For a school principal, leadership can sometimes feel like a lonely responsibility. Every decision—from supporting teachers to improving learning outcomes—can rest on one person. But for 29 school principals, a five-day learning experience offered a different perspective: leadership becomes more powerful when it is shared, developed, and multiplied.

This was the heart of Mentoring Future Leaders for Nation-Building, as Security Bank Foundation, Inc. (SBFI), in partnership with the Ateneo Center for Educational Development (ACED) and resource persons from the Ateneo Center for Organization Development, conducted the Year 2 Principals Training – Transforming the School from June 1 to 5, 2026, at Ateneo de Manila University.

While Year 1 focused on school improvement, Year 2 shifted to teacher mentoring and supervision. Principals identified teachers with leadership potential and developed mentoring plans to support their growth, encouraging them to look beyond their tenure and prepare future leaders to sustain their schools’ progress.

For Year 2, participants started by reflecting on their journey, analyzing their school’s pressing problems as part of Year 1 and developing transformational action plans. They celebrated their achievements, receiving certificates from the Ateneo School of Government and the University of Bristol which developed and administered the Year 1 modules.

Through Ateneo-facilitated activities for Year 2, the principals explored effective mentoring and learned that it begins not with giving advice, but with understanding people—their aspirations, challenges, motivations, and potential.

On the second day, the principals practiced one of the most important skills of leadership: listening. Through exercises on inquiry, empathy, feedback, and goal-setting, they discovered that effective mentors ask before they tell. A thoughtful question can sometimes do more to unlock a person’s potential than an immediate answer.

By the third day, the principals moved from mentoring individuals to building systems. They developed School Mentoring Programs designed to make leadership development a continuing part of school culture—not something dependent on one principal or one mentoring relationship.

The goal was multiplication.

As SBFI Trustee Melissa Aquino reminded the participants, “The answer to the loneliness of leadership is not simply to work harder. It is to form people who can carry the work with you.”

This philosophy is closely aligned with the leadership development approach championed by SBFI Chairman Rafael F. Simpao, Jr.: model, mentor, monitor, motivate, and multiply. The process begins with showing others how the work is done, walking alongside them as they learn, guiding them as they take responsibility, encouraging their growth, and ultimately empowering them to develop others.

The training continues beyond the five-day session, with participants implementing and refining their mentoring plans over six months, supported by three online coaching sessions to track progress, address challenges, and achieve mentoring goals. Principals who complete the cycle will advance to Year 3 in 2027, where they and their mentees will collaborate on initiatives that engage the wider community.

Through its partnership with Ateneo, Security Bank Foundation is helping principals move beyond being individual leaders to becoming builders of leaders. And when principals develop leaders who can eventually develop others, their impact continues long after they leave the room.