The 2023 Teacher Wellbeing Index, published by Education Support, reveals that school leaders, teachers and support staff are all suffering from increased levels of work-related stress – in fact a fifth of teachers and a quarter of leaders felt they were facing acute work-related stress.
Of course, it will not come as a surprise to many of those working in schools to learn that wellbeing is declining. But what’s the solution?
The education sector is a challenging place to work and there are no quick or easy answers. Yet there are steps leaders and all staff can take to reduce the risks of workplace stress and burn-out.
Good staff wellbeing is all about culture and climate and making sure decisions are taken with regard to the impact on staff.
Leaders often talk-up staff wellbeing as a priority but this needs to be matched with action if they want to reduce staff stress, reduce burn-out, and keep more staff in the profession. Here are 10 tips for school leaders and eight for staff which can be built into everyday schedules.
Ten tips for leaders
1, Manage yourself and your staff will follow
Whatever you are facing, it is important to stay calm and manage your thinking. The quality of your thinking underpins actions, outcomes, and how you are feeling. If we don’t do this, worry can take over, leading you to catastrophise and become overwhelmed during challenging or stressful times.
Start by thinking regularly about your own state – how are
you thinking, feeling, and behaving? Having a high level of self-awareness is important and can be developed through reflection. Focus on things that are within your control and dismiss those that are not. Some people find it helpful to write their worries down in two lists – the controllable and things they cannot control. Ask yourself: “What is the worst that can happen?”
2, Communicate, communicate, communicate
Whether things are going well or whether you are facing challenging times, staff need to understand what is going on. Facts are neutral, so share them and make sure staff have the information they need to do their job, including making sure they understand why things are done.
If there are good lines of communication in calm times, this will pay off when you have difficult messages to convey. Use a range of channels to ensure information is delivered consistently and confidently. Through personal contact and using other leaders and colleagues you can ensure everyone feels connected.
3, Keep the conversation going
Life is busy, school timetables are inflexible, and there are competing demands for time. So regular check-ins and one-to-ones with team members must be scheduled if you want to be confident they will happen. It can take just a few minutes to ask how people are and to listen to their concerns. If you make this a leadership habit you will see the difference.
4, Make decisions
Indecision leads to uncertainty, confusion, apprehension, anxiety, and other emotions that are unlikely to be helpful in leading a team, particularly in challenging times. It also lowers trust. If it turns out you made the wrong decision, that’s okay – the best leaders are adaptable and can be honest when circumstances change or when new information comes to light. Don’t spread yourself too thin – focus on the most important decisions first. Think-through what will have the biggest impact for you and your team.
5, Trust your staff…
…to use their knowledge and experience. When staff feel they are in control (and not subject to micro-management), stress and the risk of burn-out are likely to reduce. This will reduce your workload too.
6, Take a coaching approach
Coaching is designed to raise awareness and develop responsibility in others by using effective questioning and listening skills. It is usually non-directive, targets specific goals or outcomes, and forms the basis of a leadership style by raising awareness of both. To become highly effective takes training and practice, yet you can coach with just one question. The next time one of your team asks you a question, reflect it back: “What would you suggest? How would you do it? What options are there?”
7, Make praise a part of every day
Leaders are often great at shout-outs and sending staff messages and saying thank you by email. Yet they often fail to give praise in the moment. Set a goal to catch people doing things right every day while going about your everyday tasks. Spot the brilliant things that happen around you.
8, Don’t avoid difficult conversations
Sometimes things go wrong or staff don’t behave or perform in line with what has been agreed. If this is not addressed it can lead to stress for those involved and cause resentment in the team. Identify when these conversations need to happen and prepare for them. By running through possible scenarios and ensuring you have the evidence available you will be ready for any eventuality.
9, Distribute leadership
Leadership is an act and not simply a position. This means sharing responsibility and accountability as widely as possible and it can make a real difference. If done effectively it takes pressure off senior and middle leaders and leads individuals to take greater ownership. It also means team members having greater autonomy and this brings benefits for wellbeing.
