Build the Capability to Lead Strategy,
Not Simply Plan It
Five immersive days developing the strategic leadership capability to shape direction, make disciplined choices, align people and resources, and turn strategic intent into sustained organisational action.
4-9 JULY 2027 | SPICERS HIDDEN VALE, QLD | LIMITED COHORT
THE STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE
You already carry significant leadership responsibility. The environment in which you exercise it has become increasingly complex, and strategic leadership requires a different capability.
Leading a contemporary independent school requires executives to operate across two horizons simultaneously: sustaining a complex organisation today while shaping the organisation it needs to become. Both matter. The difficulty is that operational demands are immediate, visible and persistent, while strategic leadership requires leaders to create space for longer-term thinking, disciplined choices and sustained organisational focus.
As complexity increases, priorities compete. Resources become constrained. Stakeholder expectations evolve, risks emerge and opportunities appear. Decisions made in one part of the organisation create consequences elsewhere.
The challenge is not simply having a strategy. It is maintaining the organisational capability to lead strategically while continuing to operate effectively.
When that capability weakens, the distance between strategic intent and organisational action gradually increases.
At ETHICLEAD, we call this Strategic Drag.
Strategic leadership is not strategic planning.
Strategic planning is one component
of strategic leadership.
Strategic leadership requires something broader: the capability to interpret complexity, understand organisational positioning, exercise judgement, make disciplined choices, align people and resources, and sustain execution over time.
Not a conference
Not a planning retreat
Not another strategic plan
An intensive in building the capability
to lead strategy
TWO INTEGRATED SYSTEMS:
ONE STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP CAPABILITY
Strategy is not simply something an organisation documents. It is something leaders do.
The 15 Disciplines: The leadership discipline required to exercise judgement, lead people, build accountability and sustain strategic action.
STRATEGIST: The end-to-end methodology for moving from organisational purpose and strategic thinking through strategy formulation, resourcing, implementation and measurement.
Together, these systems build the capability to lead strategy across three interconnected dimensions:
SHAPE STRATEGIC DIRECTION
Interpret complexity, understand organisational positioning, evaluate risk and opportunity, and lead disciplined choices about where the school will focus its attention and resources.
LEAD PEOPLE THROUGH IT
Engage Boards, executives and stakeholders in the conversations required to build understanding, test assumptions, exercise judgement and create genuine ownership of strategic direction.
TURN STRATEGY INTO ACTION
Translate strategic choices into priorities, resources, responsibilities, measures and coordinated action, and establish the discipline required to sustain execution.
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Five days.
Away from the operational noise.
Five days.
Away from the operational noise.
Strategic thinking requires something senior leaders rarely have enough of: uninterrupted time and space.
The Strategic Leadership Intensive deliberately creates that space.
Not to step away from leadership responsibility, but to examine it from a different altitude.
5 DAYS
Immersive program
4-9 JULY 2027
School holiday dates
LOCATION
Spicers Hidden Vale
Scenic Rim, QLD
COHORT
Intentionally limited
STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP FOR INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS
No other organisation operates quite like a modern independent school.
Its strategy should not be led as though it does.
Independent schools bring together governance, education, community, commercial realities, complex stakeholder expectations and a deeply values-driven purpose.
The Strategic Leadership Intensive is designed specifically for this environment. It is not a generic corporate strategy program with education examples added afterwards. Its frameworks, examples, discussions and applications are grounded in the realities of leading and governing an independent school.
Attend individually or build capability together.
Leaders may attend individually, while schools seeking to strengthen strategic capability across their leadership team are encouraged to consider sending two or more senior leaders.
When board, executive and senior leaders share the same strategic language, frameworks and methodology, alignment becomes easier and the learning is more likely to translate into organisational practice.
Who Should Attend?
The Intensive is designed for executives and senior leaders who carry meaningful responsibility for shaping, leading or delivering their school’s strategy, including:
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Principals and Heads
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Deputy Principals
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Business Managers and Senior Executives
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Board Chairs and Directors
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Senior leaders preparing for enterprise-level strategic responsibility.
