It takes a village to raise a child

When I left my job as a school principal in 2002, I remember being told that part of my future would lie in speaking to organisations and people across a number of sectors; at the time I thought that they were mad. I will never forget my first speaking engagement outside of education. It was about a month after I left my headship. I was booked to speak to the senior leaders at The Royal Bank of Scotland about human leadership. I was terrified. I remember sitting at the boarding gate at my local airport, waiting to fly up to the bank's headquarters in Scotland. I was sweating and my heart was racing; as I looked out over the runway at the planes, I wondered if I should just turn around and go home. I wondered if I could walk back in to my former school and settle back in to my old role, in a role I knew, with people I understood and in a job I was confident I could do.