07 Oct Single Biggest Mistake In Educational Leadership
You’re passionate about what you do and you’re dedicated to your students, teachers and the entire school community.
You work hard, you’re compassionate and you’ve learnt all about teaching, curriculum, assessment, student wellbeing and the way schools work. You love making a positive difference in the world but something inside you is just not quite right.
Deep, deep down you know you’re starting to second-guess yourself. Your workload is immense. Lately you’ve started to feel tired, you’re not sleeping well and you’re waking up in the night worrying about tasks you must complete or people problems you need to manage.
How do I know this?
Because I felt the same way many times as a Principal and a Head of School.
What is it?
I call it the single biggest mistake that we can make as educational leaders.
Do you know what it is?
It’s neglecting your own self-awareness, self-management and self-leadership.
You’re so busy looking after everyone and attending to everything else that you lose sight of your personal needs. Schools today are incredibly busy places; so exciting with a diverse array of activities going on everyday. So much has changed even from just ten years ago. Added to a comprehensive integrated curricula and offering performing arts, creativity, sports, field trips, after school activities, leadership initiatives and international connections; there’s technology integration, creative learning spaces, personalized learning programs, social and emotional learning, mindfulness programs, service programs, entrepreneurship and sustainability initiatives all a part of 21st century schools.
It’s a tough call for educational leaders to manage the complexity of it all and to also carve out the time and energy required to continuously plan for self-leadership and self-management.
Your to-do list keeps growing every day, even though you’re doing your best to keep focused and get those tasks completed. Sometimes you feel like a tsunami of work is going to wash you away.
Educational leadership today starts with self–leadership. If you can’t lead yourself you can’t lead anyone. You really do need to take care of yourself every day. Build in patterns and habits to maintain a good work/life balance and a healthy sense of humour, fun and adventure.
Is it time to try something new?
Why not join me for the next Think Strategic 2-day workshop ‘Leadership for the 21st Century’ at the Professional Leading Hub, NIST International School, a leading 21st century school on 11 & 12 November and learn all about self-awareness, self-management and self-leadership. Collaborate with other educational leaders and learn a whole heap of leadership strategies and tools to ensure your success as a 21st century educational leader.
