When school leaders trade checklists for conversations, something powerful happens: culture starts to lead. One Principal who has seen the transformative impact of this is Brendan Maher, who has taught and led in eight schools across Victoria during a 40-year career in education.
Today, Maher is the facilitator with Leading Teams Australia, a national culture and leadership organisation that works with more than 1,000 organisations and 10,000 leaders and teams.
In his role, Maher brings a rare blend of ‘boots-on-the-ground’ leadership and sports-club wisdom that has been helping leaders lean into trust-based leadership, embed values through coaching, and amplify the cultural norms that are already working in their school.
Below, The Educator speaks to Maher about how school leadership in Australia has evolved, why culture must take priority over compliance, and the practical steps leaders can take to embed values and recognise those who help shape a strong, people-first school environment.
TE: You led in five schools across Victoria during a 40-year career in education and worked in eight. What are the most important ways that you have seen the nature and reality of school leadership change over this time?
While much has changed in education over the past 46 years—from the rise of national curriculum standards, to the integration of digital learning and the growing focus on student wellbeing—it’s interesting that in many ways, effective leaders haven’t altered their core approach to leadership.
There is enormous pressure placed on schools and school leaders today, much of which is in my opinion unreasonable. Yet even in this environment, I believe the most powerful tool leaders have to counter that pressure remains a steadfast, relentless focus on people and culture.
If we accept that strong leadership is built on the quality of relationships within an organisation, then today’s leaders must continue to invest in those relationships just as intentionally as their predecessors have.
TE: How can school leaders shift from compliance-based management to trust-based leadership?
Leading Team’s entire focus is on improving team performance by strengthening the culture of the organisations we are privileged to work with.While schools must meet a range of essential “mechanical” requirements, we’ve long held the view that improving an organisation’s culture and behaviours (what we refer to as “Dynamics”) leads to improved mechanical outcomes.
The approach can be summarised in three key steps:
1. Building strong professional relationships to establish a strongly held common purpose.
2. Co-designing a set of agreed behaviours that staff both support and hold one another accountable to.
3. Nurturing and modelling a culture where genuine conversations are the norm.
Adopting this approach builds the trust needed to withstand relentless pressure and allows teams to respond proactively to whatever comes their way.
TE: Can you share some practical coaching techniques for embedding values into daily school life?
One practical and very effective method to embed values in daily school life is to create a ‘team trademark’, typically three overarching words that you would like your organisation to live and breathe and be recognised as.
In 2015 while I was a school educator, Leading Teams whom I now work for, were engaged to improve my school’s performance. Together, we created our trademark, setting a clear intention to be recognised as ‘Committed, Courageous and Authentic’.
It was one thing to have these words proudly emblazoned on a prominent staffroom wall, but another thing entirely bringing them to life. To support this, we established a cultural norm where at every staff meeting we began our gathering with what we called a “Trademark Shoutout,” i.e. “Who have you caught living our trademark this past week?”
Over time this practice became normalised. It provided us the opportunity to recognise the efforts of colleagues and it wasn’t unusual for some to become emotional when they realised their efforts were being acknowledged.
It also had the effect of empowering me and other school leaders to have authentic, one-on-one conversations to address situations when they arose. For example, where a colleague might not have met the mark in being committed, courageous or authentic.
All schools will have a set of values or beliefs that are said to drive the culture of their organisation. Leaders should facilitate conversations that allow teams to create a set of agreed behaviours that underpin their school’s values. What do these values look like in action, and what does/would it sound and feel like when they are lived?
Once this important work is done, teams can then find the most effective way to live them, celebrate them, and challenge them as needed.
TE: How can school leaders recognise and strengthen the cultural norms already working in their teams?
Building on the above, it’s crucial school leaders recognise the ‘positive culture shapers’ in their school community—those who live and breathe their school’s values or trademark, and go the extra mile. It’s important to acknowledge and focus on the people who embody the culture you aspire to create.
Pay close attention to the people whose lived behaviour reflects compassion, respect, courage, integrity or forgiveness. These people deserve to be celebrated as their impact is profound and these qualities truly shape culture.
Finally, when recognising a colleague for living the organisation’s values, try to thank them in person. An email is nice, but it will never replace the power of personal interaction.