School leadership can feel a lot like trying to steer a busy ship in unpredictable weather. On any given day, we respond to urgent student needs, support teachers, meet district expectations, and still try to think strategically about the future. The horizon is often obscured by the daily demands that come with leading a school. In that complexity, it’s easy to lose your sense of direction.
At a recent Compassionate Systems Leadership network gathering, I was introduced to a framework that helped bring clarity to this reality: the Compass of Intention. It was shared by the facilitator, Caroline Picard, an education consultant, leadership coach, and Certified Master Practitioner in Compassionate Systems Leadership. The compass offers four orienting points for leaders: Purpose (North), Relationships (East), Practices (South), and Learning (West). We used it as a way to pause and ask where we’re leading from.
North: Purpose — Staying True to the “Why”
Every school leader knows how easy it is to lose sight of purpose amid the noise. Meetings, supervision, emergencies can consume our energy until our work becomes more reactive than intentional. Purpose, our North, pulls us back to the reason we lead in the first place: to create environments where students and educators can thrive.
When I find myself buried in operations and logistics, I try to come back to a simple reflection: “Is this decision helping our students learn and feel like they belong?” Whether we’re developing a new timetable or responding to conflict, reconnecting to purpose gives coherence to our choices. I’ve noticed that when I take time to revisit our shared purpose my focus strengthens. Purpose grounds us when everything else shifts.
East: Relationships — Leading Through Connection
In schools, relationships are the work not an add-on. Leadership lives in the quality of our human connections with students, parents, colleagues, and the community. East reminds us that trust and empathy are the foundation of effective leadership. Without them, even the best plans stall.
Building relationships means slowing down enough to really listen. I think of a time when a colleague was struggling with burnout. Instead of focusing on performance, we talked about what was making the work feel heavy. That conversation led to small shifts in scheduling and shared responsibilities that reignited their confidence. Leading relationally is compassionate and strategic. It builds the trust needed for collaboration and system change.
South: Practices — Aligning Action with Purpose
The southern point anchors us in the operational realities of leadership. This is where intention meets the rhythm of the school day: bell schedules, field trip plans, staff meeting agendas, parent communications, and the hundreds of unseen systems that make learning possible.
To me, focusing on the ‘practices’ means tending to the structures that hold a school together. It’s easy to see logistics as “management,” but the truth is that good systems are a form of care. When educators know where to find resources, when students feel routines are consistent, and when the day runs smoothly, it creates the conditions for personal well-being and ultimately, learning. The caution, of course, is getting stuck and be caught in the gravity of endless coordination. But when balanced with the other compass directions, good ‘practice’ becomes the soil that allows vision to grow.
West: Learning — Leading as a Learner
Leadership is a continuous act of learning. West reminds us that reflection is an essential practice for sustainable leadership. I want to be a leader who stays curious: about my impact, about the system, and about my own blind spots.
I think of learning as cultivating the capacity to pause and notice. After a parent meeting, do we take time to reflect on how we communicated? After announcing and launching a new program, do we invite honest feedback from teachers and students? Leading as a learner means staying humble enough to admit when something isn’t working and brave enough to adjust course.
Using the Compass in School Contexts
What I appreciate about the Compass of Intention is its flexibility. You can use it in a leadership retreat, a staff reflection, or even a personal journal entry.
Leadership is complex, and at times we all feel adrift. But tools like this remind us that being adrift doesn’t mean being lost. The Compass of Intention helps us cope with the complexity with self-awareness by noticing which directions we over-rely on and which need tending. It invites us to lead with intention, not just momentum.
The compass metaphor draws on the belief that systems change begins with self-awareness. For educators, that means recognizing that how we show up and where we lead from shapes the culture around us. In times when schools face extraordinary complexity, the Compass of Intention offers a way to stay grounded, connected, and open to growth.
image credit: Caroline Picard
