Education reform initiatives across the world deploy discourses of globalization although there are significant variations in how these are embedded in different locales. In the last two decades the general trend in Europe has been towards greater school autonomy through decentralization policies and towards indirect steering through the culture of performativity with elements of both accountability and standardization. Unlike this global direction these concepts are still not under the radar of policy officers in North Cyprus where school leaders operate in a highly centralized and politicised context with their hands tied (Mertkan, forthcoming, Mertkan-Ozunlu & Thomson, 2009.). Teacher unions also play an exceptional role with a significant influence on the direction of education policies and with the power to paralyse the system - unlike many countries where they have been marginalised. Hence, the policy context in North Cyprus sits uncomfortably with the latest policy trends in OECD countries and Europe. This paper examines using data from a qualitative study about what it means to be a school leader in this context with a particular focus on how school leaders are positioned by written and enacted policy, how they exercise the limited agency they have and who benefits from this system.