The Leadership Network Education Was Missing

<p>Who develops the leaders in education?</p><p>In this episode of the SLT Podcast, Ziggy sits down with Ben Hobbis, founder of Step Up Network, to explore leadership, networking, community, accessibility, career progression, and why educators need better spaces to connect and grow.</p><p>Ben shares his journey from working in retail management to becoming a primary teacher, middle leader, assistant headteacher, and the founder of a growing education leadership network. He reflects on the transferable skills he brought from retail into school leadership, including customer service, team management, time management, prioritisation, and working with people.</p><p>The conversation explores why being a great teacher does not automatically prepare someone to be a great leader, why middle leadership can be one of the hardest stages in education, and why schools need to think more intentionally about leadership development, talent management, succession planning, and access to opportunity.</p><p>Ben also shares the story behind Step Up Network — why it was created, how it grew from a simple idea into a national community, and why smaller, more intentional networking spaces can be more powerful than large events.</p><p>Together, Ziggy and Ben discuss representation, diversity, accessibility, leadership pipelines, LinkedIn, mentoring, positive disruption, and why education needs to take networking more seriously.</p><p>This episode also marks the official partnership between the SLT Podcast and Step Up Network.</p><p>💬 “You can’t call yourself a leader until you’ve created another leader.”</p><p>Sponsored by Uniform Education, the official recruitment sponsor of the SLT Podcast.</p><p>📱 Join Our FREE WhatsApp Community<br>→ ‎<a href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/LiTpC4FbUA2CqWHP1Mcrwz">https://chat.whatsapp.com/LiTpC4FbUA2CqWHP1Mcrwz</a></p><p>📲 Follow Us:<br>Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/the_slt_podcast">https://www.instagram.com/the_slt_podcast</a><br>TikTok: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@slt.podcast">https://www.tiktok.com/@slt.podcast</a></p><p>Listen to us on the go:<br>Spotify: <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/13hI6StbuMcYhX8LmYtt5S?si=73aaabe9fa394d43">https://open.spotify.com/show/13hI6StbuMcYhX8LmYtt5S?si=73aaabe9fa394d43</a><br>Apple Podcast: <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-slt-podcast-serious-leaders-talking/id1778833145">https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-slt-podcast-serious-leaders-talking/id1778833145