Strong leaders for stronger teams: Leadership & change agency in education & care
Lead with clarity, compassion and purpose - and create the conditions for your whole team to thrive.
About this course
Lead with clarity, compassion and purpose
What does it really mean to lead well? To support the people in your care to grow, feel capable, and do their best work?
Strong Leaders, Stronger Teams explores leadership as a deeply personal, needs-informed practice. Facilitated by Sandi Phoenix, this course draws on leadership research and literature, positive psychology, contemporary neuroscience and the Phoenix Cups Framework to unpack how leadership styles, unmet needs and wellbeing shape the way teams communicate, function and thrive.
Through reflection, real-world scenarios and practical tools, you'll develop the clarity and confidence to coach and mentor others, navigate change, and foster a team culture built on trust, connection and shared purpose.
Who is this course for?
Anyone working in a leadership capacity in Education and Care settings: including LDC, FDC, OSHC, Kindergarten, Pre-School.
In this course, you'll explore how to
- Understand and embody a range of leadership styles that suit your team
- Coach and mentor educators using strengths-based, guidance-aligned approaches
- Navigate change and challenge with clarity and confidence
- Build a resilient team culture grounded in psychological safety and wellbeing
- Lead through connection, using the Phoenix Cups Framework to understand your team's needs
Why this course
How this course benefits you
Strengthen Your Leadership Identity
Clarify who you are as a leader: your values, your strengths and your style. Lead with authenticity and confidence, even in challenging moments.
Build a Team That Thrives
Learn practical, needs-informed strategies to improve communication, support educator wellbeing and create a culture where people feel safe, capable and connected.
Lead Change With Compassion
Develop the skills to navigate change and conflict, mentor others through difficulty, and build the kind of trust that sustains teams through uncertainty.
Course curriculum
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session 1 - 29th July 2026 7pm to 8.00pm
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Final Reflection
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Keep in Touch with the Phoenix Team
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Other Professional and Personal Development Opportunities
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About this course
- $98.00
- 6 lessons
- 3.5 hours of video content
Course content
What this course looks like
We'll explore together
- A range of leadership styles, and how your strengths, needs and values influence the way you lead and motivate others
- Strengths-based, solutions-focused and guidance-aligned approaches to coaching and mentoring educators through behaviour change
- Team culture, communication and problem-solving through a neuroscience and needs-informed lens
- How adult wellbeing, stress and unmet needs impact leadership capacity and team dynamics
- How to navigate change, address challenges and support teams through uncertainty
- Shared critical reflection to embed leadership strategies into everyday practice and Quality Improvement planning
You'll walk away with
- A clear understanding of your leadership style and how it shapes team motivation, communication and behaviour
- Practical strategies for coaching and mentoring educators using strengths-based and needs-informed approaches
- Confidence to navigate change, address challenges and support your team's wellbeing with clarity and compassion
- Skills to build and sustain a positive team culture grounded in psychological safety, collaboration and reflective practice
- A working understanding of the Phoenix Cups Framework as a leadership tool, so you can lead through connection and meet the needs that drive how your team shows up
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The research behind the course
The thinking behind this course
Many leaders in the EC sector come to leadership through their love of children and their skill as educators - leadership theory wasn't always part of the journey. This course is built on a body of research that says clearly: the way we lead shapes everything. And that leadership can be learned.
Leadership Theory
Transformational Leadership
Burns, Bass & Avolio
Transformational leadership centres individual needs, builds trust, and aligns naturally with how we think about wellbeing for both children and educators. It is the leadership style most associated with flourishing teams — and the one this course is most focused on developing in you.
Wellbeing Theory
Self-Determination Theory
Ryan & Deci
When educators feel genuinely autonomous, competent and connected, they thrive. SDT has four decades of evidence behind it, and directly challenges the control-based leadership patterns that are most common in our sector. Understanding it changes how you lead.
Positive Psychology
PERMA Framework
Seligman
Positive emotion, engagement, positive relationships, meaning and accomplishment — the EC workplace is one where all of these can be actively cultivated. This course explores how intentional leadership creates the conditions for each of them to genuinely take root.
