Strong Leaders Community of Practice
Built around Strong Leaders for Stronger Teams. One term. Your whole leadership team. A network of leaders carrying the same weight.
Live webinar one: Tuesday 2 February Join leaders from other services in a Community of Practice for one term.
Enrol your teamStrong Leaders Community of Practice
Built around Strong Leaders for Stronger Teams. One term. Your whole leadership team. A network of leaders carrying the same weight.
Live webinar one: Tuesday 2 February Join leaders from other services in a Community of Practice for one term.
Enrol your team
If you came to leadership the way many of us did, through your love of children and your skill with them, then somewhere along the way you were handed a team and left to work it out. The Strong Leaders for Stronger Teams: Leadership & change agency in education & care course fills that gap, and you can work through it alone. Plenty of leaders do, and they come away seeing their team differently.
The course teaches. The change happens somewhere else: in the conversation where you say out loud what you're going to do differently on Monday, and someone asks you how it went.
That's the Strong Leaders Community of Practice. One term, your leadership team alongside you, with leaders from other services who are carrying the same weight. Two live webinars with Sandi, then five facilitated hours with a real question on the table each time and one action each before the hour closes, in a Critical Friends group of leaders from other services that stays with you for the term.
One more reason to bring your team rather than come alone.
In the Phoenix Cups® framework we say our Cups are ours to fill. Leaders are the exception. The person with the power in the room fills or empties the Cups of everyone in it, and your leadership team does that to your educators, often without knowing. That's why we'd rather your team did this together.
If you came to leadership the way many of us did, through your love of children and your skill with them, then somewhere along the way you were handed a team and left to work it out. The Strong Leaders for Stronger Teams: Leadership & change agency in education & care course fills that gap, and you can work through it alone. Plenty of leaders do, and they come away seeing their team differently.
The course teaches. The change happens somewhere else: in the conversation where you say out loud what you're going to do differently on Monday, and someone asks you how it went.
That's the Strong Leaders Community of Practice. One term, your leadership team alongside you, with leaders from other services who are carrying the same weight. Two live webinars with Sandi, then five facilitated hours with a real question on the table each time and one action each before the hour closes, in a Critical Friends group of leaders from other services that stays with you for the term.
One more reason to bring your team rather than come alone.
In the Phoenix Cups® framework we say our Cups are ours to fill. Leaders are the exception. The person with the power in the room fills or empties the Cups of everyone in it, and your leadership team does that to your educators, often without knowing. That's why we'd rather your team did this together.
Both include the Strong Leaders for Stronger Teams online course, open from 12 January to 17 September, and the two live webinars with Sandi. The difference is everything that happens after webinar two.
$1,980Your leadership team. One invoice, due 12 January.
- Individual logins to the online course, open 12 January to 29 March
- Two live webinars with Sandi Phoenix, 2 February and 16 February
- Five facilitated Community of Practice sessions, alternating 1pm and 6pm AEST, 9 February to 16 March
- Your Critical Friends group: around five leaders from other services, fixed for the term
- The community, open until 17 September 2027: minutes after every session, resources, homework with context, your questions answered
- The Phoenix Cups® 101 & Wellbeing Challenge, inside every login and yours to keep after the course closes
- Certificate of completion for each leader, mapped to NQS Quality Area 7
Sales close Tuesday 2 February. Places are capped so each session stays a working room.
$98One person. One login, 12 January to 25 March.
- One login to the online course, open 27 January to 25 March
- Two live webinars with Sandi Phoenix, 2 February and 16 February
- The Phoenix Cups® 101 & Wellbeing Challenge, yours to keep after the course closes
- Certificate of completion, mapped to NQS Quality Area 7
Start here and change your mind later: your $98 comes off a team place if you upgrade before 2 February.
Both include the Strong Leaders for Stronger Teams online course, open from 12 January to 17 September, and the two live webinars with Sandi. The difference is everything that happens after webinar two.
$1,980Your leadership team. One invoice, due 12 January.
- Individual logins to the online course, open 12 January to 29 March
- Two live webinars with Sandi Phoenix, 2 February and 16 February
- Five facilitated Community of Practice sessions, alternating 1pm and 6pm AEST, 9 February to 16 March
- Your Critical Friends group: around five leaders from other services, fixed for the term
- The community, open until 17 September 2027: minutes after every session, resources, homework with context, your questions answered
- The Phoenix Cups® 101 & Wellbeing Challenge, inside every login and yours to keep after the course closes
- Certificate of completion for each leader, mapped to NQS Quality Area 7
Sales close Tuesday 2 February. Places are capped so each session stays a working room.
$98One person. One login, 12 January to 25 March.
- One login to the online course, open 27 January to 25 March
- Two live webinars with Sandi Phoenix, 2 February and 16 February
- The Phoenix Cups® 101 & Wellbeing Challenge, yours to keep after the course closes
- Certificate of completion, mapped to NQS Quality Area 7
Start here and change your mind later: your $98 comes off a team place if you upgrade before 2 February.
