Your 2027 Leaders Need Training Now

If you already know who is likely to step into a Room Leader, Educational Leader, 2IC, Coordinator or other leadership position in 2027, their leadership development should not begin when they receive the title. Too often, services identify a capable educator, promote them into leadership and then expect them to learn the role while they are doing it. 

The assumption is that because they have worked alongside good leaders, attended team meetings and watched their manager handle difficult situations, they will somehow know what to do when responsibility becomes theirs. The problem is that being an excellent educator and being a competent leader require very different skills, and if we want people to succeed in leadership next year, we need to start preparing them now.

 

Role Modelling Is Not Leadership Training

Role modelling is important, but it is not enough to prepare someone to lead a team. Watching an experienced leader have a difficult conversation does not teach a new leader how to structure that conversation themselves, just as watching someone manage conflict does not automatically give them the skills to recognise the problem early, stay calm, choose the right language and follow the issue through. 

Adults certainly learn through observation, but competence develops when people understand what they are expected to do, are explicitly taught how to do it, have opportunities to practise and receive feedback on their performance. If our leadership development strategy is simply, “They have seen me do it, so they should know,” we are leaving far too much to chance.

 

Being a Great Educator Does Not Automatically Make Someone a Great Leader

One of the most common mistakes in education and care is promoting people because they are excellent at their current job and assuming those strengths will automatically transfer into leadership. A strong educator may have wonderful relationships with children and families, excellent curriculum knowledge and outstanding practical skills, but leadership introduces an entirely new set of responsibilities. 

Suddenly, they may need to set expectations with colleagues, delegate tasks, respond to poor attitudes, provide feedback, manage disagreement, coach underperformance, follow up commitments and make decisions that are not always popular. None of these skills should be treated as something a person will simply acquire because their job title has changed.

 

“They’ll Learn on the Job” Is a Dangerous Assumption

There will always be an element of learning through experience, but there is an enormous difference between practising leadership skills on the job and encountering those skills for the first time while already responsible for other people. When we promote someone and tell them they will learn as they go, we often place them in situations where they are expected to perform before they feel competent. 

They may be dealing with conflict for the first time while simultaneously worrying about whether they are saying the right thing, trying to maintain friendships with former peers, interpreting policies, managing competing priorities and wondering whether senior management agrees with their decisions. Experience should strengthen training, not replace it.

 

Learning Leadership While You Are Leading Creates Anxiety

One of the fastest ways to create anxiety in a new leader is to give them responsibility without giving them enough capability. They know that other people are now looking to them for answers, yet internally they may be thinking, What am I supposed to say? Am I allowed to address this? What if they get angry? What if I make it worse? Should I tell the Centre Manager? Am I being too harsh? 

When leaders do not have clear frameworks, language and boundaries, even relatively ordinary management situations can feel high stakes. Over time, this uncertainty can lead to avoidance, overthinking, inconsistent decisions or a tendency to escalate every problem to the Centre Manager, not because the person lacks potential but because they were never properly prepared for the responsibility they were given.

 

Competence Should Come Before Responsibility

We would never deliberately put an educator into a situation involving children where they lacked the basic knowledge and skills required to perform safely, yet leadership positions are often treated very differently. People are sometimes given responsibility for the performance, wellbeing and behaviour of several adults before they have been taught the fundamentals of people management. 

A future leader should understand how to communicate expectations, give feedback, address unhelpful behaviours, delegate effectively, follow up commitments, manage boundaries and know when an issue needs to be escalated before those skills are regularly required of them. Training does not mean someone will enter leadership knowing everything, but it gives them a foundation from which they can learn safely and confidently.

 

Train Them Before You Promote Them

If you have educators who are likely to move into leadership positions in 2027, the final months of 2026 provide an ideal opportunity to develop them while they still have experienced leaders around them. Let them practise leading conversations, running short meetings, delegating tasks, giving straightforward feedback and solving team problems while there is still someone available to coach them afterwards. 

Explain why particular leadership decisions are made instead of assuming they will understand simply by watching, and give emerging leaders language they can actually use when situations become difficult. This changes the transition into leadership from “Here are your new responsibilities — good luck” to a structured period in which competence is deliberately built before full responsibility arrives.

 

Stop Promoting People Into Survival Mode

When new leaders struggle, organisations can be quick to decide that perhaps they were not ready for leadership, but sometimes the real issue is that they were never prepared for it. We promote someone on Friday and expect them to lead confidently on Monday, then become frustrated when they avoid difficult conversations, come to the manager for every decision or continue behaving more like a team member than a leader. 

These behaviours are often interpreted as a lack of leadership potential when they may simply reflect a lack of leadership training. If we want confident leaders who can think independently, hold people accountable and support their teams, we need to stop using the leadership role itself as the training program.

 

Your 2027 Leadership Development Starts Now

The strongest leadership transitions do not begin with a new title; they begin with preparation. If you already know which educators have the potential to become your next Room Leaders, Educational Leaders, 2ICs or Coordinators, start developing their capability now so they enter 2027 understanding not only what their responsibilities are, but how to carry them out.

 

Role modelling will always have a place, and experience will always deepen leadership skill, but neither should be expected to replace structured development. The aim should not be for new leaders to spend their first six months trying to work out how to lead; it should be for them to step into the role with enough competence, confidence and practical skill to begin leading from day one.