L5. Stack the chairs
Do the small things that show commitment. Humility builds credibility.
Resources to support growth in this behaviour
Whether this behaviour has been chosen through Step 1. Diagnose, highlighted through reflection or coaching, or identified as a school or trust priority, you can now follow the steps below to develop and embed it in your daily leadership practice.
Step 2. Learn: Read Everyone Succeeds: 54 Leadership Behaviours to Transform Your School to understand what great leadership looks like in practice. Each behaviour is grounded in research and real examples from schools and businesses.
Step 3. Reflect: Use the Everyone Succeeds Workbook to apply ideas to your own context.
Guided reflection, practical actions, and space for planning turn understanding into improvement.
Step 4. Apply: Work through the Leadership Toolkit for this behaviour. Use the Stack the Chairs toolkit to model humility through small actions that signal teamwork, service, and collective responsibility.
Step 5. Coach and practice: Use the Stack the chairs Coach and Practise Frameworks to strengthen the behaviour through reflection on humility and service, practising small acts that signal contribution so hierarchy does not block teamwork.
These can be used individually or with colleagues to embed key behaviours.
Step 6. Plan: Set measurable goals using the 90 Day Leadership Planner.
Turn improvement into action by tracking your focus and progress over time, with completed examples for different career stages.
Step 7. Lead: Apply your learning to real situations through the Scenario Finder.
Over fifty scenarios link directly to the behaviours that help you solve the challenges that matter most in your school.
One book suggestion
Leaders Eat Last – Simon Sinek (2014).
This book reinforces your practice by emphasising how small, visible acts of service strengthen trust and model expectations. Buy the book.
References from the Everyone Succeeds book
Buck, A., (2018). Leadership matters 3.0. Woodbridge: John Catt.