Introduction
One of the most impactful lessons I learned was unplanned. One afternoon during my early years of teaching, my principal walked into my fifth-grade classroom during her routine walkthroughs. She noticed one of my more challenging students sitting alone at the back, head down, work untouched.
Knowing his personal situation, she pulled a chair from the nearest desk, sat beside her, and quietly interacted. The student raised her head and worked together through the first two problems - no announcement, no interruption to the lesson, no conversation with the teacher afterward.
That experience stayed with me. Seeing my principal sit with that student influenced my understanding of myself and my students. The experience served as an example of the quiet, persistent power of leading by example.
The Weight of Leadership
Leadership carries a weight that no job description fully captures. Every decision, meeting, and choice to stay and support your staff shapes the culture. Over three decades in education, I have met many leaders who could not explain the causes of declining morale or staff turnover. The cause was rarely found in policy, but in the daily conduct of those in charge.
Authentic leadership is a daily discipline rooted in integrity and transparency, not a personality trait. Titles may earn brief respect, but people follow character. Inconsistency erodes trust quickly. Research shows that leaders who demonstrate self-awareness and consistency foster trust and positive development within their organizations (Luthans & Avolio, 2003; George et al., 2007). Transparency means showing your values through your actions, especially during challenges, failures, and when taking responsibility for mistakes.
Aligning personal values with professional conduct requires honest self-reflection. Consider your beliefs about equity, learning, and people, and review your recent decisions for alignment. Being in integrity with your values does not mean that, as a leader, you won’t stray from them under pressure; this is human, not a moral failing. Effective leaders recognize and correct this, addressing it openly when necessary. Before your next staff meeting, identify one value you hold and choose a specific action to demonstrate it.
Resilience is best modeled, not taught. When challenges arise, your team observes how you respond. Do you withdraw, or do you return with a clear head and a plan? Resilience is not stoicism. Showing measured emotion, acknowledging difficulty, and moving forward purposefully teaches your team more about grit than any workshop. Leaders who navigate adversity with honesty inspire educators to do the same in their classrooms.
Impact on Students
The impact on students is tangible. Research consistently links school culture, shaped by principals and district leaders, to student engagement, attendance, and academic growth (Bryk & Schneider, 2003; Grissom, Egalite & Lindsay, 2021). When teachers feel trusted and well-led, they bring greater creativity to instruction, resulting in a better educational experience for students. The actions of leaders, even at a distance, ultimately affect every student. This is the lasting influence of exemplary leadership.
Leading by example is essential for equity. Equity-focused leaders act on their priorities, making decisions that reflect their commitment, from resource allocation to hiring practices (Radd et al., 2021). In one district I served, making equity a daily priority shifted staff expectations and improved outcomes for all students.
Growth mindset applies to leaders as well as students. When leaders show a willingness to learn, adapt, and acknowledge mistakes, they signal that improvement is expected and supported (Yeager et al., 2019). Sharing personal learning experiences encourages teachers to take instructional risks.
Your Legacy
Legacy is built in ordinary moments, not just visible ones. It forms through small actions: a conversation before school, an email acknowledging your team’s effort, or staying late to show the work matters. Over time, these moments accumulate and outlast your tenure.
Educators entering leadership roles should avoid “performing” authority. Teams notice the difference between genuine confidence and display. Aspiring leaders and scholars should study influential leaders by examining the specific habits and choices that made a lasting impression.
💬 Let's Talk
Here are a couple of questions and tasks I want you to sit with this week:
Recall an Unplanned Leadership Moment: Think of an unplanned moment—similar to the principal quietly sitting with a struggling student—when your actions spoke more clearly than any planned message you’ve delivered. What did that moment reveal about what you actually value, versus what you say you value?
Equity in Everyday Decisions: When you consider your most recent decisions around resources, scheduling, or hiring, how clearly do those decisions reflect your stated commitment to equity? Where is the gap between your intention and your action the widest?
Modeling Growth Mindset: When was the last time you openly acknowledged a mistake or a moment of learning in front of your staff or students? What stopped you from doing it sooner—and what did it cost your team while you waited?
Tasks
Conduct a Values Audit: Write down your top three professional values. Then review your calendar, meeting notes, and decisions from the past two weeks. For each value, identify one specific moment where your actions aligned with it—and one moment where they did not. Bring your honest findings to a trusted colleague or mentor for a brief conversation.
Model Resilience in the Next Difficult Moment: The next time your school or team faces a setback, resist the impulse to project certainty before you have it. Instead, acknowledge the difficulty plainly to your team, share one honest thought about how you are processing it, and outline a next step. Afterward, journal for five minutes: How did it feel to be visible in that way? What did you notice in how your team responded?
Document a Legacy Moment This Week: At the end of each day this week, write one sentence about a small, ordinary action you took—a hallway conversation, a note to a staff member, staying to help with something outside your role. By Friday, review the list. Ask yourself: Do these moments, taken together, reflect the leader I intend to be? Share one entry with a colleague and invite them to do the same.
The answers may not come immediately, but regularly reflecting on these questions is itself a form of leading by example.
Please feel free to share in the comments. I will respond.
My guest in this week’s Redux episode is Eve Kaltz, Superintendent of Center Line Public Schools in Center Line, Michigan. Eve has served as the Superintendent of Center Line Public Schools since 2009, but has spent all of her nearly 30-year career in the district. An important aspect of her work is her role in ensuring student engagement and belonging.
“If we don’t have relationships with students, they’re not going to realize the kind of success they can.” - Eve Kaltz
🛠️ Edupreneurs Network | This Week's Toolkit
Resources for educators who build, lead, and grow./
Redefining Education. Despite the increasing number of educators who have left the profession since 2020, a significant portion have chosen to become edupreneurs, harnessing their unique abilities and passions to forge edupreneurial niches that not only support education but also reflect their individuality and creativity.
✨ This Week’s Spark
Overcoming Negativity
📚 From the Bookshelf
If this issue resonated with you, Chapter 14 of Thought Leadership in Education: A Comprehensive Exploration of Transformative Educational Ideas goes deeper into legacy in ordinary moments and its application in sustaining school culture across leadership transitions. Legacy isn’t built in speeches—it’s built in the daily interactions that people carry with them long after you’ve moved on.[Grab it here]
📣 Know Someone Who Needs This?
If this newsletter is useful to you, there's likely a colleague in your building or district who would benefit from it too. Forward this to one person today.
How great leaders inspire action. In this influential TED Talk, Simon Sinek explains how leaders inspire trust and action by modeling purpose and consistency - directly echoing the newsletter’s message about leading by example. [Video]
Standards for Professional Learning at all levels of the system. Panelists representing multiple levels of school systems discuss how Standards for Professional Learning support and advance their work as well as the importance of coherence and alignment across roles and levels. [Webinar]
Why Leaders Need to Develop Their Own Growth Mindset. Peter DeWitt is a former K-5 public school principal turned author, presenter, and leadership coach. He is the founder of the Instructional Leadership Collective. [Article]