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'The best recruitment advice I received was PERSEVERE.' Beccy Fox - Director of Teaching & Learning @BaliBeccy

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'The best recruitment advice I received was PERSEVERE.' Beccy Fox - Director of Teaching & Learning @BaliBeccy

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Viv Groskop

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Andrew Morrish

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Our Founders

DEBRA LANE, ED.D.

DEBRA LANE, ED.D.

DEBRA LANE, ED.D.

Dr. Debra Lane is a veteran educator with extensive experience across independent and public education, in the United States and abroad. Debra's career includes 6 years in Executive Administration, 15 years in Principal/Assistant Principal roles, and 5 years teaching in K-12 schools as well as at the university level. Debra's doctoral work on bullying prevention was transformative and she has served as a consultant around the world on bullying prevention as well as on instruction, school culture, technology, and equity. Today, Debra specializes in developing teachers and teacher leaders, and she works with educators and academic institutions to prepare future generations through purposeful learning.

KIMBERLY CULLEN

DEBRA LANE, ED.D.

DEBRA LANE, ED.D.

Kimberly Cullen is an international educator of 24 years. As an American citizen born in Brazil then raised in Texas and Spain, Kim is an adult Third Culture Kid who understands the unique benefits and opportunities that come from having cross-cultural experiences during the developmental years. Kim spent the vast majority of her professional life in the same international school, where she held a variety of roles in education including Head of Development, Guidance and College Counselor, Dean of Students and High School Principal. Kim has an M.A. in Education from the University of Hertfordshire in the UK, and an M.S. from Capella University in Human Services/Counseling. She graduated from Hamilton College with a B.A. in Religious Studies.

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Supporting women leaders in international education

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DEBRA LANE, ED.D. DEBRA LANE, ED.D. DEBRA LANE, ED.D. Dr. Debra Lane is a veteran educator with extensive experience across independent and public education, in the United States and abroad. Debra's career includes 6 years in Executive Administration, 15 years in Principal/Assistant Principal roles, and 5 years teaching in K-12 schools as well as at the university level.

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Book: Leadership Lessons from Around the World

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Book: Leadership Lessons from Around the World

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International schools represent almost 13,000 institutions across the globe. They span a myriad of forms and frameworks across hundreds of countries all over the world, and yet we are united by a common purpose: connecting cultures, people, and nations through education. is a collaborative effort to share stories that matter and are relevant to educators aspiring to become heads of international schools or anyone already involved in educational leadership. We asked 13 international school leaders to share their leadership story or lesson, each of which is captured and divided into seven major motifs:

International Education Leadership: Stories From Across the Globe

1. Mission, Vision, and Core Values
2. Professional Capacity of Educators
3. Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment
4. School Improvement
5. Community of Care and Support for Students
6. Equity and Cultural Responsiveness
7. Operations and Resource Management

Together, they illustrate the beautiful landscape of international school leadership; they turn an abstract work of art that paints everything tenuous, gray, and ambiguous in educational leadership into a clear form of tangible perspectives. The book unveils the mysterious skills of educational leadership to portray intuitive knowledge and perceptive accounts of lessons learned.

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International Education Leadership: Stories From Across The Globe: Leadership Lessons From 13 International School Leaders

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International Education Leadership: Stories From Across The Globe: Leadership Lessons From 13 International School Leaders [Chen, Catarina Song, Prendergast, Lindsay, Ting, Dr. Wallace] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. International Education Leadership: Stories From Across The Globe: Leadership Lessons From 13 International School Leaders

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A two-part exercise to help you name and operationalize your values.

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I've spent twenty years studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy, and I recently completed a seven-year study on brave leadership. The goal of Dare to Lead is to share everything we've learned about taking off the armor and showing up as leaders in a skills-based and actionable playbook. Here are a few of the big ideas that emerged from this research:

You can't get to courage without rumbling with vulnerability. Embrace the suck.

Daring leadership is a collection of four skill sets that are 100% teachable, observable, and measurable. The foundational skill set of courage-building is "rumbling with vulnerability." Once we have built these rumbling skills, we can move on to the other three skill sets: Living into Our Values, Braving Trust, and Learning to Rise. Our ability to be daring leaders will never be greater than our capacity for vulnerability.

Self-awareness and self-love matter. Who we are is how we lead.

The greatest barrier to courageous leadership is not fear-it's how we respond to our fear. Our armor-the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that we use to protect ourselves when we aren't willing and able to rumble with vulnerability-move us out of alignment with our values, corrode trust with our colleagues and teams, and prevent us from being our most courageous selves.

