Jenny Cole is a recovering principal, leadership coach, and author of Teach, Lead or Leave. She has spent more than 30 years in and around schools and the last 15 of them helping teachers and leaders answer the question almost no one wants to say out loud: what do I do when I feel like I can't do this anymore?
Why Audiences Book Jenny
Jenny knows this territory because she has lived it. Twelve years into her principalship, she stood up in the middle of a crisis management meeting, picked up her handbag, and walked out of the career she had given twenty years of her life to. She never went back. This is not a move she recommends, which is precisely why she wrote the book.
Since 2009, she has worked with well over 3,000 teachers and leaders across Australia and Asia, sat beside educators on their best days and their worst ones, and built a coaching and facilitation practice grounded in one stubborn belief: that brilliant educators shouldn't have to exhaust themselves to do meaningful work.
In recognition of her contribution to educational leadership, Jenny was awarded a Fellowship of the Australian Council for Educational Leaders (FACEL), an honour bestowed by peers on those who have made a significant and sustained contribution to leadership in Australian education.
She brings that same lived experience to the stage. No leadership clichés. No motivational posters. Just honesty, warmth, a generous helping of humour, and the kind of practical frameworks people can actually use.
What Jenny Speaks About
Jenny's keynotes are anchored in the ideas at the heart of Teach, Lead or Leave, and she shapes each one to the audience in front of her. Her core themes include:
Burnout, Recovery, and Sustainable Careers in Education
Why so many capable teachers and leaders are quietly running on empty, what real rest looks like (hint: it isn't a long weekend), and how to build a career you can stay in without losing yourself.
Leading Without Losing Yourself
What it actually takes to lead well in schools right now, with clarity, self-compassion, and boundaries that hold. Particularly powerful for women or those in middle and senior leadership.
The Six Pathways: More Options Than You Think
Most teachers and leaders believe they have two choices: stay and tough it out, or leave. Jenny introduces the six pathways from her book, five of which keep people in or around education, and gives audiences a much wider, more honest map of what's possible. Options include: Stay and make it more joyful. Pivot sideways. Pause and reset. Stretch into leadership. Leave well. Or phase out with grace. This is often the moment in a keynote where people audibly exhale.
Career Clarity and the Decision to Teach, Lead, or Leave
Explore Jenny's signature Energy vs Impact framework for educators at a crossroads. How to stop spinning, work out what you actually want, and make a decision you can live with.
The Mindsets That Keep Good Educators Stuck
The stories educators tell themselves that keep them stuck (I should be coping, I owe them this, it's selfish to want more) and how to gently put those stories down.
Energy, Strengths, and Joy at Work
A practical look at how teachers and leaders can use their strengths and values to design roles that energise rather than drain them, and why this matters for retention, culture, and frankly, staying alive in the job. This is tailored differently for teachers and leaders, and aligns with the AITSL framework for self-leadership.
Jenny is the keynote speaker for events that want their audience to leave feeling seen, slightly relieved, and ready to do something different on Monday.
What Audiences Walk Away With
A keynote with Jenny isn't a TED talk performance and it isn't a lecture. It's closer to having a really good coaching conversation in a room with a few hundred of your favourite colleagues. People leave with:
- Permission to admit how they're actually feeling about their work
- A clearer sense of what they want from this season of their career
- Practical language and frameworks they can take back to their teams and staffrooms
- A few good laughs and probably a small cry, depending on the room
- The sense that they are not the only one, and that there are more options than they thought
Who Jenny Speaks To
Jenny is most often booked for principals' associations, education system events, leadership conferences, beginning and aspiring leader programs, women in leadership events, teacher conferences, and school-based professional learning days. Her audiences are typically teachers, school leaders, system leaders, and anyone whose job is supporting the people doing the work in classrooms.
She is equally at home in front of 30 people in a staff room or 600 in a ballroom, though she does prefer rooms where it's okay to laugh.
Honest, funny, and refreshingly practical keynotes for teachers and leaders who are wondering how much longer they can keep doing this.
Past Clients
Jenny has been trusted to deliver keynotes, workshops, and professional learning for schools, network, systems and organisations including:
The Department of Education Western Australia
Catholic Education Western Australia
WA Primary Principals' Association (WAPPA)
WA Secondary School Executives Association (WASSEA)
WA Association of Education Support Principals and Administrators (WAESPAA)
Australian Special Education Principals Association (ASEPA)
Australian Association of Special Education (AASE)
The State School Teachers' Union of Western Australia (SSTUWA)
WA Secondary Administrator Association (WASSEA)
100's of schools across Western Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland, Victoria and China
Jenny is available to speak nationally and internationally.
A Bit About Jenny
When she isn't speaking, coaching, or recording her Positively Leading podcast, Jenny lives in Boorloo (Perth), Western Australia, with her cavoodle Charlie, who believes sleep is overrated. She is endlessly curious, a lover of shiny objects, and forever down some internet rabbit hole. The Sunday Love Note is Jenny's weekly email blending honest personal reflections with leadership insights, inspiration and a dash of humour. She cheers loudly for educators, asks thoughtful questions, tells the truth kindly, and reminds people that there is always room for more joy.
Bring Jenny to Your Event
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Detailed topics, formats, fees, and technical requirements
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NOW AVAILABLE
The book that gives you permission to decide.
Teach, Lead or Leave is the honest, practical guide every educator needs - whether you're burnt out, restless, ready to lead, or just wondering what comes next. No guilt. No cheerleading. Just clarity.
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