28 October 2026
The Leadership Identity Shift
Published by Amanda Anderson
Over recent coaching conversations with school leaders, I’ve noticed something interesting in the way people describe themselves.
They can talk confidently about their responsibilities. They describe projects they lead, colleagues they support, decisions they make, changes they’re implementing and problems they’re trying to solve.
But introduce the question: “What are you like as a leader?” and sometimes the conversation changes. There’s a pause.
Some don’t really see themselves as leaders. Others describe themselves as managers. Some point out that they don’t formally line manage anyone. And occasionally, somebody begins to recognise that perhaps they have been leading for some time without necessarily describing what they do as leadership.
That distinction has stayed with me, because sometimes leadership practice develops before leadership identity catches up.
I’ve started to think of this as The Leadership Identity Shift.
What the leadership identity shift looks like in schools
Leadership in schools doesn’t always arrive neatly with a title.
People lead subjects.
They influence colleagues.
They support pupils and families.
They coordinate improvement.
They model practice.
They challenge decisions.
They introduce new approaches.
They help colleagues think.
They create consistency.
They solve problems.
Yet because they don’t necessarily have a senior title or direct line-management responsibility, they can underestimate the leadership involved.
Perhaps that’s partly because we often associate leadership with position.
Headteacher.
Deputy.
Assistant headteacher.
Head of department.
Phase leader.
But formal authority is only one way leadership happens. Much of leadership is influence and influence can exist long before the title arrives.
From doing to leading
There’s another version of the identity shift that I’ve noticed.
Many people enter leadership because they are very good at doing.
They’re knowledgeable.
Dependable.
Efficient.
They solve problems.
They get things done.
Those strengths often contribute to them being given leadership responsibility in the first place but then something changes. The role begins to require less:
Can you do this well?
and increasingly asks:
Can you help other people do this well?
That is a very different skill.
A leader who is used to being the person with the answer may need to learn when not to provide it. Someone who is highly capable may need to resist stepping in and doing something themselves. Someone who has built their professional identity around being dependable may need to allow other people to carry responsibility. The work becomes less about demonstrating your own capability and increasingly about building capability around you.
Leadership without the title
I think this matters particularly for people who don’t yet recognise themselves as leaders.
One of the questions I’ve found useful in coaching is: Where are you already having influence?
Not: What’s your title?
Not: Who reports to you?
But: What changes because you are there?
Who thinks differently because of a conversation with you?
Where have you helped create clarity?
Whose confidence have you strengthened?
Where have you challenged something that needed challenging?
What practice has changed because you influenced it?
Suddenly, leadership can become much easier to see. Perhaps leadership identity begins to shift when we stop looking only at position and start noticing impact.
Why It Matters Through an Educational Leadership Lens
Leadership identity matters because how we understand our role shapes how we behave within it.
If I believe leadership means having the answers, I am likely to provide more answers.
If I believe leadership means taking responsibility, I may carry more myself.
If I believe leadership depends upon authority, I may underestimate my ability to influence when I don’t have it.
But if I begin to understand leadership as creating the conditions in which other people can think, contribute, develop and take ownership, my behaviour changes.
I ask different questions.
I listen differently.
I become more comfortable stepping back.
I pay attention to what happens after I leave the room.
Perhaps the question gradually becomes less: What did I accomplish?
and more: What became possible because of my leadership?
When leadership becomes an identity question
This shift can become particularly visible when somebody begins considering their next role. Suddenly, interviews and applications ask questions that everyday school life doesn’t always require us to articulate.
What are your values?
What kind of leader are you?
How do you respond when things become difficult?
How do you challenge?
How do you develop others?
What is it like to be led by you?
Those are not questions about tasks. They’re questions about identity and I think that can explain why capable people sometimes find them surprisingly difficult. They know what they do.
They may have spent considerably less time thinking about who they are while doing it.
Why naming the pattern matters
Perhaps we sometimes expect leadership identity to arrive with leadership responsibility. I’m not convinced it does.
A new title doesn’t automatically change how someone sees themselves and equally, someone doesn’t need a title before they can begin seeing the leadership already present in their work.
The shift may happen gradually.
From doing to enabling.
From answering to questioning.
From controlling to influencing.
From personally carrying responsibility to creating shared ownership.
From: What do I need to do?
to: Who do I need to be?
And perhaps eventually: What becomes possible for other people because of how I lead?
Pause for a Moment
You might pause for a moment and ask yourself:
Q. Where are you already leading, even if you haven’t been calling it leadership?
There may be more evidence than you initially realise.
One Small Doable Action
At the end of this week, identify one moment when your impact came through someone else, rather than something you personally did.
Perhaps you:
→ asked a question rather than giving an answer.
→ created clarity.
→ supported somebody to make their own decision.
→ challenged someone’s thinking.
→ helped someone build confidence.
→ stepped back and allowed somebody else to take ownership.
Notice that moment.
Because leadership isn’t only visible in what you personally do.
Sometimes it is most visible in what becomes possible around you.
Noticing patterns in schools
This article forms part of the Noticing Patterns in Schools series, where I share patterns that emerge through leadership coaching conversations with school leaders across the UK.
The aim isn’t to prescribe quick fixes or offer generic advice. Instead, it is about noticing what might otherwise go unnamed and helping leaders create space for clearer thinking.
If you’d like to receive future reflections as new patterns emerge, you can subscribe to the LinkedIn newsletter.
Subscribe on LinkedInBecause resilience in leadership rarely comes from working harder. More often, it begins with noticing the patterns shaping the work.
You may also be interested in previous articles in this series:
