Navigating the Chaos of School Leadership with Intention – Empowered Educator

The school is closed again today due to severe weather. School improvement plans are due at the end of the month. Parents are waiting for your update on yesterday’s recess incident. Teachers are waiting for your follow-up for conference planning. 

I know you feel it. Everyone needs something from you.

Leading Through the Storm: Part 1

The truth is, leading a school can often feel like steering a ship through relentless storms - unexpected challenges arise, waves of change crash against established routines, and the horizon sometimes seems fuzzy. Yet, even amidst this chaos, consider the power of finding your lighthouse off the shore.

When you feel overwhelmed, I offer the lighthouse metaphor as a space for you to find light not by eliminating the storm but by providing clear direction through it. You must find your way through the fog of daily distractions to be your best.

It's about training your practice to respond to uncertainty.

You are the lighthouse. No one is coming to tell you what to do. You must find your way to navigate challenges with more joy and less exhaustion. It's about slowing down and getting clarity with your values and goals in mind. Then, you are better able to decide how to respond.

Leader Reflection:

1. Reflect on the challenges you face.

• What specific “storms” are impacting your decision-making?  What gets in your way when you feel powerless - i.e., blame, micromanage, hurrying

2. Consider the metaphor of the lighthouse.

• How can you be a light source for yourself during turbulent times - what values or goals matter most to you?

The Principal Pause: Part 2

It’s the last quarter, and everything feels urgent. So many meetings, after-school events and reports are due! How in the world can you survive to the last day of school? Summer cannot come soon enough!

To help you find your light in the darkness, I encourage you to use the tools within you. Your intention and mindset are your best tools for alleviating the overwhelm you feel and finding the space to create your response to it all.

A 3-step approach to slow the chaos:

1. Hit Pause

• Notice where you are right now: how you feel, think and believe about what’s happening to you. Understanding where you are is the first step to proactively choosing what you want to do about it. We cannot do our best thinking when we feel below the line.
  • Feeling critical or need to be right?
  • Thinking they don’t get it or they should do (x)?
  • Want to shut down to avoid the hard conversation?
• Identify patterns in your thinking or the common triggers you react to.

2. Get clarity on your thinking

• Take a deep breath. Oxygen helps you regulate your brain and reset yourself.
• Do a mental rehearsal. Visualize how you want to show up in this moment. Calm? Confident? Curious?
• Adjust your posture. Your brain takes cues from your defensive or angry posture, and your brain knows you want to be defensive. Calm or curious posture, your brain will be ready to show up that way.

3. Create your response

• Transform from reacting to creating how you wish to respond.
• Choose your location – if you want to be thinking, saying, or doing from above the line, shift to that space.
  • I want to feel connected or empathetic.
  • I am probably not as right as I think. What can I learn here?
• Ask questions.
  • What is possible?
  • I wonder what might work?

Leader Call to Action:

You can't change something you don't see.

You can find your light despite the relentless storms, with emotions running high and all things seeming urgent. Intentional action gets us out of emotional overload. As you practice noticing, pausing, and creating your response, you will find space to lessen your feeling of overwhelm and increase your clarity for action.

What moment brings uncertainty, and how can you become more curious? What questions can you ask to get clarity and help you create your response?