Leadership Lab Global

Thriving Couples in Leadership Retreat

"How do we invest in our relationships with our partners so we can both thrive in our International School contexts?"

Senior leaders and their partners in international school contexts often balance intense leadership demands with the challenges of expat life. Many face frequent transitions, intense community visibility, and a range of competing personal and professional roles.

Heads and Principals in international schools and their partners often balance intense leadership demands with the challenges of international life. Many face frequent transitions, intense community visibility, and a range of competing personal and professional roles; unfortunately, the impact on these relationships can be brutal. At the Bangkok ELC conference last October, we hosted a workshop on this topic, and over 40 people attended, contributing rich wisdom to the conversation. In response, we are piloting a new initiative called the Thriving Couples in Leadership Retreat in Bintan, Indonesia (close to Singapore) that supports these couples in a relaxed and collegial manner from March 6th-8th, 2026.

This project is a partnership between Leadership Lab Global and EARCOS (East Asian Regional Council of Overseas Schools).

If you are a Head or Principal please consider registering and please share with your colleagues too.

We completed our first retreat on March 6-8th 2026 and Registration are open now for February 26th-28th 2027. If you are interested in applying to be part of the Thriving Couples in Leadership Retreat 2027 please fill out this Registration form

Click on “Read more” below for more information

EARCOS Leadership Learning Collective

"How do we grow a learning collective of International School senior leaders across Asia?

The Leadership Learning Collective has been designed as a new way for senior leaders in international schools to engage in leadership development. Part leadership retreat, part speaker series, and part peer coaching, this experience is a 10 month leadership journey, for a group of 36 senior leaders. 

This project is a partnership between Leadership Lab Global and EARCOS (East Asian Regional Council of Overseas Schools).

The experience is designed specifically for senior leaders from international schools in the Asia region, (i.e. those who oversee school-wide initiatives such as Heads of School/Principals, Deputy/Assistant or Vice Principals and other Directors of Learning etc).  Applications are invited from two leaders per school and places are limited to 36 people. The rationale for this is so that the pairs can collaborate on projects together and this also makes the transfer of learning back to schools easier.

The content and process of the Leadership Learning Collective will develop leaders self-awareness, connections, agency, confidence and competence; with a focus on three leadership themes:

1. Leadership identities – reflections on personal and professional identities; 
2. Building collaborative cultures – collaboration for collective impact;
3. Designing for impact – systems transformation in educational contexts.

The Leadership Learning Collective journey begins in September 2025 and concludes in May 2026. During this time participants will gather together for two 2-day face to face retreats hosted at International School Bangkok ISB and also reconnect online between the retreats for interactions on leadership themes with guest speakers, and peer coaching. 

Please express your interest now for the 2026 cohort of the EARCOS Leadership Learning Collective by filling out this Application form. You do not need to be an EARCOS member to register for this programme.

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Singapore International Schools Leadership Programme

"How do we enhance innovation through facilitating collaboration across international schools in Singapore?"

Our involvement

• Leadership development
• Strategic culture change

I met Dan Brown (Assistant Head of College – Dulwich Singapore) in 2012 and we discussed the idea of developing a leadership programme that could be made available to all international schools in Singapore. This ‘Singapore International Schools Leadership Programme’ was to be offered at an affordable cost, allowing a wide range of schools to register groups of leaders each year.  The Singapore International Schools Professional Learning Network hosts this programme and Greg Jansen and I have offered this programme for the last 10 years with over 500 leaders from over 20 schools.

In 2020, we developed a second programme called the ‘Singapore International Schools Extending Leadership Programme‘. This programme is designed for the Level 1 programme’s alumni and senior leaders in international schools. As part of the Extending Leaders programme, participants facilitate a public event called “Lead-Up” for all schools across Singapore.

The following schools have been involved over this 10 year period.  GESS – German European School Singapore, Tanglin Trust School,  Nexus International School (Singapore),  Dulwich College (Singapore),  NPS International School- Singapore.  Dover Court International School,  North London Collegiate School,  Stamford American International School, Singapore,  Marlborough College Malaysia,  One World International School Singapore.,   Dulwich College (Singapore) United World College Singapore, Canadian International School.