Needs-Based Framework
The Phoenix Cups Framework
Phoenix & Phoenix
Drawing on SDT, Choice Theory and humanistic psychology, the Phoenix Cups Framework gives leaders a practical, accessible tool for understanding the needs driving their team's behaviour. It shifts the lens from judgment to curiosity — and from compliance to genuine care.
A note on leadership in the EC sector: Research shows that leaders who haven't had formal leadership training often default to transactional approaches. This course is the training most EC leaders never received, and the one the sector has needed for a long time. You'll explore these frameworks in depth, and leave knowing how to apply them in the real, complex, rewarding work of leading in Education and Care.
Your Facilitator
Principal Facilitator Sandi Phoenix
Sandi is the founding company director and principal facilitator at Phoenix Support for Educators. Her framework, The Phoenix Cups, have revolutionised how education & care professionals and parents, understand the behaviour of, and proactively plan for, the wellbeing of children and young people. She is highly regarded as an international speaker, coach, mentor, and professional development facilitator.
Testimonials
Fantastic course
This course really made me think about how to speak to educators and to have that open discussion of what cups are the educators main cups and how to continuously work to fill those cups up.
Brilliant
"Brilliant webinar Sandi, thank you so much!"
Thank You
"Thank you, Sandi. You leave me gasping for more!"
National Quality Standard
NQS Quality Area Alignment
Mapping this course to the NQS. This course supports educators and leaders to strengthen their practice across two National Quality Standard Quality Areas. Select each standard below to see how the course content connects to your service's quality improvement journey.
Quality Area 4 - Staffing Arrangements
Standard 4.1.1 Respectful and Ethical Practice
This course deepens educators' understanding of respectful, ethical leadership practice - exploring how needs-informed approaches, honest communication and strengths-based relationships create workplaces where educators and children are treated with dignity and care.
Standard 4.2.1 Professional Development Regularly Accessed
Participation in this course directly demonstrates a commitment to ongoing professional development. Leaders who engage with this learning are investing in their own growth and modelling a culture of continuous improvement within their service.
Standard 4.2.2 Performance Management and Workplace Learning
This course equips leaders with practical strategies for supporting educator growth through coaching, mentoring and strengths-based feedback - building a workplace learning culture where performance conversations are grounded in trust, clarity and genuine care for professional development.
Quality Area 7 - Governance and Leadership
Standard 7.1.1 Roles and Responsibilities
This course supports leaders to clarify their own leadership identity, understand their role within their service, and communicate expectations clearly and compassionately - contributing to a well-governed service where roles and responsibilities are understood and respected.
Standard 7.1.2 Educational Leader Builds Professional Knowledge
This course directly strengthens the capacity of educational leaders to build the professional knowledge and skills of their team. Through needs-informed coaching strategies, strengths-based approaches and practical leadership tools, participants learn how to actively support educator growth and capability.
Standard 7.2.1 Reflective Practices Embedded in Culture
Reflective practice is woven throughout this course - from examining your own leadership style and values, to exploring how team dynamics, stress and unmet needs shape everyday interactions. Participants leave with practical habits of reflection they can embed into the culture of their service.
Standard 7.2.2 Quality Improvement Processes
This course explores how to embed leadership strategies directly into Quality Improvement Planning. Participants develop the skills to identify areas for growth, lead change with confidence and build team cultures that support sustained, meaningful improvement over time.
For registered Early Childhood Teachers
Australian Professional Standards for Teachers
Mapping this course to the APST. If you are a registered Early Childhood Teacher, the content of this course maps to the following focus area of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. Select the focus area below to see how this course supports your professional learning.
Focus Area 7.4 Engage With Professional Teaching Networks
This course includes a built-in discussion feature, allowing participants to share reflections, ask questions and engage with peers on each page of the course. Combined with two live interactive webinars facilitated by Sandi Phoenix, participants have genuine opportunities to connect with other practitioners, expand their knowledge, reflect on their practice and make meaningful improvements to their work with children and families.
