Education Leaders | Strategic School Leadership Podcast By Shane Leaning | School Leadership & Organisational Development Coach cover art

Education Leaders | Strategic School Leadership

Education Leaders | Strategic School Leadership

By: Shane Leaning | School Leadership & Organisational Development Coach
Listen for free

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.

Education Leaders Ltd.
Economics Management Management & Leadership
Episodes
  • The Work Behind Education Leaders
    Mar 24 2026

    England spends £1 billion a year on teacher professional development, yet a poll of school leaders found that just 1% said it led to lasting change in practice. This episode examines why that gap exists, drawing on a landmark 2025 report from the Teacher Development Trust, which surveyed over a thousand teachers and leaders across England. The findings are stark, but the patterns, as Shane argues, are universal and if you lead a school anywhere in the world, the problems will feel familiar.

    You'll learn about the significant perception gap between what leaders think CPD achieves and what teachers actually experience, why the formats schools rely on most (workshops, online modules) are the least effective, and what the evidence actually points to instead. Shane shares five practical steps leaders can take right now, from closing the feedback gap with staff to investing in coaching and peer observation. Perhaps most urgently, the data shows a direct link between poor professional development and teacher retention and what kind of CPD would genuinely make teachers more likely to stay.

    Resources & Links Mentioned:

    Education Leaders Intensive



    Episode Partners

    International Curriculum Association

    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.

    Show more Show less
    15 mins
  • Poor Proxies for Leadership | A Conversation with Chris Baker
    Mar 16 2026

    How do we truly know if someone is a good leader? If your school relies on visible presence, constant busyness, or even a certain "look," you might be measuring the wrong things. In this thought-provoking episode, Shane is joined by experienced educator and leadership development specialist, Chris Baker, to explore the concept of 'poor proxies' for leadership. Inspired by Rob Coe's work on poor proxies for learning, Chris explains how schools often mistake correlated behaviours for the causal impact of effective leadership, potentially undermining leader well-being and organisational success.

    You’ll learn to identify common poor proxies like visibility, busyness, and confidence, and discover a more impactful framework for evaluation centred on two questions: "How does this leader make people feel?" and "What does this leader enable people to do?" Chris provides a practical, immediate action plan, advising you to audit your school’s leadership frameworks, recruitment processes, and development programmes for hidden proxies. If you want to move beyond superficial metrics and cultivate leadership that genuinely empowers your team, this conversation is an essential starting point.

    Resources & Links Mentioned:

    Connect with Chris Baker

    Rob Coe's work at Evidence-Based Education

    Leadership Launchpads by Chris Baker


    Episode Partners

    International Curriculum Association

    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.

    Show more Show less
    28 mins
  • The Work Behind Education Leaders
    Mar 9 2026

    Episode 151 is a milestone worth pausing on, and Shane uses it to do something he probably should have done sooner: properly introduce himself. Many listeners know the podcast but have never heard the full story of how Education Leaders grew from a simple desire for better conversations into a three-part organisation spanning a community, a coaching academy, and international school consultancy. This episode is Shane's honest account of those early uncertain months, the moment something shifted, and why he kept going long before he had any of it figured out.

    You'll hear how the Education Leaders Intensive came together, what drives the self-study courses launching soon, and why Shane co-founded The Work Collaborative, a not-for-profit built on one clear conviction: schools need to restore confidence in their own judgement. Shane explains what he keeps seeing in schools around the world, the cycle of well-intentioned consultants and initiatives that never quite stick because internal capacity was never built alongside them. If you're curious about the world behind the microphone, or simply want to understand what Shane and his collaborators are actually building, this is the episode to start with.

    Resources & Links Mentioned:

    • Education Leaders Intensive
    • The Work Collaborative


    Episode Partners

    International Curriculum Association

    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.

    Show more Show less
    10 mins
No reviews yet