For the last 15 years, schools in the UK have been experiencing an unprecedented number of government imposed reforms in the quest to raise standards and increase accountability. Such reforms have relied for their implementation on the compliance and co-operation of principals and have generated a number of tensions and dilemmas Multiperspective research on successful principals in schools located in challenging socio-economic contexts reveals that vision and distributed leadership, so often key features in writings about leadership qualities, were accompanied by strong core values and beliefs, an abiding sense of agency, identity, moral purpose, resilience, and trust. (Contains 1 note and 1 table.)