Pathways to Well-being and School Leadership - Relationships
A moment of solitude in the Himalayas
Continuing this series on the SEARCH pathways to well-being (Waters and Loton, 2019) and school leadership, let's talk about R - relationships.
This area covered several themes and will warrant at least one more article!
As mentioned previously, school leaders who were flourishing identified positive relationships as one source of their well-being (Chen et al., 2023) and there were details of school leaders using relationships as a coping mechanism for the stresses they encountered, although they also noted that finding the time for this was difficult (Mahfouz, 2020). This is supported by further research which shows that positive, synchronistic connections of mutual care and concern are linked to flourishing mental health (Major et al., 2018).
But one finding that stands out that I didn’t necessarily appreciate at the time was the impact of the amount of relationship building with multiple community members. Several research papers detailed how the wide range of different relationships that school leaders were involved in, caused emotional labour and negatively impacted well-being (Aravena & González, 2021, Gorrell & De Nobile, 2023). Leading a Primary school, my day could include playing with early years in their sand pit, having a meeting with a parent the next hour and perhaps finishing with trying to persuade the local education authority of the power of coaching in education - quite a range! And although they were not necessarily negative or challenging interactions, they were also not all the high-quality connections that I mentioned earlier.
I used to believe I was introverted and I would decline many social invitations in favour of solitude. However, I now realise that, although I would never classify myself as an extrovert, I am less introverted than I originally thought. I was seeking solitude to rest and replenish because emotional management was involved in these different interactions.
I know that some of the social engagements I was invited to would have been energising and restorative, but I also know that sometimes the quiet reset was exactly what I needed - for me finding that balance as a school leader was tricky.
I would love to know your thoughts - do you find that the range and scope of relationship building can be tiring or does interacting with so many different people energise you?
Aravena, F., & González, Á. (2021). ‘Always ready and always well’: Exploring stress on school principals in Chile. International Journal of Educational Development, 84. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2021.102399
Gorrell, A., & De Nobile, J. (2023). The well-being of Australian primary school principals: a study of the key concerns. International Journal of Educational Management. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-01-2023-0039
Waters, L., & Loton, D. (2019). SEARCH: A Meta-Framework and Review of the Field of Positive Education. International Journal of Applied Positive Psychology, 4(1), 1–46. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41042-019-00017-4
