L12. Control the Controllables toolkit
Toolkit
Great leaders stay grounded by focusing their time and energy on what they can directly control or influence. In schools, external factors such as funding, policy changes, or national assessments are often outside our reach, but how we respond to them is entirely within our control. Leaders who maintain this distinction protect their own wellbeing, focus their teams on purposeful action, and create cultures built on agency rather than frustration.
| Clarify What You Can Control |
| List the issues currently demanding your attention. Which of these can you directly control through your own actions or decisions? Identifying them helps you channel energy where it makes a real difference. |
| Define What You Can Influence |
| What areas sit within your influence but not full control? These might include policies shaped by others, or external agencies whose actions you can guide through communication, advocacy, or partnership. |
| Acknowledge What Is Outside Your Control |
| Recognise the external factors you cannot change, such as national exams, Ofsted frameworks, or funding models. Accepting their limits frees mental space and prevents unnecessary frustration. |
| Plan Actions Within Your Circles |
| Focus on small, high-impact actions within your control or influence. Record specific steps that will drive progress this term, and review them regularly with your team. |
| Identify Time Spent on Uncontrollables |
| Reflect on where your energy is going each week. Are you spending too much time thinking about or discussing factors that you cannot influence? Identify patterns and commit to redirecting your focus toward meaningful action. |
| Reflection Prompts |
| Where am I spending too much time on factors I cannot influence? Are there any uncontrollables that might lead me to lose focus in the future? How can I model calm, solution-focused behaviour when external pressures feel overwhelming? What examples can I share with my team to help them reframe problems around what we can control or influence? |
L12. Control the Controllables: example toolkit
Role: Assistant Principal
| Clarify What You Can Control |
| This term, I began by listing everything competing for my attention: staffing changes, attendance, curriculum deadlines, and uncertainty around new national guidance. When I separated these into what I could actually control, my direct focus should be on how we support attendance daily, the clarity of curriculum planning, and the tone of communication with staff. Refocusing my attention helped me feel more in control and reduced unnecessary frustration. |
| Define What You Can Influence |
| I identified several areas where I could not decide outcomes alone but could influence them through partnership. For example, I worked with the local authority attendance officer to align strategies and maintained a regular dialogue with parents to build trust. By keeping influence channels open, progress became possible even where authority was shared. |
| Acknowledge What Is Outside Your Control |
| Accepting what I could not change was harder. National policy shifts and unpredictable staff absences were draining my energy because I kept mentally revisiting them. Writing them down in a separate column helped me name and let them go. I reminded myself and my team that while we cannot control the weather, we can control how we respond to the rain. |
| Plan Actions Within Your Circles |
| I set three actions entirely within my control: ensuring daily communication on attendance between pastoral and teaching staff, revising one section of the curriculum each week, and closing the loop on parent contact logs every Friday. These small but consistent actions became a rhythm that reinforced calm, focused progress even when external noise increased. |
| Identify Time Spent on Uncontrollables |
| When I reviewed my week, I noticed that too much time in meetings and corridor conversations was spent discussing external challenges, such as exam reforms. I began steering conversations toward what we could actually do differently within our school. This small shift made meetings more productive and improved morale, as people felt their actions could make a difference. |
| Reflection Prompts |
| By controlling the controllables, I found more clarity and peace of mind. It also changed the culture within my team, reducing complaints and increasing ownership. The next step is to build this language more explicitly into meetings so that our whole staff consistently asks, “What can we do about this?” rather than “Why is this happening to us?” |