ABSTRACT
You can spend a lot of time learning the lessons of leadership – there are courses in it after all. Some of the best lessons, though, are learned quickly and hard, as the result of making mistakes.
Once, when I was a deputy head, I was in the staffroom at break joking with colleagues when I realised that the break was well over and all the children would now be in the building. I looked around, and began to say something friendly and encouraging like:
‘Well, folks, I think it’s time we went to class.’ However, I got only as far as ‘Well …’ when the door burst open and
the head came in. He looked around, jerked his thumb towards the door and made that quick whistle between the bottom lip and the top teeth that means ‘Out!’
