There is developing interest in how professional identity can support educational leaders’ management of change. This article explores the conceptualisation and interplay of identity formation with adaptive and contingent forms of educational leadership. The article draws on qualitative data obtained from two New Zealand school principals and significant others, as each principal negotiated their way through the beginnings of a second principalship and associated change processes. Findings from this first year of a three-year study identified influential factors within each principal’s personal, and professional identities. A comparison of findings with the respective literatures revealed a potential fusion between identity formation and concepts within the broad fields of adaptive and values-based contingency leadership.