The Performing Beyond Expectations (PBE) project explores how organisations in the private and public sector can achieve exceptionally high performance. In addition to agreed-upon performance criteria, all included cases had to meet standards of organisational responsibility in terms of their treatment of workers, clients and the community. Ethical integrity is not a one-time accomplishment but a continuing struggle and quest. In the business world, companies that prioritize purpose use their social responsibility to drive their financial performance. For them, doing good work means doing “good” work. However, research on purpose-driven companies raises important questions about outcomes above the bottom line, stimulating reflection about what performance beyond expectations means and how it should be defined. These same concerns abound in educational leadership. How do school leaders work with the challenges—and the strengths—they are given, in terms of pupils and personnel, to do “good” work? What are the distinctions between ethical and responsible leadership? To whom and for what are leaders responsible? Using case study analysis, this paper explores the decision-making processes of both schools and businesses, while also posing questions about the definition of responsible leadership.