Turning Vision Into Culture

You Can’t Scale Instinct

In the early years of building Stellar, I led mostly by instinct. Decisions were fast. Conversations were real-time. Everyone was within arm’s reach, and problems could be felt and solved by simply being there. At that stage, instinct was enough. My presence was leadership. My intuition was culture. But something changed when we grew.

Growth didn’t just add students. It added layers. Layers of complexity. Layers of people I hadn’t met yet. Layers of decisions I couldn’t possibly stay on top of. And for the first time, I realised that my instinct, what had once been my strength, was becoming a liability. People needed clarity, not charisma. They didn’t just need my passion. They needed a pattern they could follow even when I wasn’t in the room.

This was the turning point. I could no longer lead only from the gut. I had to lead by design.

In the human brain, instinct is governed by the limbic system. It reacts quickly, feels deeply, and protects rapidly. But when it comes to higher-order decision-making, the prefrontal cortex takes over. That part of the brain is responsible for planning, foresight, and alignment. The same holds true for leadership. If you only lead from emotion and reaction, you’ll eventually crash. But if you build structure around your vision, you can lead with foresight, not just fire-fighting.

That’s when I knew I had to shift from instinct to intention. From presence to pattern. From being the culture to designing it.

From Crisis to Clarity

The need for a framework didn’t come during a moment of inspiration. It came during a moment of crisis. As new preschools opened, as Stellar International School grew, as departments became specialised and the headcount crossed a threshold, I felt myself unraveling. What used to be quick became slow. What used to feel energising now felt overwhelming. I was still involved in every direction-setting meeting, but I began to notice the cost. I could not sustain this pace without losing either my health or my vision.

At the same time, teams began to experience uncertainty. Who decides what? What does “good leadership” actually look like here? Where are the boundaries, and where is the freedom? These weren’t small issues. They were cultural cracks.

I had to ask myself a question I had never asked before: What kind of leadership do I want to multiply?

It was no longer about me leading better. It was about building something others could lead within. That’s how the Lead to Impact framework began. It was born not in a workshop or a book launch, but in hallway conversations, mentoring moments, and team debriefs after things went wrong.

What emerged was a four-phase rhythm that could shape not just performance, but identity. We called it: SPARK. SHAPE. STRENGTHEN. SEND.

SPARK was about finding the right people, not the most impressive, but the most available, faithful, teachable, and humble. SHAPE focused on grounding them in culture before giving them strategy. STRENGTHEN gave them tools, coaching, and language to grow. SEND was the final act of trust: releasing them into real responsibility.

The turning point was when I realised I wasn’t designing a program. I was designing a culture that could breathe.

Netflix faced a similar reckoning. After major layoffs, Reed Hastings realised that culture was not what they posted on the wall. It was what they allowed, rewarded, and replicated. In Stellar, I came to the same truth. Culture is not words. Culture is design.

Designing Culture on Purpose

I used to think culture was about inspiration. But I learned it’s actually about repetition.

Culture is built by what is repeated and reinforced. If you only inspire but never institutionalise, the values drift. People forget. Newcomers guess. And over time, culture becomes accidental.

The Lead to Impact framework gave us language. It gave us rhythm. And most of all, it gave us a way to multiply leadership without cloning personalities. That was crucial. I didn’t want to raise more versions of me. I wanted to raise leaders who could bring their own strengths into a shared foundation.

SPARK taught us to look beyond CVs and titles. We began asking different questions. Who is faithful when no one is watching? Who shows up without fanfare? Who is willing to learn even when they already lead?

SHAPE reminded us to build from the inside out. Culture before strategy. Identity before position. We learned this the hard way. Every time we promoted someone for skills without anchoring their values, we paid the price later in team trust and alignment.

STRENGTHEN was where the real transformation happened. This was where we began using Stellar 1–1s, coaching conversations, real-time feedback, and shared leadership language like STARS and SSL. It wasn’t perfect, but it was consistent. That consistency created psychological safety. Leaders stopped guessing what was expected. They began stepping in with confidence.

SEND was the hardest part. It meant releasing control. Letting others lead things that mattered. Letting them fail without rushing to fix. Letting them learn from mistakes without feeling judged. It was in SEND that I had to confront my own need for certainty. I realised I couldn’t say I trusted my team if I was still making every final call.

Just like in Montessori education, where the environment is the teacher, in leadership, the design is the mentor. If you design the environment well, the culture teaches itself.

Frameworks Don’t Replace People. They Empower Them.

We live in a time where “framework” often gets mistaken for “formula.” But this isn’t about control. It’s about clarity. A good framework doesn’t restrict freedom. It enhances it.

Toyota built their leadership culture around one simple idea: any team member could stop the assembly line if they noticed a problem. It wasn’t chaos. It was trust. That’s what a good leadership framework does. It doesn’t centralise power. It distributes responsibility.

That’s what Lead to Impact has done for Stellar. It gave us a way to unify leadership language across vastly different teams, from preschool teachers to kitchen staff to middle management. It gave us a way to protect culture during onboarding, coaching, promotion, and even in moments of conflict.

But most importantly, it made leadership teachable. Transferable. Replicable.

And that matters because no matter how gifted your founder is, if your culture lives only in one person, it dies with them.

Frameworks are how you build legacy that outlives you.

Today, I no longer ask if a leader is talented. I ask: have they been SPARKED, SHAPED, STRENGTHENED, and SENT?

If yes, then I know they’re not just leading from instinct. They’re leading from design.

And if I step back, this culture will still stand.

Because culture doesn’t thrive when people depend on you. Culture thrives when people believe they can carry it forward together.

The Unseen Principle

The opposite of structure isn’t freedom. It’s fragility.

And the opposite of leadership isn’t absence. It’s unintentional culture.

If you don’t design your leadership system, one will form anyway. But it might not be the one you want.

The best time to design your culture was yesterday.

The second best time is today.