Sandi Phoenix
BPsychSc, GradCertProfSt, GradCertHM&Neuro, CertIVTAE
Managing Director at Phoenix Support for Educators.
Sandi has been described as being able to open or close a conference with a 'bang'. Her presentations can be on the topic of behaviour (adult or child), psychology in education and care, or leadership, with important messages pulled together through story. Sandi delivers keynotes, workshop breakouts, panels, and MC.
Everything below is live and online. The two webinars are one room for the whole cohort, at 6pm. The five Community of Practice sessions alternate between a Lunchbox session at 1pm and a Closing Time session at 6pm, so every roster gets a fair go, and your team attends all five. All times are AEST; NSW, Victoria, SA, Tasmania and the ACT are one hour ahead, so 6pm AEST is 7pm AEDT.
From this day your team's logins open at Chapter 1. Before webinar one, each leader completes the Phoenix Cups® Quiz and the VIA character strengths questionnaire, so you arrive holding your own profile. Enrol before 12 January and your place is held until the course opens.
Your leadership style, read through your own profile. Chapters 2 and 3 open the same evening. Sales close today.
Your team as a set of people with different needs and strengths. The rest of the course opens.
No content. Your Critical Friends group is announced, your facilitator hears where each team is, and the hour ends with goals your team has set for the term.
Chapter 2 behind you. First working session in your Critical Friends group: motivation, needs and strengths applied to a real team, yours or someone else's.
Chapter 3 behind you. The Cups and strengths of the people you lead, and what that changes about how you lead them.
Chapter 4 behind you. The change your service needs, the barriers to it, and how a leadership team moves it.
Chapter 5 behind you. Where your team is heading, said out loud to a room that has watched you get here. Certificates issued on completion of the course.
Course logins close two weeks after your final session. Your community stays open until the end of Term 3 2027 (Friday 17 September), so the conversations, the wins and the questions carry on with the leaders you met, run by you.
Missed a session?
Minutes and resources go into the community after every session, and your Critical Friends group gets a check-in prompt in the off week. The group's requests shape the next session, so if your team brings something in March that belongs in February's theme, it goes on the agenda anyway.
Everything below is live and online. The two webinars are one room for the whole cohort, at 6pm. The five Community of Practice sessions alternate between a Lunchbox session at 1pm and a Closing Time session at 6pm, so every roster gets a fair go, and your team attends all five. All times are AEST; NSW, Victoria, SA, Tasmania and the ACT are one hour ahead, so 6pm AEST is 7pm AEDT.
From this day your team's logins open at Chapter 1. Before webinar one, each leader completes the Phoenix Cups® Quiz and the VIA character strengths questionnaire, so you arrive holding your own profile. Enrol before 12 January and your place is held until the course opens.
Your leadership style, read through your own profile. Chapters 2 and 3 open the same evening. Sales close today.
Your team as a set of people with different needs and strengths. The rest of the course opens.
No content. Your Critical Friends group is announced, your facilitator hears where each team is, and the hour ends with goals your team has set for the term.
Chapter 2 behind you. First working session in your Critical Friends group: motivation, needs and strengths applied to a real team, yours or someone else's.
Chapter 3 behind you. The Cups and strengths of the people you lead, and what that changes about how you lead them.
Chapter 4 behind you. The change your service needs, the barriers to it, and how a leadership team moves it.
Chapter 5 behind you. Where your team is heading, said out loud to a room that has watched you get here. Certificates issued on completion of the course.
Course logins close two weeks after your final session. Your community stays open until the end of Term 3 2027 (Friday 17 September), so the conversations, the wins and the questions carry on with the leaders you met, run by you.
Missed a session?
Minutes and resources go into the community after every session, and your Critical Friends group gets a check-in prompt in the off week. The group's requests shape the next session, so if your team brings something in March that belongs in February's theme, it goes on the agenda anyway.
- Leadership styles, and how a leader's own strengths, needs and values shape them
- Leading through connection, and knowing when to inspire and when to anchor
- Coaching and mentoring team members through behaviour change
- Team culture, change management and problem-solving through a needs-informed lens
- Building psychological safety and a culture of reflective practice
- Leadership styles, and how a leader's own strengths, needs and values shape them
- Leading through connection, and knowing when to inspire and when to anchor
- Coaching and mentoring team members through behaviour change
- Team culture, change management and problem-solving through a needs-informed lens
- Building psychological safety and a culture of reflective practice
- A clear read of your own leadership style, and how it shapes your team's motivation and culture
- Coaching and mentoring conversations you can hold with your educators, built on strengths and needs
- A way to lead change that holds your team's wellbeing as you go
- The Phoenix Cups® framework as a shared language for what your team needs from you
- A Critical Friends group of leaders from other services, and a network that outlasts the term
- A clear read of your own leadership style, and how it shapes your team's motivation and culture
- Coaching and mentoring conversations you can hold with your educators, built on strengths and needs
- A way to lead change that holds your team's wellbeing as you go
- The Phoenix Cups® framework as a shared language for what your team needs from you
- A Critical Friends group of leaders from other services, and a network that outlasts the term
A Community of Practice session is a working hour. A Phoenix Support facilitator runs the room and your Critical Friends group does the talking. It follows the same shape every session, so by March nobody is wondering what happens next.