To scale daring leadership and build courage in teams and organizations, we have to cultivate a culture in which brave work, tough conversations, and whole hearts are the expectation, and armor is not necessary or rewarded. We have to be vigilant about creating a culture in which people feel safe, seen, heard, and respected.

The skill sets that make up courage are not new; they've been aspirational leadership skills for as long as there have been leaders. We just haven't had the courage for real talk about courage. But it's time. And if you want to call these "soft skills" after you've tried putting them into practice-go for it. I dare you. Until then, find a home for your armor, and I'll see you in the arena.

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Daring leadership requires brave work, tough conversations, and showing up with our whole hearts.

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Listen to the podcast here: https://www.courageousleadership.co.uk/podcast/

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You are leader?

Then you are in the courageous business! Leadership demands so much and at the heart of this is courage.

Join Diana as she explores the courage (and other emotions) that effective leaders use everyday.

Weekly podcasts

Courageous leadership, musings and funny stories

The Courageous Couch, in- depth interviews with guests sharing leadership challenges

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Mistakes, Mishaps and Triumphs. Everyday leadership heroes sharing the honest stuff!

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Courageous Leadership

Mistakes, Mishaps & Triumphs of Michelle Gyimah

Mistakes, Mishaps & Triumphs of Toni Mclelland

Mistakes, Mishaps & Triumphs of Steve Beckles-Ebusua

Mistakes, Mishaps & Triumphs of Dr Shirley Woods- Gallagher

Mistakes, Mishaps & Triumphs of Miriam Manderson

Mistakes, Mishaps & Triumphs of Mary Myatt

Mistakes, Mishaps & Triumphs of Krystyna Lennon

Mistakes, Mishaps & Triumphs of Adele Bates

Mistakes, Mishaps & Triumphs of Graham Smith

Mistakes, Mishaps & Triumphs of Julia Skinner

Mistakes, Mishaps & Triumphs of Dr Eno Amasi- Maycock

Mistakes, Mishaps & Triumphs of Ashanti Bentil -Dhue

Mistakes, Mishaps & Triumphs of Alastair Falk

Mistakes, Mishaps & Triumphs Dr Victoria Carr

Mistakes, Mishaps & Triumphs Dr Nira Chamberlain

Mistakes, Mishaps & Triumphs Professor Dame Alison Peacock

Mistakes, Mishaps & Triumphs Dr Jeffery Quaye

Courageous Couch : Joseph Williams CEO of Included.AI - Building high performing teams, inclusively.

Mistakes, Mishaps & Triumphs of Vivienne Porritt

Mistakes, Mishaps & Triumphs of Sharon Clews

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You are leader? Then you are in the courageous business! Leadership demands so much and at the heart of this is courage. Join Diana as she explores the courage (and other emotions) that effective leaders use everyday. Weekly podcasts Courageous leadership, musings and funny stories The Courageous Co…

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Read on how leaders build school culture: https://pragmaticreform.wordpress.com/2021/09/25/create-great-staff-culture/

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Great blog: https://www.yellowcar.io/blog

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Fragments II: micro stories about the learning business

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Fragments II: micro stories about the learning business. From School Leadership, to Advancement, the impact of Covid and everything in between.

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With so much advice being thrown at young women, it’s hard to know what to follow and what to ignore. Organizational psychologist Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic and CEO of IfWeRanTheWord Cindy Gallop provide a list of popular suggestions that they believe are best neglected:

Find a mentor. Instead, look for a champion, someone who has the agency to influence people at the top and will use it to help you.

Women are constantly told to be less apologetic. But we need to worry less about editing women, and more about editing incompetent and inappropriate men.

Ignore advice columns that tell you to gain more confidence. The problem isn’t women’s lack of confidence, but men’s oversupply of it.

Men are rarely told to find work-life balance, so why should you be? Instead, find somewhere to work that will respect the balance you choose.

Don’t “fake it till you make it.” Talk up your accomplishments, your intention, and your vision in a way that gets you recognized.

“Just be yourself” is a trite piece of advice. Instead, find a psychologically safe workplace where you really can be.

Finally, don’t ask for advice. Your intuition and gut instinct are far more valuable.

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Where your work meets your life. See more from Ascend here.

Young women entering the workforce are typically inundated by a wide range of career tips to help them succeed. Although most of this advice is probably well intended, that doesn’t necessarily make all of it helpful. In fact, many suggestions are more likely to perpetuate than reduce gender bias, by legitimizing the status quo, focusing on fixing women rather than the system, and blaming women for not behaving like incompetent men.