10, Psychological safety
Professor Amy Edmondson coined this phrase, describing it as “a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes and that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking”. Ideas 1 to 9 will all contribute to creating an environment of psychological safety and it is the number one requirement for a low-stress culture.
Eight tips for all staff
1, Acknowledge what's happening to you
Avoiding burn-out is not easy if you are not in tune with what is happening to you. Being able to identify specific things that are affecting you in and out of work makes it easier for you to tackle them.
It can help to write down what is happening when you are stressed and any specific feelings you have in order to discover patterns. Or set aside a brief time each day to reflect on your worries.
Getting worries out in the open can help give you clarity and mental breathing space. You could also touch base with a friend or colleague to gain their perspective – they may find solutions that you struggle to see.
2, Accept that you have a choice
Remember that you control your work, not the other way round. All of us could quite easily work until midnight each day. Set your working hours, do the work you can, and then pick up the next day. If you don’t do this, your day simply expands to fit the work.
Sometimes the pressure you feel to complete work is self-imposed: what we do and how we respond to situations is within our gift. We can choose whether and when we work additional hours. No-one is pretending this is easy and that there aren’t staff members who need significant support challenges – yet recognising that there is choice is an important first step.
3, Maintain a life outside work
Taking work home feels almost inevitable sometimes. While you can’t always avoid taking your work home, it is important to create separation. Dedicate a specific space for work and try to ensure it is away from areas where you relax. If the only space available is your living room, for example, create an office corner to avoid completing tasks on the sofa.
Maintain an active social life, spend time with your family or friends and focus on hobbies. Consider what gives you the biggest release from stress. Remain cautious of only socialising with colleagues – it is essential to prioritise a complete shift in focus sometimes.
4, Give yourself time to focus on your mental health
When weekends and holidays come around, consider dedicating a day to your mental health. Stepping away from work-related projects doesn’t make problems disappear but it does give you the chance to recharge. When you need to focus on work again you will be more effective.
5, Prioritise your work
One way of doing this is to consider tasks against the following framework:
- Ditch: High effort for me, low-impact for pupils or colleagues.
- Not a priority: Low effort for me, low-impact for pupils or colleagues.
- Prioritise: Low effort for me, high-impact for pupils or colleagues.
- Review whether this is worth doing: High effort for me, high-impact for pupils or colleagues.
6, Learn to say ‘no’
When someone asks you to do something which will impact on other work, a refusal can benefit both you and your students. One way you can do this is through negotiation: if the task comes from your line manager or other leader, let them know what else you have on and ask which of these things you should not do in order to accommodate the new work.
7, Focus on what has gone well
We tend to focus on what has gone wrong or tasks that have not been completed. You will have completed many more tasks than you have failed to complete, and it is important to focus on these too. One way to do this is to make a habit of asking yourself what’s gone well and what’s been completed at the end of each day. List the three most important things and take this home with you.
8, Establish a support network
You can create both formal and informal support networks to help you manage stress. Speaking with a colleague, line manager or another leader may also prove useful – they may have insight into what is going on and help identify solutions. At the very least, it will be easier for them to provide support if they know how you feel. Talking to a trusted friend outside education can also help to give you a different perspective on what is happening.
Final thoughts
The government is quite rightly taking action to help reduce workload in schools, but while we wait for the outcomes from its new workload taskforce it is up to leaders and those they lead to manage their own wellbeing and that of those around them.
- Mark Solomons is a former operating board member of Sainsbury’s Bank who has subsequently had more than 14 years’ experience of leadership and culture development in UK education sector. In 2018 he founded Welbee, a tech start-up supporting schools and MATs to measure and systematically improve staff wellbeing. He is co-author with Fran Abrams of What Makes Teachers Unhappy and What Can You Do About It? Building a culture of staff wellbeing, published by Routledge. Visit https://tinyurl.com/4zxmjz4k
Further information & resources
- Education Support: Teacher Wellbeing Index 2023: educationsupport.org.uk/resources/for-organisations/research/teacher-wellbeing-index/
- Headteacher Update Podcast: Protecting staff wellbeing across the school, 2021: www.headteacher-update.com/content/podcasts/headteacher-update-podcast-protecting-staff-wellbeing-across-the-school