answer is a simple three-step habit called paraphrasing: signal, restate, check. You'll learn why paraphrasing is fundamentally different from just repeating words back, how it surfaces misunderstandings in the moment rather than weeks later, and why it's especially valuable in international school settings where language and cultural norms add another layer of complexity. Shane also covers how to handle the slightly awkward moment when someone looks at you like you're going oddly slowly, and why naming what you're doing dissolves that resistance almost immediately. If you're ready to try one thing this week that will change how your conversations feel, press play.

    Resources & Links Mentioned:

    Shane Leaning's Education Leaders Intensive


    Episode Partners

    International Leaders Conference

    Teaching Walkthrus



    Join Shane's Intensive Leadership Programme at educationleaders.co/intensive


    Shane Leaning, an organisational coach based in Shanghai, supports school leaders globally. Passionate about empowment, he is the author of the best-selling 'Change Starts Here.' Shane is a leading educational voice in the UK, Asia and around the world.


    You can find Shane on LinkedIn and Bluesky. or shaneleaning.com

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    17 min
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