Because character builds culture
The 10 Character Commandments of Leadership
Titles open doors. Character decides what happens once you walk through them.
Ten refusals for leaders who know the gap between what their organisation says and what it does, and have decided silence is no longer an option.
Out now / Paperback / £14.99
Who it's for
Written for the leaders the canon skipped
The reader is a leader who knows the gap between what their organisation says and what it does. Someone in their second or third senior role, or still early in, who keeps returning to one question: what am I prepared to refuse?
Some are leading in spaces that were not built for them. Black leaders, working-class leaders, leaders who code-switch by default and are still the only one in the room. The system's defaults will not protect them, so the code has to. Others do not share that experience but recognise the gap anyway, and want a code that does not pretend the system is neutral.
Not a script. A spine.
The ten commandments
Ten refusals. Read them as a tracklist.
- 01Never sacrifice your integrity
- 02Never let fear freeze your flow
- 03Never lead what you don't live
- 04Never let ego outshine humility
- 05Never fake empathy
- 06Never duck accountability
- 07Never put power before people
- 08Never lose your fire
- 09Never lose sight
- 10Never chase hype over wisdom
Wisdom, the tenth, is different. It is how you read the moment and decide which of the other nine to pull on when they collide. The book ends with the ciphers where they conflict, and a code you build as you go.
What it is
Chisel, not checklist
The work
This does not hand you a framework to quote in a meeting. Character is not built once and filed away. You carve at it and the marble pushes back. You will believe in these commandments and still fall short of them in the same week, which is what doing the work looks like rather than pretending it is easy.
The cipher
In hip hop, the cipher is the circle where the truth gets tested. Leadership works the same way, in the round, under real conditions, in front of real people. Every commandment connects to a track or a bar that landed on the author before there was any theory to explain it.
Your virtues meeting someone else's reality, and you choose character over comfort. That choice, made on a Tuesday morning, is what this book is about.
Free companion
Start the free 90-day practice
The book makes the argument. The practice turns it into a rhythm you can keep. Thirty pages, built to be printed and written on in pen.
- A four-day setup week before Day 1, so you pick the right focus rather than the easy one
- Your ten scores, your nine lines, and your notes on a single reference page
- Three scenarios that test your judgement when commandments collide
- Three 28-day cycles with daily trackers and a weekly review built in
- Your integrated leadership code, drafted three times, all three drafts kept visible
- A six-day pause at Day 85, ending in a decision rather than another cycle
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The author
About Adrian McLean
Adrian McLean is an executive headteacher, consultant and TEDx speaker who has spent over twenty years in education, leading schools and developing leaders across inner-city schools and multi-academy trusts in the West Midlands.
He holds the NPQH, NPQEL and a master's degree in Character Education, and serves as an Ambassador of Character Education at the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, the UK's leading research institution in the field. His writing appears in Understanding Character Education: Approaches, Applications and Issues, Diverse Educators: A Manifesto, B(l)ack in School, and Your Leadership Matters. His TEDx talk, Inclusive Allyship, was delivered at Wolverhampton in July 2024.
"Titles may open doors. Character determines what happens once you walk through them."
After the book
What comes after the 90 days
The practice ends with a decision: start a fresh cycle on three new commandments, or run the hardest one again. That decision is where the next step begins. A cohort programme for leaders working the code together is in development. Join the waitlist to hear first.
Join the programme waitlist
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