Becoming: Episode 4 - Tom Cowell

In this episode I sit down with Tom Cowell, Principal of an ELC to Year 12 school in regional South Australia, and a leader who has spent his entire 18-year career inside one organisation. Tom started as a graduate teacher who was handed a Year 10 maths class he had no idea how to teach. Eighteen months in, he seriously questioned whether education was for him. He went on to progress through year level coordination, curriculum leadership, Deputy Principal, and now Principalship, all within the same organisation. That path gives Tom rare insight to what it is actually like to lead from within and the challenges it can pose. We discuss how to deal with being rejected for roles and how to deal with the fall out, the changing nature of relationships when progressing within an organisation, and much more! Tom describes middle leadership as the bridge of the school. The one role in a school with its finger on the pulse of teaching, families, students and business, without having to carry the full weight of any of it. It's the most generous description of the middle I've heard on this show. A great episode and I am very grateful for Tom's time.