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Best Laid Plans …

Rolling with the punches


It’s August 2020.


I have just left a challenging and highly rewarding role as a Principal (‘Director’) at a school that holds many significant and happy memories for me.  It is not easy to say goodbye.


At this time 4Cs Coaching & Leadership Development was born.  A commitment to support the development and growth of educational leaders, and to honour my values.

It wasn’t a straightforward process….


  • Relocating to a new country on a temporary visa (Yeeks!  How temporary?)

  • Starting your own business at the early stages of a global pandemic (Good idea and good timing?  Mmmmmmh)

  • Contacting your network to let them know you are available for coaching and leadership development work (Maybe they have other things on their priority list right now…. like the world shutting down!)

  • Still, at least you get more time with your family (Wait! … a month spent in quarantine and 15x weeks stuck in ‘transit’ trying to get ‘home’ and then to where my family are)


The picture is of my boys waiting for me.  I hadn’t seen them for 4 months.  It was a reminder of what is REALLY important in life.



I have learnt through my roles in school leadership, and in my work as a professional coach of leaders in schools, that you never know what is round the corner.  The transition into a new profession from August 2020, and the months that followed, were in many ways symbolic of this realisation.


The challenge often seems to be making sense of the complexities that sit around us at any given moment and being comfortable with a degree of uncertainty and ambiguity.


As a recovering perfectionist, and someone that likes to do things well I recognise that these are not always traits that are sustainable in complex and unpredictable environments.  My coaching business did not get off to a perfect start.


Agility, a focus on learning and sense making (rather than certainty and absolutes) are often more sustainable behaviours in such environment. As someone who had been a competitive boxer in my younger years, I learnt how to ‘role with the punches’ and certainly this has been a helpful mindset to call upon.


Many schools are (or already have) come to the end of the academic year.  The end of term naturally sees people ‘moving on’.  It is particularly true in international school settings.  Such transitions are normal, and yet can still be unsettling as the dynamics of teams change.


How best to navigate a changing and uncertain landscape?


This is something that is often a focus for my coaching with leaders.  Dealing with complexity, making sense of things in uncertain conditions, being comfortable with ‘not knowing’, developing insight and strategies about how best to lead when uncertain.


  • How do you ‘roll with the punches’?

  • When was the last time you faced uncertainty?

  • How often have you had to be agile and change the ‘Best Laid Plans’ …..

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