Leader Wellbeing

Just as the pre-flight safety announcement on a plane asks you to put on your own oxygen mask before helping others, effective leaders need to put their own wellbeing first, so they can then consistently support their team.

School can be a frenetic place to work, add the responsibilities and duties of a leader, and it can become overwhelming. So how can we address the stress?

The best place to start, is to identify tasks that have the biggest impact on your energy and wellbeing, and then build the knowledge and skills needed to be fully engaged and perform regardless of the conditions.

A lack of time - or a perceived lack of time - to get everything done, can often be the source of the greatest pressure. This is often referred to as time management, although no one can actually ‘manage’ time. A clearer way to think of this is as energy management.

We have four intelligences (factors) that affect energy levels and effectiveness:

• Body - Physical Intelligence/Quotient (PQ), at the most basic level this provides a quantity of energy which is dependent on hydration, food, exercise and sleep.
• Emotion - Emotional Intelligence/Quotient (EQ), is the quality of energy you have. Energy levels are impacted when a person feels sad, annoyed or frustrated.
• Mind - Intelligent Quotient (IQ), gives focus - being guided by a plan and prioritising work increases productivity.
• Spirit - Spiritual Intelligence/Quotient (SQ), gives energy its power - having a clear vision or purpose helps to overcome challenges and deliver outcomes.

How might we support ourselves across these four energies?

Demands on personal capacity and levels of energy change throughout the day, depending on workload, student behaviour, leaders, colleagues, satisfaction levels, deadlines, lack of flexibility and more. Recognising and understanding your energy ‘supply and demand’ and its impact on your wellbeing, can help your performance each day.

Start with the basics - we all know that looking after ourselves physically is important, ensure you eat well, hydrate regularly, exercise, take a break and get enough sleep. Often, when we are immersed in work, we think there’s no time to take a break. However, taking a quick break, having a ten minute walk, refreshing yourself with a snack and a drink, will improve your productivity and efficiency. You will actually save yourself time on tasks, compared to pushing through and ignoring your physical needs. It may be difficult, but everyone needs to take responsibility for these points, and particularly to carve out time to take on the fuel their body needs.

Here are my top five tips to help leaders manage their energy:

1. Don’t make emails the first thing you do each day. Switching on and hitting send/receive is likely to sabotage the day you had planned - instead of following your agenda, your focus is likely to be scattered (Mind) and you run the risk of generating wasted energy (Emotion), such as anger, disappointment, frustration or becoming overwhelmed as you read through your inbox.

Start your day completing your most important task(s) first. What will have the greatest impact for yourself and others and what you are trying to achieve? Then move to the next most important task.

Sometimes these may be small wins finished in limited time - by keeping focus, whatever the rest of the day brings, you have completed the most important work.