What Good Leadership Really Looks Like

Being a parent governor has given me a completely new perspective on leadership.

When I first joined, I wasn’t quite sure what value I could add. Schools have their systems, their experts, their rhythms, and you wonder, as a volunteer coming in from the outside, what difference you can really make.

But somewhere along the way, things started to click. I stopped overthinking my contribution and just started listening. Asking questions. Sharing observations. Supporting the people who already do incredible work every single day.

And after our last meeting, I left with a feeling I hadn’t expected, that quiet sense of being useful.

Not in a headline way, not because I’d made some grand change or solved a major issue, but because I’d added something. A perspective, a question, a bit of encouragement. And it mattered.

It reminded me that leadership isn’t always loud or visible. Often, it’s the people in the background who create the space for others to thrive. It’s the person who notices the detail, who follows up, who asks the right question at the right moment.

That’s what I’ve seen in the school environment: leadership that’s steady, human, and entirely focused on enabling others to do their best work. Headteachers, teachers, support staff; they all lead in their own way, not by commanding, but by guiding.

And that idea has followed me back into my professional world, too.

In business, we talk a lot about impact, strategy, vision, and all of that matters. But sometimes the most meaningful thing we can do is help someone else feel useful. Because when people feel useful, they feel valued. They bring more energy, more ideas, more care.

Maybe usefulness deserves more recognition.

It’s not flashy. It won’t make a headline. But it’s purpose in motion, the heartbeat of progress in every school, business, and team.

So I’m holding on to that lesson: to notice where I can add value, to listen more than I speak, and to appreciate the quiet power of being useful.

Because being useful isn’t small, it’s the start of everything good that follows.