Becoming: Leadership Stories for the Middle

In this episode of Becoming, I sit down with Nate Atkinson, Principal of Northholm Grammar School in Sydney.

Alongside running a K–12 school, Nate is undertaking doctoral studies into what gives principals longevity. Not just grit and resilience as words we throw around in schools, but the actual habits and routines that let someone keep turning up and producing excellence over decades.

This conversation is a little different to the ones that have come before it. Where previous guests have talked about trust, loyalty and identity, Nate talks about the craft itself. Teaching quality, and what it means for the middle leaders who carry it.

We discuss the three skill sets every middle leader has to build, how to tell a colleague their teaching isn't good enough without breaking the relationship, whether you can be a great leader and a mediocre teacher, and much more!

Nate also names something I hadn't heard put so well. The halo effect. We assume someone good at one thing must be good at everything, so we promote our best teachers and then never train them. It is, I think, the clearest explanation of why middle leadership gets overlooked that I have come across.

A great episode and I am very grateful for Nate's time.

In this episode I sit down with Tom Cowell, Principal of an ELC to Year 12 school in regional South Australia, and a leader who has spent his entire 18-year career inside one organisation.

Tom started as a graduate teacher who was handed a Year 10 maths class he had no idea how to teach. Eighteen months in, he seriously questioned whether education was for him.

He went on to progress through year level coordination, curriculum leadership, Deputy Principal, and now Principalship, all within the same organisation.

That path gives Tom rare insight to what it is actually like to lead from within and the challenges it can pose.

We discuss how to deal with being rejected for roles and how to deal with the fall out, the changing nature of relationships when progressing within an organisation, and much more!

Tom describes middle leadership as the bridge of the school. The one role in a school with its finger on the pulse of teaching, families, students and business, without having to carry the full weight of any of it. It's the most generous description of the middle I've heard on this show.

A great episode and I am very grateful for Tom's time.

In episode 3 of Becoming, I chat with Dr Paul Browning, a school principal of more than 25 years, author of Compelling Leadership and Principled, recipient of an Order of Australia Medal for services to education, and currently Managing Director of Vivedus.

Paul's PhD uncovered ten practices that build a culture of trust, and trust runs through everything we discuss. But this conversation goes further than theory. Paul is candid, occasionally blunt, and tells it how he sees it.

We discuss how to build trust, and how quickly you can lose it, how to balance the line between personal and professional, and how to navigate relationships within any organisation.

Paul doesn't offer easy answers, and some of what he says will sit uncomfortably, but leadership is all about being challenged!

In episode two of Becoming, I sit down with Clare Turnbull, an educator whose entire career has been a masterclass in leading with integrity, clarity, and purpose.

Clare's journey through middle leadership was anything but ordinary. From stepping into leadership early in a small school where everyone had to lead, to spending 13 years as Head of Prep at one of the most decorated schools in the country, before building a new international school from the ground up, Clare has done it all.

Though we only worked together for six months, Clare's influence on my own leadership has been lasting. She is the kind of leader who gives generously of her time, speaks honestly without fuss, and always keeps the why front and centre.

In this conversation, Clare shares her wisdom on what it really means to be a middle leader, staying rooted in the vision, managing up with grace, having the hard conversations well, and resisting the trap of climbing too fast. Her closing challenge to keep a record of the 'wow moments' is something I suspect many of us will carry with us long after this episode ends.

If you are stepping into leadership, growing within the middle, or simply trying to remember why you started, this episode is for you.

In the very first episode of Becoming, I sit down with Robert Teague, my former boss and the Headmaster of an all-boys Catholic school in London.

Robert is the leader who gave me my first ongoing Middle Leadership opportunity, and it was a privilege to reconnect with him and hear his reflections on his own journey through Middle Leadership.

Robert’s wisdom, humility, and clarity around what middle leaders must navigate are as compelling today as they were when I first learned from him.

A dedicated and deeply caring school leader with decades of experience, Robert offers insights that will resonate with anyone stepping into, or growing within, the Middle.

I’m excited to share this conversation, and I encourage you to tune in and learn from someone who has shaped countless leaders, myself included.