REGISTRATION LINK

Please email us if you have any questions about our latest programmes starting in November 2025

“Chris is an excellent facilitator who helps groups and individuals engage in really deep thinking about their own leadership. He bases his training on evidence of what has the most impact on student learning. Chris is very easy to work with and helped co–created what we wanted from the leadership programme in a flexible and creative manner. ”

Dan Brown – Assistant Head of College – Dulwich Singapore daniel.brown@dulwich.org

EARCOS Leadership and Counseling Mentoring Programmes

"How do we harness the extensive EARCOS network throughout Asia to develop leadership mentoring relationships to support growth and minimise isolation in senior leaders?"

Our involvement

• Coaching and mentoring

The EARCOS network of over 1000 schools across Asia has an enormous and largely untapped potential to grow leadership capacity by sharing expertise, experience and support. Prior to 2019, an initial version of the Earcos Leadership Mentoring Programme ELM was designed including a comprehensive online training package for potential mentors to complete before participating. Unfortunately, the unintended consequence of this was that less than 10 leaders were involved in ELM at that stage.

In 2019, I was asked to work alongside Bill Oldread to review ELM with a view to leveraging the EARCOS network more fully. We co-facilitated a 1-day pre-conference co-design workshop at the EARCOS Leadership Conference in Kota Kinabalu, Borneo, where we invited the 30 interested leaders who attended to help us deconstruct and reconstruct the ELM programme.

Based on this feedback we made four fundamental changes and in January 2020 this new format for ELM was promoted through the EARCOS database. Two weeks later COVID-19 started to make its presence felt across the Globe and to our enormous surprise we had around 100 leaders sign up for the ELM programme by the end of February 2020.  These leaders were paired based on their preferences and mentoring began.

Over the last 5 years this ELM network has grown with a total of 236 people registering to be involved and 154 currently active in the programme.

In late 2023 a new mentoring network for international school counsellors was offered called EARCOS Counselling Mentoring ECM. This operates in a similar way to the ECM except all pairing are peer-to-peer relationships.  There have been 124 registrations over this period with 46 currently active in the ECM programme.

Registration for both the ELM and ECM is available throughout the year.

ELM sign up

ECM sign up

United World College UWC-Singapore

"How do we design a leadership programme that develops our internal leadership capacity and reconnects our organisational culture?"

Our involvement

• Leadership development
• Strategy facilitation and culture change
• Coaching and mentoring

In 2013, we were approached by United World College Dover in Singapore through meeting Primary School Principal Brian O’Maoileoin at the EARCOS Leaders Conference. The initial engagement for my colleague Greg Jansen and I was a strategic planning day with the campus senior leadership team. An outcome of this day was identifying the need to develop the internal leadership capacity of the College to create internal leadership progression pathways. A design group was formed to scope the needs and undertake the detailed design of the programme. As a result, we implemented a leadership programme with 30 leaders each year for the next 5 years, which consisted of three x two-day workshops combined with leadership projects and Action Learning Groups. In 2019, we trained a range of facilitators within UWC and mentored them as they continued facilitating the programme. This programme continues to operate successfully today.

In 2021 we worked closely with the High School SLT in facilitating a two-day leadership retreat focussed on leadership strengths and strategic direction.  This is continuing in 2025 with two other retreats for the high school and middle school leadership teams.  Over the last 3 years, I have been providing leadership coaching for Seema Desai (High School Principal), Rebecca Smith (Middle School Principal) and Ellie Alchin (Director of Teaching and Learning) including Clifton Strengths coaching.

Testimonial

“Working with Chris has had a deep impact on my leadership journey. His coaching sessions have empowered me to ask better questions, think more strategically, and step into situations with greater confidence and clarity. Most importantly, he has given me the courage to take bold action, embrace challenges, and to lead with conviction and compassion.” – Seema Desai – High School Principal

“There are many consultants currently providing leadership training. However, we were looking for someone to work with us rather than talk at us. Chris and Greg’s gentle, good humour and understated approach fit the needs of our school extremely well. Their knowledge is undeniable, and they quickly managed to gain the respect staff. The UWC Leadership Programme has been a considerable success.” – Frazer Cairns – Head of Dover Campus

Reference from United World College

International School of Kenya (ISK)

"How do we reorientate our strategic vision to align with emerging needs and opportunties globally?"

Our involvement

• Leadership development
• Board Strategic facilitation and culture change

In 2015 I spent a week in Nairobi working alongside the International School of Kenya (ISK).  This involved facilitating a governance retreat with the Board, and offering a two day leadership workshop with senior and middle leaders. I was also engaged in providing leadership coaching with the Head of School – John Roberts.