With so much advice out there, it’s hard to know what to follow and what to ignore. So, we wanted to provide a list of popular suggestions that we believe are best neglected: things women often read or hear that in our view can cause them more harm than good.

The best career advice we have is to simply avoid following any of the following suggestions:

1) Find a mentor.

We encourage you to strike the word “mentor” from your vocabulary and replace it with “champion.” Mentor is a warm and fuzzy term that suggests amenable chats, advice, and a shoulder to cry on. A champion is someone who makes things happen for you. Women don’t need mentors. Women need what men get all the time – someone prepared to go out on a limb for them. A champion is someone who, behind closed doors, slams their fist on the boardroom table and says, “If there’s only room for one bonus in the budget, it’s going to Jane, not John.” In other words, a champion is a committed sponsor who has the agency to influence people at the top and will use it to help you, someone who will be your loyal brand ambassador and push for you to get ahead — even if it means jeopardizing their reputation by disrupting the status quo.

To find a champion, pick a person in a position of power who is not sexist and especially not afraid to challenge the status quo. This can (and in a perfect world would) be a woman, but the numbers tell us that, right now, it is more likely to be a man. Why? Because in the corporate world, there is still a huge power gap between the sexes, and statistically speaking, men still get promoted more and occupy more higher level roles than women. Moreover, while it is absolutely essential for women to support and lift each other up, research shows that women who do make it to the top still have to overcome biased stereotypes to stay there, or are pressured to conform, which can make it difficult to speak out and be heard.

To change these bogus and outdated power dynamics, we believe the answer is to get more women in leadership roles, in boardrooms, and in the C-suite. But, as backwards as it sounds, we will likely need the support of men to do this.

Once you find a champion you trust, turn them into your ally. Showcase your talents, your drive, and commit to making an impact – make them feel proud to speak up for you. Just as research shows that CEOs who have daughters tend to pay women more (a finding we find depressing, since in a logical world men should not need to have daughters to value women), there are many non-sexist allies out there who are willing to help you, but if you don’t ask, you don’t get.

2) Change the way you speak.

Women are constantly told to change their vocabulary — to make it less apologetic and more assertive. “Don’t use the word ‘just’ as a qualifier.” “Stop saying ‘sorry’ all the time.” “Don’t ask for permission,” and so on. But guess what? The world would be a much better place, and the workplace a great deal happier, if instead of telling women to say sorry less, we told men to say sorry a whole lot more. The truth is, we need to worry less about editing women, and more about editing incompetent and inappropriate men.

Most of the problems organizations and nations have (e.g., corruption, bullying, harassment, and toxic or destructive leadership) are the direct results of our failures to restrain or inhibit powerful men, yet we are perpetually worried about censoring women. A better piece of advice for women? Speak freely and speak in any way that you like.

3) Be more confident.

A vast number of advice columns are devoted to encouraging women to gain more confidence, when the problem isn’t women’s lack of confidence, but men’s oversupply of it. Lacking confidence to the point that you are holding yourself back, or too anxious to take risks, is obviously not great. But a surplus of confidence is equally problematic. The right amount of confidence is that which aligns with your actual competence. If you are equally realistic about your talents as you are about your limitations, then you will be able to close the gap between how good you are and how good you want to be. Self-deception is the enemy of personal development. You only get better if you are aware of your flaws, and are willing to mitigate them.

That said, it is important to note that the overlap between people who feel confident and people who are actually competent is a mere 9%, meaning the two characteristics are barely related. In any area of life, we are better off when we bet on competence rather than confidence. For instance, would you rather have a heart surgeon, a financial adviser, or an airplane pilot who is confident or competent? As the pandemic has highlighted, there are devastating consequences to picking leaders on the basis of their confidence, when they don’t have the competence to back it up.

The world already suffers from a surplus of overconfident leaders (no prizes for guessing their gender). Plus, as we all know, confidence in women is not received the same way as confidence in men. Men often blame women for not being assertive, but when they do indeed “lean in” they are punished for not behaving in stereotypically “feminine” ways. So, don’t let the internet tell you that you are doing something wrong if you don’t feel confident. The standard you’re being compared to is most likely one of overconfidence — something too many people, and especially men, tend to feel. In reality, you are probably doing just fine.

Remember that self-awareness will always be a stronger asset than self-belief, and one many more men should emulate. It is ironic that we tell women to get rid of their imposter syndrome when many corporations have a problematic history of putting overconfident and under-competent men in positions of power.

