Operating at Your Best: Leadership 90 Mid-Year Reset
- Vicky Crane ICTWAND
- 20 hours ago
- 4 min read
When Effort and Direction Drift Apart: Stop and Reset.
"In September the path seems clear, by February I feel in the weeds." This headteacher's comment to me during the week might also resonate with you.
By the middle of the academic year, leadership often feels very different from how it began.
September brings clarity. Plans are set, priorities are agreed, and energy is high. Leaders move forward with purpose and momentum.
Yet several months later, something subtle often changes.
Leaders are rarely working less hard. In fact, effort has usually increased. Teams are busy, initiatives are underway, and decisions are being made daily. But progress can begin to feel uneven. Some areas move forward confidently, while others appear slower or more fragile than expected.
What many leaders experience at this point is not failure or lack of commitment.
It is drift.
Effort and direction quietly begin to separate.
And the hardest part?
Most leaders never stop long enough to work out why, to recalibrate and set out strongly for the second half.
Why Mid-Year Matters More Than We Think
Leadership improvement is rarely a straight line. Schools and organisations operate within complex human systems. Staffing changes, emerging priorities, unexpected challenges and operational demands all influence how plans unfold in practice.
Over time, these pressures can shift attention away from original intentions. Leaders remain active and committed, but energy becomes dispersed across competing demands.
Without deliberate reflection, momentum replaces direction.
Mid-year therefore becomes a critical leadership moment; not for judgement, but for recalibration.
The question is not:
“Have we worked hard enough?”
It is:
“Are we still directing our effort toward what matters most?”
A Different Kind of Review
Traditional reviews often focus on outcomes alone. While outcomes matter, they rarely explain why progress is or is not occurring.
In coaching conversations, a more helpful starting point is examining the drivers behind progress:
clarity of vision and milestones
leadership energy and time allocation
implementation strength across teams
systems and follow-through
confidence, motivation and behaviour
organisational alignment
This understanding sits at the heart of the Leadership 90 Mid-Year Reset.
Stage 1: Recalibrating the Leader (Internal Alignment)
Effective organisational progress begins with leadership calibration.
Leaders first reflect on how they themselves are operating:
Am I operating in a way that allows progress to happen?
Where is energy being invested?
How are my actions aligned to my priorities?
Are systems supporting follow-through?
Which areas, if strengthened, would unlock progress elsewhere?
This personal reflection often surfaces invisible blockers. Small adjustments in leadership habits or focus frequently create disproportionate impact.
Stage 2: Recalibrating Direction (The Compass Conversation)
Once personal alignment is considered, attention turns outward.
The Compass Conversation provides a structured leadership dialogue focused on navigation rather than evaluation. Its purpose is not to judge performance but to understand the current reality of implementation.
Leadership teams explore questions such as:
Where is progress emerging but fragile?
What barriers are limiting movement?
Where is effort producing the greatest return?
What people factors are influencing success?
Framing the discussion as navigation reduces defensiveness and encourages honest diagnosis. Teams move away from blame and towards shared understanding.
Stage 3: Intentional Adjustment
Reflection only becomes meaningful when it informs action.
At this stage, leaders identify deliberate adjustments:
What should we start, stop or pause?
Where should leadership attention increase?
What needs reinforcing or communicating more clearly?
Which successes should be doubled down on?
What changes to behaviours and thinking will aid success?
Often the changes requires are small recalibrations that restore alignment between effort and direction.
Leadership as Periodic Recalibration
Leadership is sometimes imagined as continuous acceleration — doing more, moving faster, pushing harder.
In reality, sustainable progress depends on periodic pauses.
Reflection tools for you to download
I’ve shared two free reflection tools I use in coaching conversations to help leaders do exactly this:
A mid-year personal leadership review Take 15-20 minutes to complete an analysis that will help you identify points of leverage.
A Compass Point thinking framework to structure team reflection.
They’re simple, practical, and designed to help you reset direction for the second half of the year.
If February feels different from September — this is the moment to pause and recalibrate.
The guide includes a suggested 60 minute agenda that can be used with SLT, smaller teams and repeated for different areas of priority.
Follow-up
Some leaders choose to follow the Mid-Year Reset with a focused Leadership 90 coaching session — a dedicated space to explore insights from the reflection and decide the leadership adjustments that will have the greatest impact moving forward. You can email for details, or book a session direct.
You can also book coaching sessions for key leaders in your school. It can be difficult for headteachers to work with each person in their team, instead provide them with dedicated reflection time with an external coach. Delivered in a single day, 4 leaders can have a 90 minute coaching session to support alignment and individual reflection.
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