Tag: personal-development

Vision and blindspots

Over the next few weeks, I want to reflect on some of the professional strengths and professional challenges I have identified over the past few years of leadership. These strengths and challenges are informed by both my experiences and several standardized assessments (Myers-Briggs, DiSC, etc.).

Strength – Visionary & Innovative Creativity

This is a strength that I would not have recognized myself without multiple assessments identifying a similar pattern. I had never thought of myself as creative, and certainly not in a way that might be connected to leadership. Several years ago, when I conducted these assessments as part of the PTC programme, I began to recognise both the opportunity for creativity and my own ability to think creatively. I was lucky to have a role in a school that allowed me to develop this further, and it became beneficial as I moved into formal leadership roles and was specifically tasked with solving issues that required a creative approach. Reflecting on most of my career, the opportunity for creativity has been a consistent theme, whether through piloting a new model of curriculum framework, developing teaching and learning experiences, or working with whole school committees navigating change. I have been fortunate to unintentionally develop and refine this skill set throughout my career.

Challenges – Communicating Vision & Building Rapport

As a teacher and middle leader, there are very few opportunities to develop communication of a vision. One area in which I consistently tried to do this and achieved success was with parents during open house events, communicating the importance and value of Physical health education. It was through these conversations that I was able to practice and refine a vision for the subject that would resonate with a diverse audience. As a middle leader, this becomes more challenging when you take on a role where you must communicate and support the school’s vision to ensure your team can move forward, but also work towards developing a shared vision for that particular group. I was able to practice this as a grade-level leader, but it was often challenging and would more often than not lead to conflict around which to prioritize, the school’s or team’s vision. In hindsight, I was too focused on the vision of the wider organization. I did not spend enough time working with the team to build the rapport necessary to understand the multiple perspectives informing the team’s vision.

At my current school, I keep the mission and vision of the organization at the centre of my work. This includes intentionally embedding these into systems, processes, and procedures. My role is highly operational and not focused on developing larger strategic work. I am fortunate to be included in many strategic discussions and enjoy that work immensely.

Moving forward, one of my professional goals through enrolling in the EMBA programme is to develop and refine the skills needed to communicate the larger vision through operational pieces. For example, through our work with the middle school timetable, we can operationalize the core beliefs of our organisation, ensuring that the systems we implement reflect what we believe.

Push and pull

As a leader, striking a balance between push and pull is essential. Leadership demands flexibility: what works in one situation may not in another, so an effective leader must adapt their approach based on what the moment and organization requires.

Many leadership models—and many “gurus”—emphasize a “pull” story of leadership. Emphasizing the need to create buy-in through collaboration, inviting input, building shared vision. These are powerful tools. I believe in them and have had career-changing experiences both working with leaders applying these theories as well as using them myself. But they are not sufficient on their own.

There are times when people need a push. When complacency or stagnation are setting in, when moving forward feels impossible, a directive nudge is necessary. Though push (directive) styles risk appearing authoritarian, they are a necessary part of the leader’s toolkit—especially when strategic goals demand urgency. One of the most common errors I’ve seen in my career is leaders who rely too much on pull alone, even when the context calls for push. Such overreliance leads to frustration, low morale, and disengagement—not always from those who lag, but from those who want to move forward and feel held back by a perceived lack of leadership.

Push becomes especially necessary when change must happen fast. Think of a new leader entering an organization, trying to realign practices or reset expectations. In those “first 90 days,” you need early wins. You need clarity. You need visible shifts. When the vision is clear, when some colleagues are already on board, when momentum can be built, a push at the right time and in the right direction can reset the pace. But push doesn’t mean abandoning support; it means being explicit: this is how we are working now, this is how we are progressing. You give people every resource to succeed, but also make clear where change is non-negotiable.

An example of push style leadership I came across while developing my thinking comes from a video from HBR focused on “Commander’s Intent”. The framework is that it is the leader’s responsibility to define why the work matters, outline what needs to be done, and, most importantly, what the outcome should look like. What I appreciate about this model is that there is no explicit mention of how; this crucial piece is left to the members who need to move forward. The idea of providing a push into action through giving clear direction, support and the expectation of initiative.

By contrast, pull is what you lean into for long-term strategy and deep cultural change. It’s what builds commitment when the stakes are sustained over years, not weeks. It’s how you engage others so they feel ownership of the path forward. Pull nurtures trust, creativity, and alignment, especially when the direction isn’t crystal clear or when people need to bring in their ideas and expertise.

For either mode to work well, a leader needs a clear vision and, crucially, self-awareness. You must be able to sense whether the situation calls for push or for pull, or both. Push used too much undermines sustainability and alienates people; pull used too much when urgency is needed results in drift. Leadership lies not in choosing one style, but in being able to shift between them, applying both effectively.

Leadership isn’t about being consistently gentle or always forceful—it’s about being present in the moment, reading the room, and leading in a way that matches both the needs of the people and the urgency of the purpose. As developing leaders, we must prepare to take on new challenges and intentionally practice this balancing act. Pay attention to the times when you pull people along and when you push them forward. The key to developing as an organizational leader often comes down to learning when to pull and when to push, and doing both with integrity, clarity, and care.