The Battle for Balance
Here we go, educator friends. Another school year is here. The promise of new beginnings, fresh goals to pursue, dreams to chase, and people to love. This is my favorite thing about our profession- the chance to start anew every year.
As we come off of the slower days of summer and find ourselves thrust back into the calling we choose to keep chasing, my hope for each of you is that you stay in the “battle for balance.” No matter your role in education or any field for that matter, I feel finding the balance between our personal and professional lives is a fundamental element to self-care.
The greatest gift we can give ourselves is the establishment of emotionally healthy boundaries between our personal and professional lives. Politics have taken over public education, most especially in the past few years. This results in demands that cannot be reasonably met with any kind of balance. On top of that, these demands and negative noise pull us further and further away from “our center”, or why we chose education to begin with in the first place. When our center is out of sight we lose joy and real purpose. We begin working overtime to meet all the demands, we sleep less, we make less time for reflection and things that bring us joy, we are riddled with guilt over the weary, lack of presence we give our families and friends, and low and behold the scale is off. The balance is lost.
How can leaders help those they serve win in the battle for balance?
Here are few things vulnerable leaders do to support those they serve in staying in the constant battle for balance.
Vulnerable leaders:
Model it. Model balance. We share stories and celebrations of our personal lives and make time for those we serve to share theirs too. Then we genuinely listen to them. We listen for what brings our people joy. We listen for who they are outside of their job titles. We avoid sending emails after hours or on weekends (use the schedule send button). We passionately pursue happiness and joy with our families, friends, and hobbies.
Get real about our “center.” Is our “center” about ourselves? Is it about making us look good, taking things off our plates, and bringing glory to our names and titles? Or is our “center” truly about those we serve and our obligation to ensure they are fulfilled, inspired, challenged, and valued? Is our “center” about making others important or about ensuring people know how important we are? When we have done the work to ensure our “center” is less about us and more about others, we share it every chance we get. If our “center” is one of selfish desires, we step out of leadership, figure our stuff out, and come back when we are ready to SERVE. Public education won’t survive with selfish leaders. Teachers deserve better. Students deserve better. Communities should demand more.
Buffer the bull. We know what’s truly on the plates of our people and are intentional about our mandates and timelines. We manage our own pressures as leaders with our people in mind. They are not pawns in the game of making us look good or be the winner. Buffering is not hard when you are not focused on you.
Read the room. We are acutely aware of the non-verbals, words, and feel of the rooms in which our people gather. We are ready to accept and adjust when the reading of the room is negative, weary, or lost. We willingly acknowledge our roles in changing the feel of our organizational culture and openly accept blame and responsibility as needed.
Vulnerable leaders want to stand united and fight for public education, but will not allow it to threaten the balance of our lives. We will passionately advocate for balance in the lives of those we serve. Educators will continue to leave this profession without leaders who model balance, have servant “centers”, buffer the bull, and can read the room effectively. Vulnerable leaders acknowledge the vital role they play in helping educators “battle for balance.”