We wrote our debut book to help school leaders reconnect with their purpose so that leadership feels sustainable and well again. In this step, we explore abandonment: not giving up, but intentionally letting go of what no longer serves. It’s about clearing space for what truly matters, so you can lead with clarity, humanity and renewed joy…
Your desk is stacked. Your inbox is anthropological. Someone in the corridor needs you. Something urgent is happening in Year 4. Again.
And there, in the middle of the rush, sits the list.
The things we keep meaning to do.
The jobs we never quite get to.
The documents that haunt us a little.
The projects we agreed to because they sounded good at the time.
The commitments that made sense once, but don’t anymore.
And still, we keep adding.
New initiatives. New priorities. New expectations.
Always more. Always forward.
Because schools are full of hope, and headteachers are full of care.
But here’s the part we rarely talk about:
We are brilliant at adding.
We are less brilliant at letting go.
This is where the idea of abandonment, borrowed from Sir David Crossley, lands with real power.
Not abandonment of people.
Not abandonment of care.
But the intentional abandonment of tasks, expectations and practices that no longer serve the purpose we’re here to honour.
Because purpose is the anchor. Without it, everything becomes equally urgent.
When we work with headteachers through HeadsUp4HTs, we often hear the same quiet confession, said gently, often with a tired laugh:
“I know there are things I just need to stop doing.”
Not because they’re lazy.
Not because they don’t care.
But because the to-do list has become an untamed creature and they are doing everything except the work that nourishes their purpose, their joy, their leadership, their humanity.
So we do something quite simple.
We look at the list together — and we ask:
What purpose does this serve?
If the purpose is unclear, weak, fear-driven, or simply inherited from a previous moment in the school’s life, we explore three possibilities:
- Let it go. Not everything belongs anymore.
- Do it differently. Purpose shapes the approach.
- Reimagine it. If it matters, it may just need to look new.
Take the school self-evaluation.
For many headteachers, just hearing those words tightens the chest.
It sits on the list for months.
It drains energy before a word is even typed.
And when we ask why it’s being done, the answer is almost always the same:
“Because OFSTED.”
But fear is not purpose.
Purpose is knowing your school deeply; having clarity about your strengths and an honest, rooted understanding of what needs to come next. It is feeling proud enough, and safe enough, to say those things out loud. And when that sense of purpose is reclaimed, the tasks themselves begin to shift. Some fall away completely. Others feel lighter. Some even become joyful again. But the greatest change is in you: in your time, your energy, your sense of autonomy, and your reconnection to why you chose to lead in the first place. This is the heart of our work at HeadsUp4HTs. We are not here simply to help leaders cope, but to help them choose what is worth carrying. Leadership is not sustained by resilience alone; it is sustained through intention.
Abandonment, when done with care, is not a loss. It is a liberation.
You can read more about abandonment, and other strategies for more purposeful leadership in our debut book.