Every team drops one line in the chat: what you tried since last session, and what happened.
Breakout rooms, around five leaders from different services, the same five all term. Your facilitator sets one question at the top of the session and moves between the rooms while you work it. Every leader comes back with one action.
Your facilitator pulls two or three threads from the chat and the rooms, and opens them to the whole cohort.
Each team posts one action for the weeks ahead. The facilitator reads a few aloud. Minutes land in the community within the week.
Why a group, and why it stays the same.
A pair fails on attendance: one leader misses a session and the other is sitting alone. A group of five absorbs it. Your Critical Friends are the people who hear your goals in January and ask how it went in March, and they're the reason the facilitator can change from session to session without the thread breaking.
The course is self-paced, and the cohort has a pace. Arrive at each session with that chapter behind you and the question your facilitator sets will land on ground you've already covered. Fall behind and you're welcome in the room, but you'll be listening more than talking.
Whole-room segments are recorded so minutes can be posted for anyone who misses a session. Critical Friends groups are never recorded.
A Community of Practice session is a working hour. A Phoenix Support facilitator runs the room and your Critical Friends group does the talking. It follows the same shape every session, so by March nobody is wondering what happens next.
Every team drops one line in the chat: what you tried since last session, and what happened.
Breakout rooms, around five leaders from different services, the same five all term. Your facilitator sets one question at the top of the session and moves between the rooms while you work it. Every leader comes back with one action.
Your facilitator pulls two or three threads from the chat and the rooms, and opens them to the whole cohort.
Each team posts one action for the weeks ahead. The facilitator reads a few aloud. Minutes land in the community within the week.
Why a group, and why it stays the same.
A pair fails on attendance: one leader misses a session and the other is sitting alone. A group of five absorbs it. Your Critical Friends are the people who hear your goals in January and ask how it went in March, and they're the reason the facilitator can change from session to session without the thread breaking.
The course is self-paced, and the cohort has a pace. Arrive at each session with that chapter behind you and the question your facilitator sets will land on ground you've already covered. Fall behind and you're welcome in the room, but you'll be listening more than talking.
Whole-room segments are recorded so minutes can be posted for anyone who misses a session. Critical Friends groups are never recorded.
Five bodies of work run through the course, the webinars and every session. Named here so you know what you're being asked to think with.
The shared language of the program: five Cups for the needs that motivate behaviour, and the leaders' exception, that the person with the power in the room fills or empties the Cups of the people in it.
Autonomy, competence and relatedness as the conditions for motivation, and what a controlling environment does to all three. The theory behind leading through connection.
Two styles, when each one fits, and what each does to the Cups of the people you lead.
Twenty-four strengths, profiled in the pre-work, so you lead from what your people are good at.
Wellbeing as something a workplace builds, drawing on PERMA and on flow: the conditions under which people do their best work and want to come back tomorrow.
Five bodies of work run through the course, the webinars and every session. Named here so you know what you're being asked to think with.
The shared language of the program: five Cups for the needs that motivate behaviour, and the leaders' exception, that the person with the power in the room fills or empties the Cups of the people in it.
Autonomy, competence and relatedness as the conditions for motivation, and what a controlling environment does to all three. The theory behind leading through connection.
Two styles, when each one fits, and what each does to the Cups of the people you lead.
Twenty-four strengths, profiled in the pre-work, so you lead from what your people are good at.
Wellbeing as something a workplace builds, drawing on PERMA and on flow: the conditions under which people do their best work and want to come back tomorrow.
Bring your leadership team, or start on your own.
The Term 1 cohort's course opens on 12 January and sales close at webinar one on Tuesday 2 February. One place covers your whole leadership team, up to five leaders, for the term. Or take the course on your own for $98, with both live webinars included, and if your service joins the cohort before 2 February the $98 comes off the team place.
Next cohort: Term 2 2027, course opens 30 March.
Bring your leadership team, or start on your own.
The Term 1 cohort's course opens on 12 January and sales close at webinar one on Tuesday 2 February. One place covers your whole leadership team, up to five leaders, for the term. Or take the course on your own for $98, with both live webinars included, and if your service joins the cohort before 2 February the $98 comes off the team place.
Next cohort: Term 2 2027, course opens 30 March.