Distracted, the mother said to her boy,
“Do you try to upset and perplex and annoy?
Now, give me four reasons – - and don’t play the fool – -
why you shouldn’t get up and get ready for school.”

Her son replied slowly, “Well, mother, you see,
I can’t stand the teachers and they detest me;
and there isn’t a boy or a girl in the place
that I like or, in turn, that delights in my face.”

“And I’ll give you two reasons why you ought
get yourself off to school before you get caught;
because, first, you are forty, and, next, you young fool,
it’s your job to be there,” she said.
“You’re the head of the school.”

There were days during my headship tenure when I didn’t feel like getting up and going to school. Thankfully, there weren’t many, in part because I’m a disaster junkie. Schools are breeding grounds for disasters, crises, sabotage, political shenanigans and all sorts of trouble. So if you’re a disaster junkie too, you should consider getting into the business of school leadership. I loved it and you will too.

But I wouldn’t have survived without my executive coach. If you’re the head of a school and don’t have a mother to get you out of bed, I highly recommend executive coaching.