T6. Be wonderful to work with
Ensure strong expectations for everyone while encouraging excellence. This creates both equity and ambition.
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 Be Wonderful to Work With toolkit to cultivate behaviours that make collaboration smooth, positive, and productive.
Step 5. Coach and practice: Use the Be wonderful to work with Coach and Practise Frameworks to strengthen the behaviour through reflection on behaviour and impact, rehearsing professionalism and kindness so collaboration thrives.
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
Radical Candour – Kim Scott (2017).
This text supports the behaviour by demonstrating how combining care and challenge builds strong, productive relationships. Buy the book.
References from the Everyone Succeeds book
Alexander, B.K., Coambs, R.B. and Hadaway, P.F., (1978) The effect of housing and gender on morphine self-administration in rats. Psychopharmacology, 58, pp.175-179.
Curry, O.S., Rowland, L.A., Van Lissa, C.J., Zlotowitz, S., McAlaney, J. and Whitehouse, H., (2018) Happy to help? A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of performing acts of kindness on the well-being of the actor. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 76, pp.320-329.
Heath, C. and Heath, D., (2017) The power of moments: Why certain experiences have extraordinary impact. Simon and Schuster.