Leading 2018-2019 with (More) Balance

by Jessica Johnson and Sarah Johnson

There is no question that every school leader faces challenges on the job with ever increasing demands that lead to stress and put us all at risk for burnout.  School leaders often define themselves through servant leadership, tending to put others’ needs above their own and even end up sacrificing much of their personal and family time for their careers.  The truth is servant leadership is a great attitude for leadership, but it doesn’t make for a good lifestyle in which the leader is balanced. We are convicted in our belief that leaders cannot take care of others without also taking care of self as we cannot pour from an empty cup.

We are sure you can completely relate to feeling like you’ve been in search of a unicorn as you attempted to attain 50/50 balance. The idea of 50/50 work-life balance is a myth. Instead of framing it simply as work-life, we believe we need to go beyond that. Work and life imply a lack of complexity that is truly present in our lives and always ends up loading more into one side of the equation than we can possibly fit. Over time and through years of conversation, reading, learning, and testing out strategies ourselves, we have come to look at balance differently than most people are probably used to, identifying what we call the balance quadrants.  

We proudly separate positional and professional life (what has traditionally been viewed as “work”) because they are two different spaces. We all know people who gain a position and stop growing professionally. “This is the way we have always done it” is their favorite go-to line. However, that line of thinking does not serve our learning communities in the way they deserve. As school leaders, we must find ways to thrive in our positions (time management, harnessing technology, honing communication, and prioritizing) as well as grow professionally. Our focus on professional growth is so much more than what is on our to-do list; it includes how we learn and grow from our Professional Learning Network (PLN), attend or present at conferences, take additional coursework or read to grow professionally. 

Within the quadrants, we also proudly define “life” in a more robust way. When we lead with service, we must also find ways to replenish our energies so that we are not draining out. Within the personal quadrant, there is a variety of ways we become fulfilled as leaders. Through our relationships, sustainable exercise, spiritual wellness, and focus on overall health, we need to focus upon intentionally immersing ourselves to grow into the best version of us possible. To fill our own cups, we must schedule in time for selfcare, which can include activities for health, wellness, family time and even financial health. Finally, an area that we tend to push into a distant memory due to everything on our plates, we need to invest time in our passions. Many school leaders are passionate about their positions, but we mean to go beyond your position and consider what passions outside of your school building light your fire. This does not mean inventing a new hobby to try to fit in. Rather, it means rediscovering or fostering a passion inside of you that needs cultivating. Maybe it’s pulling out the guitar that has gathered dust, spending quiet and focused time in a space of creativity you enjoy or making time for travels that bring happiness into your life.  We have found that if it requires you to unplug, it is likely part of your passion!

Many school leaders we speak with say they simply do not have time for personal care and passions in their life. We would argue that the longevity of your career depends upon your intentionality in choosing not to neglect these areas of your life. You would be surprised how easy it is to run at full sprint with passion and drive in your work only to realize too late that you’ve been burning yourself out and find yourself completely fried.

No one is going to give you extra time, but you can take action now by scheduling into your calendar time that is just for you to grow. Maybe it’s in the fringe hours before your day starts or anyone in the house rises, after everyone is in bed, or maybe it means leaving work a half hour earlier than normal a few times a week. What gets scheduled gets done. Your family, friends, and your school deserve the best version of you. Cultivate that version of you with intentionality and seek that person constantly by immersing yourself in the quadrants meaningfully with what fuels you.

If you’d like to invest more learning on how you can continue to strive for more balance, you can do so in several ways:

 

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