By Mark Symmonds

Founding Head of Pre-Prep, Rugby School Hanoi

📍 Hanoi, Vietnam

📅 Published: September 2026

⏱  9 minutes read

There is a particular moment in leadership that I have come to recognise across schools and countries.

It is the moment when someone capable begins to doubt themselves.

It might be a new teacher facing a difficult class for the first time. A teaching assistant who has never been asked to lead an activity. A middle leader trying to manage a team while still finding their own footing. Or an experienced colleague who has arrived in a new country, a new curriculum and a new school culture, and suddenly feels less certain than they once did.

Often, the ability is there. The commitment is there too.

What is missing, at least for a while, is belief.

And this is where great schools are different. They do not wait for every member of staff to arrive fully confident, polished and self-assured. They create the conditions in which people can become those things.

They believe in their staff before their staff fully believe in themselves.

It can be tempting to see confidence as something people either have or do not have. In schools, we sometimes describe colleagues as “natural leaders”, “confident teachers” or “not quite ready”.

But confidence is not fixed. It grows or fades in response to experience.

A colleague who is trusted with a responsibility, given clear support and allowed to learn from mistakes is likely to grow. A colleague who is constantly second-guessed, only noticed when something goes wrong, or protected from every stretch of responsibility may begin to play safe.

That matters because schools are complex places. No teacher, assistant or leader can know everything. Every day asks adults to make decisions, respond to children, work with families and adapt when plans change.

We do not need staff who pretend to have all the answers. We need staff who are confident enough to keep learning.

Amy Edmondson’s influential work on psychological safety describes the importance of teams where people feel able to take interpersonal risks: asking a question, admitting an error, raising a concern or offering an idea. Her research found that psychological safety was associated with learning behaviour in teams.

In a school, this is not a fashionable extra. It is essential.

If teachers cannot say, “I am finding this difficult,” improvement will be slower. If teaching assistants do not feel able to ask why a strategy is being used, they will be less likely to use it well. If leaders feel they must always appear certain, they may stop listening.

Belief creates the safety to be honest. Honesty creates the possibility of learning.

Of course, encouragement matters. Most of us remember the colleague or leader who noticed something in us before we did.

But belief is not simply telling people they are doing well. Empty praise is quickly recognised, especially by thoughtful professionals who know they still have much to learn.

Real belief is more practical.

It sounds like:

“This is challenging, but I think you are ready to try it. Let’s agree what support will help.”

It sounds like:

“I noticed how calmly you handled that conversation. Would you be willing to share your approach with the team?”

And sometimes it sounds like:

“That did not go as you hoped. Let’s look at it together and work out what you will do next time.”

The last example is especially important. Leaders show belief not only when everything goes well, but when someone has made a mistake or encountered difficulty.

When our response is curiosity rather than blame, staff learn that growth is possible. When our response is immediate judgement, they learn to hide uncertainty.

This does not mean lowering standards. Great schools can be warm and ambitious at the same time. In fact, the clearest message of belief is often a leader saying: I know you can improve, and I am going to help you do it.

One of the clearest ways leaders communicate belief is by trusting colleagues with meaningful responsibility.

The two are closely connected. Responsibility without trust can feel like an extra task added to an already busy role. Trust without responsibility can remain a nice sentiment. But when leaders give people genuine ownership of work that matters, they show that their judgement, ideas and contribution are valued.

As an leadership team, when we reflected on our wellbeing practices during the COVID lockdowns, we found that we had many of the elements you would expect in a strong wellbeing policy. We were thinking about workload, communication, support and care.

But we had missed something important: whether colleagues felt trusted to lead projects and shape significant change within the school.

That reflection stayed with me. Staff wellbeing is not only about reducing pressure or offering support when things are difficult. It is also about helping people feel capable, valued and trusted to make a meaningful difference.

When leaders keep all important decisions for themselves, they may feel efficient in the short term. Yet they can unintentionally send a different message: I do not trust you with this.