4) Find work-life balance.

Men are rarely told to find work-life balance, so why should women be told this? Instead, find somewhere to work that cares about you. Seek out a workplace where those in charge of setting the rules and creating the culture know what really matters. Work somewhere where people trust you and your talents, so there’s no micromanagement and over-focus on where you are, what you’re doing, or how many hours you’re putting in.

One benefit of the pandemic is that it’s forcing employers to focus on results not process — or what’s delivered as opposed to where you are located or how much overtime you’re putting in. Make work fit your life versus the other way around. And if your employer doesn’t get it, then perhaps that’s a signal that you should work somewhere else, where people value your quality of life.

The easiest place to start: Look for female-founded or female-led companies, or companies with leadership and senior management ranks that are more female- than male-heavy. You may already know that startups with more women leaders outperform their competitors, and female founders are more successful than male founders despite getting less funding. But in addition to this, a global study found that employees at women-led companies “enjoy more autonomy and are specifically more satisfied with work-from-home policies when compared to male-led companies.”

Since women are often forced into entrepreneurship by the glass ceiling and other pervasive gender biases in their employers, they are more motivated to employ and help women, for they have been through the same experience.

Ascend

Career and life advice for young professionals.

5) Fake it till you make it.

Don’t fake anything. Instead, do yourself justice. This simply means talking up your accomplishments, your intention, and your vision in a way that gets you recognized. These are mere statements of fact. All you have to do is start saying them aloud.

Of course, things would be different — and perhaps more rational — if we lived in a world that rewarded actual talent and hard work, promoting people on the basis of merit rather than gender.

6) Just be yourself.

Easier said than done. Unfortunately, in many work environments, career success depends on understanding how others expect you to behave, and conforming to existing roles and conventions — and, again as we all know, being yourself as a woman is received differently from being yourself as a man.

What should you do instead? Seek out a work environment that understands and delivers what Google identified back in 2015 as the number one characteristic of high-performing teams: psychological safety (which, incidentally, our colleague Amy Edmondson had found many years prior to Google’s “discovery”). Psychological safety — the ability for team members to make themselves vulnerable in front of each other, to be able to be truthful and honest with no fear of repercussions — is what drives performance success, and what enables you to really be yourself.

How do you find a workplace that values and delivers psychological safety? Simple: just ask your interviewer, or better yet, someone who works there:

Do you feel your organization is one where people feel really able to speak up and share their opinions freely?

Do people with diverse backgrounds work at every level of your company? (You can also check this by researching the people who sit on their leadership team, or by looking into their current employees on LinkedIn.)

Do diverse candidates feel that they belong?

Are different opinions and views represented throughout the organization, and on your team?

Do you feel your teammates and manager have your back?

How often do people in the organization apologize to one another?

How are employees with families to take care of, particularly mothers, treated?

Their response will tell you what you need to know. There are also sites, such as Glassdoor, that enable you to get a sense of a company culture before you apply or accept an offer.

7) Ask for advice.

Why? Your intuition and gut instinct are far more valuable than any advice, and unfortunately, all too under-used in a business world where women are constantly the recipients of excessive amounts of advice, sought out or not. Do something you’re never encouraged to do — less asking advice, more listening to your gut.

To do that, you need to stop caring what other people think.  Fear of what other people think is the single most paralyzing dynamic in business, and in life. Instead, look within. When faced with a challenge, pay attention to your response. What do you want to do? What do you think the right next move is? Now, try it out.

If you make a mistake, learn from it. If you succeed, you will have done so by your own standards. We believe you will find that the more you follow your intuition about what is right or wrong, when to act and when not to, what to fight for and what to let go, the more valuable your successes will be, and when you fail, you will have failed by your own standards too.

Trust your own instincts. They represent the advice of someone who will always have your best interests at heart — you.

This last point applies equally to what you think of our suggestions. We’d just say that as a general principle, doing the opposite of what the corporate world tells women to do is likely to get you better results. While this may seem counterintuitive, there is little evidence of progress around gender equality after years of media publications and business gurus telling women to be more confident, lean in, find a mentor, or ask for more advice. To be sure, in the short term you may be better off playing nice and conforming to the status quo – but progress does not happen if we perpetuate an unfair and unmeritocratic system. It’s time to take a different approach.

