This article examines how values embedded in the biographies of principals of successful schools influence their responses to systemic policy reforms. Drawing on examples from two secondary principals with similarly strong moral purposes but contrasting value positions, the research found that, despite differences in the cultures, practices, and students' learning experiences in their schools, they directed and shaped--in remarkably similar ways--how and to what extent external policies were incorporated in preferred, values-led cultures and practices; and that leadership and school-improvement realities in their schools were different from those portrayed in "policy enactment" research in so-called "ordinary" schools.