THE EXPERTISE BEHIND THE INTENSIVE
Strategic leadership grounded in real leadership experience.
Stephen Scott is an author, strategic leadership practitioner, founder of ETHICLEAD and the creator of The 15 Disciplines® and STRATEGIST.
For more than 15 years, he has worked extensively with Australia’s independent school sector, developing principals, aspiring principals and executive leaders. Drawing on more than four decades of leadership practice and development, Stephen works with school leaders to build the capability and discipline required to think, decide and lead strategically.
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40+ years - leadership experience
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22 years - Royal Australian Air Force
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15+ years - independent school leadership development
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8 years - independent school Board Director, including four as Chair
Mark McFie is Chief Financial & Operations Officer at The Southport School.
Mark brings more than 30 years’ experience in education, having held teaching, leadership and business management roles. A QUT Bachelor of Education graduate, he began his career as a PE teacher and Head of Department before completing an MBA and spending several years as a Workplace Health and Safety consultant to schools and regional councils across South East Queensland.
Returning to schools as Business Manager at Immanuel Lutheran College, Mark later became Director of Business Operations and Company Secretary at John Paul College, where he was part of the executive team that introduced STRATEGIST. He was appointed Chief Financial & Operations Officer at The Southport School in January 2026.
Mark is a Director on the ASBA Limited Board and Past President of the ASBA (Qld) Management Committee. At the Intensive, he will facilitate a workshop on preparing for Bold Strategic Goal formulation, drawing on his experience helping executive teams test strategic ambition against financial and organisational reality.
the cohort
The quality of the room matters.
The Strategic Leadership Intensive is deliberately designed for a small cohort of school executives and senior leaders.
A limited cohort of 25 participants preserves the depth of discussion, facilitator access and opportunity to work alongside leaders carrying comparable organisational responsibility.
It creates the conditions for candid conversation, meaningful challenge and practical application that are not possible in a large conference environment.
Participants will also become part of an emerging ETHICLEAD executive community built around strategic leadership in education.
LIMITED PLACES | THE RIGHT LEADERS | IN THE RIGHT ROOM
WHAT CHANGES WHEN YOU RETURN TO SCHOOL
Participants leave with much more than five days of learning. They return with:
STRATEGIC CAPABILITY
The ability to lead strategy from organisational direction and positioning through to priorities, resourcing, implementation and measurement.
REPEATABLE METHODOLOGY
An end-to-end approach that can be used repeatedly as context, risks and strategic priorities evolve.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
Frameworks, tools and reference materials designed for continued application within your own school.
STRATEGY OPERATING SYSTEM
Three months’ access to STRATEGIST, enabling participants to apply the methodology through a structured digital system.
SHARED STRATEGIC LANGUAGE
For schools sending multiple leaders, a common methodology and language for strategic thinking, decision making and execution.
Build capability within the school, not dependence outside it.
STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP INTENSIVE
DATE: 4 - 9 July 2027
FORMAT: 5-day residential intensive
VENUE: Spicers Hidden Vale, Scenic Rim, QLD
COST: $9,845 including GST
COHORT: Limited places
INCLUSIONS
The cost includes the five-day Intensive, residential accommodation, all meals, program resources and access to ETHICLEAD strategic leadership tools and methodologies.
For full inclusions, request a copy of the program prospectus by using the form below.
Travel to and from the destination will be arranged separately by participants.
Register your interest
Register now to begin planning for the investment within your school’s 2027 professional development budget and executive calendar.
Registration of interest does not commit you to participate.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. The Intensive goes beyond producing a strategic plan. It develops the thinking, disciplines and leadership capability required to lead strategy across a school.
The Intensive is a capability-building program rather than a facilitated planning engagement for individual schools. Participants will, however, apply concepts and frameworks to their own school context.
Yes. Schools may choose to send two or more senior leaders to develop shared strategic language, understanding and methodology across the leadership team.
No specialist strategy qualification is required. The Intensive is designed for experienced and aspiring senior school leaders who have, or are preparing for, meaningful responsibility for organisational strategy.
Register your interest and ETHICLEAD will provide priority information when applications or registrations open. Registering interest does not commit you to attend.