This article explores connections among leading, teaching, and learning using data from a qualitative/quantitative study of 81 exemplary secondary school teachers in the United States. The teachers' emphasis on learning--for themselves, students, and others--appears to underpin their leadership choices within six major areas of influence: extracurricular activities for students, community activities involving teaching and learning, entry into the profession, curricular and instructional improvements, decision making that promotes learning, and network connections with the education community at large. The teachers' spheres of influence are not limited; they find and understand communities of learners from the local to the national levels. The article posits that learning precedes leading, that leaders are teachers, and that leadership allows classroom teachers to learn as well as to teach.