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7 Pieces of Bad Career Advice Women Should Ignore

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With so much advice being thrown at young women, it’s hard to know what to follow and what to ignore. Organizational psychologist Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic and CEO of IfWeRanTheWord Cindy Gallop provide a list of popular suggestions that they believe are best neglected: Find a mentor. Instead, look fo…

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A favourite leadership "nugget" ...connect first. Beccy Fox - Director of Teaching & Learning @BaliBeccy

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A favourite leadership "nugget" ...connect first. Beccy Fox - Director of Teaching & Learning @BaliBeccy

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'Schools are better when everyone can see something they can aspire to.' Jon Field - Secondary Principal #HeForShe @JonFieldAV 

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'Schools are better when everyone can see something they can aspire to.' Jon Field - Secondary Principal #HeForShe @JonFieldAV 

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'Talk to your leadership about your aspirations for leadership.' Tyla Arabas - Director of Teaching and Learning @TylaArabas 

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'Talk to your leadership about your aspirations for leadership.' Tyla Arabas - Director of Teaching and Learning @TylaArabas 

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Network! As our panelist, Jane Adams said 'Being the only woman in a leadership team can impact your confidence'. @janeyads --> To combat this, make connections with other women in education. The WomenEd network is a great resource - Join us on LinkedIn, Facebook and/or Twitter, connect and start networking! Find someone and start a conversation :) 

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Network! As our panelist, Jane Adams said 'Being the only woman in a leadership team can impact your confidence'. @janeyads --> To combat this, make connections with other women in education. The WomenEd network is a great resource - Join us on LinkedIn, Facebook and/or Twitter, connect and start networking! Find someone and start a conversation :) 

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'Find that good fit. Find a school that fits your ethos and values. If it doesn't it is not the right school for you.' Rebecca Owens - Head of Secondary School @beccaasiaowens

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'Find that good fit. Find a school that fits your ethos and values. If it doesn't it is not the right school for you.' Rebecca Owens - Head of Secondary School @beccaasiaowens

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'Remember that if they didn't want you then you don't really want to work there. Put a positive spin on rejection which can hurt.' Tyla Arabas - Director of Teaching and Learning

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'Remember that if they didn't want you then you don't really want to work there. Put a positive spin on rejection which can hurt.' Tyla Arabas - Director of Teaching and Learning

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'Honest and integrity are values that I look for in candidates at interview. If you have a principal who doesn't want to be challenged by you as a middle leader, you don't want to work there.' Jon Fields - Secondary Principal

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'Honest and integrity are values that I look for in candidates at interview. If you have a principal who doesn't want to be challenged by you as a middle leader, you don't want to work there.' Jon Fields - Secondary Principal

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Check out the Chartered College of Teaching! You can sign up to the subscription list and if interested become a member

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Check out the Chartered College of Teaching! You can sign up to the subscription list and if interested become a member

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The Chartered College of Teaching is the professional body for teachers. We are working to empower a knowledgeable and respected teaching profession through membership and accreditation . We are dedicated to bridging the gap between practice and research and equipping teachers with the knowledge and confidence to make the best decisions for their pupils.

We are supporting the profession to shape the future of teaching. In these challenging times, it is more important than ever that teachers are celebrated for their expertise and professionalism and that teachers have the opportunity to have their voice heard through consultations, surveys and roundtables. The Chartered College of Teaching is an unequivocally positive voice for teaching, raising the status of the profession to benefit teachers, their students and the whole of society.

"Teachers and schools are at the heart of what we do. We want to support the teaching profession to thrive in an optimal, research-informed way, providing the best possible education for children and young people."

Professor Dame Alison Peacock, Chief Executive of the Chartered College of Teaching

Supporting your profession

Latest announcements and comments

Become a Chartered Teacher

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Chartered College of Teaching Home - chartered.college

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The Chartered College of Teaching is the recognised professional body for teachers. We are focused on celebrating, supporting and connecting teachers.

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If you don't feel comfortable in an interview question why that may be. Is it because it's online [or the formatting] or is it because something isn't aligning with your key values? Do your due diligence.' Rebecca Owens - Head of Secondary 

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If you don't feel comfortable in an interview question why that may be. Is it because it's online [or the formatting] or is it because something isn't aligning with your key values? Do your due diligence.' Rebecca Owens - Head of Secondary 

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Go for it! Even if you look at the job specification and you only have 50% of what they are looking for. A man would.' Jane Adams - Head of English & Experienced Senior Leader @janeyads

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Go for it! Even if you look at the job specification and you only have 50% of what they are looking for. A man would.' Jane Adams - Head of English & Experienced Senior Leader @janeyads