# The Leadership Lessons You Learn the Hard Way Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/thinking-deeply-about-primary-education-3470150/the-leadership-lessons-you-learn-the-hard-way Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/thinking-deeply-about-primary-education-3470150/the-leadership-lessons-you-learn-the-hard-way.md Podcast: [Thinking Deeply about Primary Education](https://stenobird.com/podcast/thinking-deeply-about-primary-education-3470150) Published: 2026-07-25T04:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kieran-mackle/episodes/The-Leadership-Lessons-You-Learn-the-Hard-Way-e3mg8am Audio file: https://anchor.fm/s/45dcc8b0/podcast/play/123264790/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-6-24%2F428541100-44100-2-b1bf97195df5f.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/thinking-deeply-about-primary-education-3470150/episodes/the-leadership-lessons-you-learn-the-hard-way Duration seconds: 3612 ## Resource Learn more about ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Story of Maths⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ACEL Pro - www.alta-education.com/tsom-overview and https://www.acel.pro For maths curriculum questions contact us ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or via support@alta-education.com Get your tickets for the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TDaPE Conference Online⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For show notes, links, and a summary episode, sign up for the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Hey! What You Reading For ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ newsletter. Mondays at 7am BST - https://tdape.beehiiv.com/subscribe ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠AI For Teachers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ newsletter Episode 302: What does a year in school leadership actually teach you? Adam Smith and Shannen Doherty return to reflect on the decisions, mistakes and moments that shaped their year. They discuss why leaders cannot solve every problem, what poor communication often reveals, when to hold your nerve and how to admit that a carefully constructed plan simply has not worked. Along the way, we explore behaviour, suspensions, school improvement, instructional coaching, pointless assessment systems and the ghosts of decisions that nobody remembers making but everybody is still expected to follow. An honest, funny and unusually practical conversation about becoming a better leader. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/thinking-deeply-about-primary-education-3470150/episodes/the-leadership-lessons-you-learn-the-hard-way/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/thinking-deeply-about-primary-education-3470150/the-leadership-lessons-you-learn-the-hard-way.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.