By contrast, when we give colleagues genuine ownership, we show that their judgement matters.

This might mean asking a teaching assistant to lead the development of a provision area. It might mean inviting an early-career teacher to chair part of a team meeting. It might mean giving a middle leader responsibility for a curriculum improvement project, with guidance and regular check-ins rather than close control.

The key word is genuine.

Token responsibility can be more frustrating than none at all. Giving someone a title while withholding the information, authority or time they need does not develop them. It simply leaves them accountable without being empowered.

Good delegation is therefore not abandonment. It requires clarity.

What is the purpose? What does success look like? Which decisions are theirs to make? When will we review progress? Where can they seek help?

When leaders provide that clarity, responsibility becomes more than a task to complete. It becomes a practical expression of trust — and a powerful opportunity for professional growth..

Schools are full of training. Too often, however, professional development becomes something that happens to people: a workshop, a slide deck, a list of actions and then a return to the usual pressures of the week.

That is rarely enough to change practice.

The Education Endowment Foundation’s guidance on effective professional development is useful here. It highlights the importance of professional development that builds knowledge, motivates staff, develops techniques and embeds practice. Its recommended mechanisms include goal-setting, feedback, action planning and revisiting prior learning.

The message is simple: professional learning needs follow-through.

For leaders, this means moving beyond the question, “What training can we provide?” and asking better questions:

• What is the specific improvement we want to see for children?

• What knowledge or skill will staff need?

• How will they practise it safely?

• What feedback will help them refine it?

• How will we make time to revisit it until it becomes part of everyday practice?

The best development often happens close to the work itself: a thoughtful coaching conversation, an observation that focuses on one agreed area, an opportunity to watch a colleague, or time to rehearse a new approach before using it with children.

These things are not always dramatic. But they tell staff that their development matters enough to deserve time, attention and care.

In busy schools, visible confidence can attract attention. The colleague who speaks readily in meetings, volunteers for every initiative or seems entirely at ease may be noticed first.

Yet some of the most important growth happens quietly.

It may be the teacher who has begun asking more precise questions about children’s learning. The assistant who has become more confident speaking to families. The colleague who once avoided feedback but now actively seeks it. The new leader who has learned to pause, listen and bring others with them.

These moments deserve to be noticed.

Not through grand gestures every time, but through specific recognition. “I saw how you changed your approach after our conversation.” “You gave that child time to answer rather than stepping in quickly.” “You handled a difficult parent conversation with calm and care.”

Specific recognition helps people understand what they are doing well and why it matters. It turns vague encouragement into professional learning.

More importantly, it helps create a culture in which growth is visible and valued.

There is a direct line between how adults are led and how children experience school.

Staff who feel trusted are more likely to trust children. Staff who are given room to learn are more likely to give children room to make mistakes. Staff who experience calm, respectful feedback are more likely to speak to children in the same way.

This is particularly important in the early years and primary school, where relationships are not separate from learning. Children notice how adults speak to one another. They feel the atmosphere of a team. They benefit when the adults around them are thoughtful, secure and united.

A school cannot ask children to be curious, resilient and brave if its adults are afraid to ask questions, try something new or acknowledge when they need help.

Culture is not created by posters on a wall. It is created in the small, repeated interactions that show people whether they are trusted, respected and expected to grow.

For every leader, the question is not simply, “Do I believe in my team?”

Most leaders would answer yes.

The more revealing question is:

How would my team know?

Would they know through the responsibilities they are trusted with? Through the quality of feedback they receive? Through the opportunities to practise and improve? Through the way mistakes are handled? Through the time leaders make to listen?

Belief becomes meaningful when it is visible.

Great schools do not depend on a few highly confident individuals carrying everyone else. They build teams in which people develop confidence together: supported, stretched and encouraged to become more than they first imagined.

That is good for staff.

And, ultimately, it is good for every child they serve.