In 1988, only a few years into my teaching career, I was asked to lead the Early Years program at the American Community School in Beirut. It would have been a formidable responsibility in peaceful times. However, I was taking it on as a civil war was raging, reshaping the city around us.
The challenge was deeply personal. Beirut was not merely where I had been asked to lead; it was the city that had shaped me, now fractured by conflict. Familiar streets had become fault lines, safety could never be assumed, and decisions made inside a school could carry consequences far beyond the classroom.
With no formal training in leadership, all I had was the trust placed in me, the urgent needs of young children and their families, and a vision, and conviction that even amid upheaval, they deserved a place of safety, learning, and hope.
So I said yes, because the work mattered too much to wait until I did.
Nearly four decades later, after building schools, training teachers, and coaching educators across Lebanon and the Gulf, I understand that those early years in my career taught me how to lead when the path is unclear, when the stakes are high, and certainty is unavailable. Those lessons belong not only to education, but to anyone trying to build something meaningful and sustainable in an unpredictable world.
I strongly believe that as leaders:
- We will never have perfect conditions, and the ground beneath us is always shifting. We need to start anyway.
- We are not expected to know everything. Perhaps the deeper responsibility of leadership is to recognise the limits of our knowledge without allowing it to limit our growth, but move us to listen more closely, ask more searching questions, seek perspectives beyond our own, and let what we discover shape wiser decisions for those we serve.
- Invest in people and build something that is sustainable. The true measure of leadership is not how dependent a team is on your presence, but how confidently it can move forward in your absence. When people can think, decide, and lead without waiting for you, your influence has become something deeper than authority—it has become part of what they carry within themselves.
- Courage is a daily practice, not a single moment. For me, it was the thousand of choices I had to make to protecting children and staff safety, building a high-quality program with scarce resources ; making difficult decisions without the luxury of time or certainty; and returning the next day to do it all again.
- Lead by example—even when a choice you made defies convention. After more than twenty years in leadership, I took my career in an unexpected direction: I returned to teaching. Some viewed the move as a demotion. I saw it as a return to the source of my leadership—a chance to reconnect with the daily reality of teaching and with the purpose that had drawn me to education in the first place. That decision changed not only how my staff saw me, but how I saw my own role. Leadership became less about authority and more about alignment between what I expect, what I value, and what I was willing to do myself.
- You don’t have to figure it out on your own. This lesson now defines my work. After a lifetime in education, I partner with school leaders and educators to create learning environments rooted in clarity of purpose, urgency, and an unwavering focus on “living the vision”, even in the midst of uncertainty and change.
If you already leading an organization, or aspire to, the truth is the same: uncertainty is the landscape in which leadership happens, in the choices we make, the ways we steady others, and ourselves through regular support, the flexibility to adapt, learn, and move forward with an unwavering lazer focus, on what matters most.
BIO
Maysa Boubess is an Educational Consultant, Literacy Coach, Certified Master Mentor, and Senior Certified Professional and TQ Certified Coach with more than 40 years of experience in schools across Lebanon and the Gulf. From building an exemplary Early Years program in war-torn Beirut to mentoring and developing teachers and school leaders across the region, she has spent her career helping educators thrive, led by a simple belief: you don’t have to figure it out on your own.
Learn more at www.maysaboubess.com.
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