When you misread your staff...linkedin.com/posts/activity…

A new post tonight (I've been daily since New Year's Day) - this one's about vexatious parents. linkedin.com/posts/david-s-…

Data shows the shape of things. People explain why it matters. Data tells you what. People tell you why. Data is the map. People are the terrain. Data reveals patterns. People reveal consequences.

Still banging on about pop culture as an allegory for school leadership - this time it's back to Star Trek - posted on LinkedIn linkedin.com/posts/david-s-….

Also, data on it's own can be very triggering can't it. People need time to digest it and think about the context it relates to. Glad you didn't take offence at their initial react and gave them grace to respond again.

Some days, leadership is a tightrope in a high wind. No net. A thousand voices shouting with absolute certainty about what you should do next, or should have done already. Not one of them willing to place a single foot on the f-ing rope!

I shared data today. Just facts. No assumptions attached. It’s information that’s publicly available all the time. Still, a few people took offence and got defensive. That part is familiar. What mattered more was choosing not to meet defensiveness with more noise. 1/3 🧵

Leadership lessons from @stephenking.bsky.social www.linkedin.com/posts/activi...

Facing the week with a fresh outlook isn’t about a big reset or a new version of yourself. It’s quieter than that. It’s just waking up and deciding not to carry everything from last week forward by default. 1/3 🧵

Good leadership can be knowing what NOT to improve, atwast just now: linkedin.com/posts/david-s-…

Let your leadership be scrutinised without rushing to defend it. Reflection sharpens judgement far more than justification ever does. Separate who you are from the role you hold. Leaders who fuse identity to title lose the breathing space needed to listen and adapt. 1/5

This week's Shakey Leadership summary: linkedin.com/posts/activity…

Leadership is a role you inhabit, not a reflection of your worth. Listen without armour, take the work seriously but yourself lightly, and remember: if your work is the only thing defining your gravity, you’ll always be one difficult email away from a crash.

External scrutiny will sharpen thinking if you let it. Explaining decisions and justifying self-assessment strips away comfort, exposing what really matters. Once done, rest and compartmentalise. Reflection sharpens judgement, but rest is what allows it to settle.

Humility in leadership matters. Admitting you’re wrong builds trust *if* the culture is right. In weak cultures, openness gets mined for leverage. So don’t confuse humility with exposure. Strong leaders are honest and discerning.

If you don’t post because you’re protecting your energy, that is the practice. If you then turn that into a post anyway, that’s just being human. Boundaries aren’t clean. They’re learned in public 😉

In primary schools, you can be reflective, values-led and still miss something important. Blind spots don’t live in intention, they live in impact. That’s why leadership needs listening as much as thinking.

Something can benefit from a pause before taking action can't they. Take a step back, get some perspective and decide the best course of action - which often isn't the first thing you thought of.

What feels urgent up close looks different from altitude. Not necessarily smarter, just further back. Good leadership is letting perspective speak, then deciding with the whole map in view.

And this is what we sacrifice when constant pressure overwhelms our self protective instincts. And yet the current system often demands it.

Exactly this. Worrying about what might happen is not a good use of your energy. You cannot possibly plan for every possible eventuality. 😊

Out.

So I have written another blog, still under the file 'dull but useful'. This one is parents' evening. As with everything I write, take it or leave it as you please... philsalisbury.wordpress.com/2026/01/18/p...

Endurance is about how much you can weather. Presence is about how much you can offer. We often over-prepare for the former and neglect the latter. True readiness isn’t found in rehearsing the struggle; it’s found in the quiet capacity you build before the storm.

1/3 🧵 With a brutally heavy week ahead, I prepared by doing anything except thinking about work. Thinking ahead would have been an attempt to control the uncontrollable, not preparation. A week like this needs capacity, not rehearsal. Capacity is built sideways, not head on.

When did I forget I’m happiest with a tune in my ears, words before my eyes, and a coffee or a beer on my lips. When did I trade that for noise, for hurry, for the belief that joy had to be earned rather than noticed. Music still waits. 1/2

"Two of life's greatest pleasures, by my reckoning, are camping and reading - most gloriously, both at once." Love this.

1/2 Tyre puncture repair today at Kwik Fit. Not our local one, which was fully booked, but the Hall Green branch. The repair was routine. The service wasn’t.

"David is a reflective, principled, slightly wary leader who writes to stay honest, who knows power is real, who does not want to be owned by it, and who is quietly preparing for a life beyond the role even while still taking the role seriously."

1/4 🧵 On Writing: I have been writing a lot and posting it here. You’ve noticed. My daughter’s friends have noticed too (sorry Emi). I enjoy writing and have recently reconnected with that love.

It's John Carpenter's birthday. A genre stalwart it's no easy pick choosing a favourite film. His remake of The Thing, Escape from New York (and LA), They Live, Prince of Darkness, Halloween, The Fog... All classics

It’s Friday. Productivity is now ceremonial and mostly involves pretending emails can wait until Monday.

There is strength is knowing you don't have to win every battle

In three again, oh yeah! Wordle 1,672 3/6 ⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜ 🟩🟨🟨🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Cultivating a more measured leadership style has been a multi-year project of mine. If I’m honest, I’m still very much in the 'work-in-progress' phase. Some days the 'old me' still tries to run the meeting.

Thread 🧵 1/5 Lead like Batman. Not because he is powerful, but because he is deliberate. He prepares, pays attention, and turns up ready. He is not chasing applause, just results.

🧵 1/3 Most of us want to be understood. Not agreed with. Just properly seen in our thinking and intent. When we are misunderstood, the work is clear. Clarify. Rephrase. Listen harder. But there is a harder moment. When you are understood and the answer is still no.

I took umbrage and opened an umbrella. Some storms aren’t weather, they’re words.

Slow and steady - back to three attempts! Wordle 1,671 3/6 ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟩 🟩⬜🟩⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Well, it's all booked and NOW they tell me how bloody cold it can get in February! 🤣

🧵 1/4 I went to the pantomime today and, inevitably, the actors picked me out for the audience participation bit. Phrases to shout. Dances to repeat. Being called back to do it again and again. Deeply embarrassing.

An auditorium full of schools and who did they pick on to do all the dumb stuff at Panto - me!

Booking half term in Budapest. Memento mori friends - one life so live it.

Four. Again. My days of three or fewer are gone. Wordle 1,669 4/6 ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟩⬜🟨⬜ ⬜🟩🟨🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

New reading - #TheStrangerInTheWoods - it kept coming up on my recommendations and it's just up my avenue.

1/3 I’m finding, in my context as an executive headteacher, very little truly scales. I support two different schools and now realise how few things fit both. What works well in one can land awkwardly in the other. Pupils, staff culture, history, and needs are different.

Wordle 1,668 4/6 Should have been 3, I forgot I had a vowel left. ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟨 🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