Introduction
As a new term begins, in this new season I want to offer you something gentle; an invitation to arrive rather than to rush.
Leadership so often asks us to move quickly, decide decisively, and carry certainty on behalf of others. Yet many school and MAT leaders begin this term standing at an inner threshold, carrying the weight of what the last season required, while sensing that something new is quietly asking to emerge.
Leading with Depth exists to honour moments like this; moments when we allow ourselves to pause, to listen, and to trust that time, when met with attentiveness, can come good again. This is a space to reflect not only on what lies ahead, but on how we wish to walk into it: with presence, integrity, and a willingness to meet uncertainty with care rather than force.
That feels especially important now.
The Times We Are Living In
We are living in an age of increasing polarisation; socially, politically, and emotionally. Positions harden. Certainty is prized. Listening is often lost. And leadership, under pressure, can become reactive rather than reflective.
Schools do not sit outside this reality; they absorb it. They hold the tensions of the world within their walls.
Which is why I believe so strongly that these times call for a different quality of leadership; not louder or faster, but deeper. Leadership that is willing to engage complexity without collapsing into it. Leadership that understands that stewarding a better future for our young people begins with how we attend to our own inner lives.
Depth is not withdrawal from the world.
It is engagement at a more truthful level.
An Opening Word of Hope
“Time will come good
And you will find your feet again
On fresh pastures of promise,
Where the air will be kind and
Blushed with beginning.”
These words come from the late Irish poet and philosopher John O’Donohue.
Born in County Clare, John O’Donohue was deeply shaped by the landscapes, language, and spirituality of the west of Ireland. His work wove together Celtic spirituality, philosophy, and poetry, offering language for experiences many of us struggle to articulate; transition, loss, longing, belonging, and renewal.
He died unexpectedly in 2008, at the age of just 52. And yet, years on, his words continue to offer quiet companionship to those navigating uncertainty and change.
I often return to his writing, not because it offers easy answers, but because it honours complexity and invites a deeper, kinder way of being with ourselves and with one another.
From Learning to Walk in the Dark
I can’t quite believe that it’s been a year since the publication of Learning to Walk in the Dark.
It’s a book I never imagined I would write.
Born out of my own cancer diagnosis and recovery, it was written during a time when I was learning how to live with uncertainty, fear, and not knowing. During that period, I often returned to another of John O’Donohue’s blessings:
“May you find in yourself a courageous hospitality towards what is difficult, painful, and unknown.
May you use this illness as a lantern to illuminate the new qualities that will emerge in you.”
I returned to these words many times as I learned how to travel with my diagnosis. They didn’t ask me to deny fear or rush towards positivity. Instead, they invited me to meet my experience honestly with openness rather than resistance.
And, in the end, I did find a kind of courageous hospitality towards my cancer.
I began to paint.
And that painting helped me not only recover, but also discover what I have since come to describe as the gold hidden beside the wound.
This is the heart of Learning to Walk in the Dark.
Not the absence of difficulty, but the possibility of transformation through it.
‘Learning to Walk in the Dark’ is available on Amazon.
Leadership, Thresholds, and Depth
Increasingly, the leaders I work with sense that the old ways of leading are no longer enough for the world we are in.
They are committed, capable, and deeply moral people. And yet they feel called to lead with greater integrity, spaciousness, and truth especially amid complexity, accountability pressures, and rising uncertainty.
They know that:
- Technical answers cannot resolve complexities of human dynamics
- Performance alone cannot sustain human systems
- Leadership without inner work becomes brittle over time
Depth coaching supports leaders to stay present at these thresholds; not rushing past discomfort, not retreating into control, but allowing insight, wisdom, and compassion to emerge.
This is not easy work. But it is necessary work.
A Reflective Practice for the Start of Term
As you step into this new season, you might like to sit quietly with these questions:
- What kind of leader does this moment require me to be?
- Where am I being invited to go deeper rather than faster?
- What would it mean to lead in a way that helps steward a more humane future for our young people?
There is no need to hurry towards answers.
Walking deeply begins with listening.
Closing Thought
We are living and leading at a threshold.
In times shaped by uncertainty, fragmentation, and rapid change, leadership is not about having all the answers or forcing clarity too soon. It is about cultivating a ‘courageous hospitality towards what is difficult, painful’ and not yet known and trusting that something new can emerge if we stay present long enough.
As this term unfolds, may you find your feet again on fresh pastures of promise. May the air begin to feel kinder. And may your leadership be shaped not by haste or fear, but by depth, attentiveness, and a willingness to walk gently with yourself and others as new beginnings quietly take form.
With warmth,
Viv Grant
