‘Head’ First: Principal Self-care to Promote Teacher Resilience

As leaders of school communities, principals have a significant impact on school culture and teachers’ well-being at work. A school principal’s positive or negative emotions can influence the mood of their teaching staff and can enhance or hinder a teacher’s resilience. Unfortunately, though, many school principals suffer from their own high levels of stress, emotional exhaustion and fatigue-related issues, whilst concurrently being tasked with the responsibility and management of the well-being of their staff. In this chapter, we explore the role of mindfulness and self-care in promoting resilience as a way for school principals to meet the challenges of their role. Principals who are mindful and employ self-compassion are better placed and more resilient to positively impact others and flourish in their role. Leadership does matter and ensuring that we address leaders’ well-being and resilience will mean they will be better equipped to engender resilience in their staff.