L6. Leaders eat last
Put the needs of others first. Servant leadership builds loyalty and trust.
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 Leaders Eat Last toolkit to show generosity and service so that staff feel supported, valued, and part of a united team.
Step 5. Coach and practice: Use the Leaders eat last Coach and Practise Frameworks to strengthen the behaviour through coaching questions about sacrifice and care, rehearsing the habit of putting others first so trust deepens.
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 text strengthens the behaviour by exploring how leaders who put others first create safety, loyalty and collective performance. Buy the book.
References from the Everyone Succeeds book
Greenleaf, R. K. (1977). Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness. Paulist Press.
Hester, W T. (2020). The Whole Teacher: Growing Educator Resilience and Well-Being. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Sinek, S. (2014). Leaders eat last: Why some teams pull together and others don’t. Portfolio Penguin.