Addressing Burnouts Among Principals
Burnout refers to a mental state where an individual is emotionally exhausted because of excess stress and lack of proper rest to recharge. Principals are among individuals who are most affected by burnouts because of the nature of their jobs (Beausaert et al., 2016). Principals have many responsibilities, which include resolving the challenges in the school, which may be extremely challenging. Occasionally, principals are overwhelmed by excessive responsibilities and duties leading to a lot of stress. Consequently, the principals end up experiencing burnouts that compromise their ability to run a school. Burnouts among principals are common because they have a lot of responsibilities and the school expects many things from them. Therefore, it is essential to develop a professional development plan that will create awareness about burnouts among principals, enabling them to know how to shun it.
Even though most principals will not admit it, they experience burnout from time to time due to the demanding nature of their jobs. Principals should address stakeholders’ needs, which may be demanding sometimes. Teachers, students, and administration officers have varied needs that principals are obligated to fulfil. Consequently, principals may feel overwhelmed by the work they are expected to accomplish so that they can address the concerns of all stakeholders (Bedi & Kukemelk, 2018). Therefore, principals are extremely stressed leading to the development of burnouts, which deteriorate their mental wellbeing. Furthermore, principals have personal and career goals, which they feel they must achieve within a given period. When such goals and personal dreams fail to materialize in the stipulated time principals tend to get stressed which may cause burnouts. Burnout makes it difficult for principals to make sound decisions, which compromises their leadership (Beausaert, et al., 2016). Making an unsound decision will lead to the creation of an environment that is not conducive to learning and teaching. Thus, burnout among principals is a substantial problem that needs to be addressed to ensure that learners have a sound learning environment.
Justification of the Development Plan
During my career as an educator, I have witnessed principals and vice-principals experience extreme stress and developing burnouts. The principals primarily developed burnouts because they were subjected to a lot of work and responsibilities. The principals that I had an opportunity to work with had obligations to create a favourable learning environment that will enable students to have a better learning experience, which may be stressful at times. Additionally, the principals were obligated to provide coordination and leadership in the school, which is challenging especially when the school is big and the needs of the stakeholders are diverse. The principals experienced a significant amount of stress, which led to them developing burnouts compromising the quality of their work (Dadaczynski & Paulus, 2015). Hence, it is critical to design a career development program that will create awareness about burnouts among principals helping them to overcome stress and avoid experiencing burnout.
Several pieces of evidence may support the need for designing a professional advancement plan that will equip principals with skills to beat stress and overcome burnouts. First, principals have the responsibility of running a school while ensuring that teachers and learners have a good environment to educate and to learn effectively. Therefore, principals should have a clear mind so that they can make a sound decision that will enable learners and teachers to have an easy time while learning and instructing. Thus, it is critical to creating a professional development plan that will address burnouts among principals, which will enable them to have healthy mental health, facilitating them to make the best decisions (Gluschkoff et al., 2016). Furthermore, when principals have clear minds they can develop appropriate learning programs that may complement what teachers are using improving the learning experience of the students. Consequently, learners will be motivated to learn and attend classes more frequently.
The other evidence that justifies this career advancement plan is that in every three principals one faces burnouts and high levels of stress. According to Henebery (2020), one of every three principals experiences stress and burnout because of massive workloads and conflict with parents. Principals have massive workloads, which they are expected to complete in stipulated time. The huge workloads subjected the principals to a lot of pressure leading to stress. Additionally, principals experience stress because of conflict with parents. When massive workload is coupled with stress from parents, principals experience a high level of stress leading to burnout, compromising the quality of their work. One method that principals can eliminate burnout and stress is having a career development program that will educate them on better ways of avoiding and dealing with stress. Hence, the professional advancement plan to address stress among principals is necessary.
Goals of the Workshop
The career development workshop has multiple goals that when attained principals will deal with burnout appropriately, enhancing their efficiency and effectiveness as leaders. The first goal of the workshop is to create awareness about burnout. Many principals are not familiar with the concept of burnouts; hence, they experience it without seeking help, which compromises their health and leadership. At the end of the workshop, principals should know what burnout is and some of the risk factors that increase the chances of principals experiencing burnout. Among the factors increasing the vulnerability of principals to burnout, include excess workload. Principals with excess workload are at a high risk of experiencing burnout (Perry, 2016). When principals learn that excessive workload leads to burnout, they will develop strategies of minimizing their workload preventing burnout. Furthermore, when principals learn strategies of avoiding stress and burnout they will be able to customize strategies of coping with burnout and stress because at some point they are inevitable. Therefore, teaching principals about burnout will enable them to tailor strategies that will work best for them, enabling them to prevent burnout and excess stress.
The second goal of the workshop is to teach principals how they can use technology to deal with stress and burnout. The seminar will focus on teaching principals several ways they may use technology to their advantage and ease stress. One way that principals can use technology to ease stress is by listening to relaxing music. Music therapy is one of the most soothing forms of therapy, which is also effective in relieving stress too. Music therapy may help a principal experiencing stress and burnout enabling him or her to have a clear mind, facilitating sound decision making which is essential among school leaders. Principals may also utilize technology to deal with stress and burnout in that they may enrol in phone or online therapy (Beausaert et al., 2016). During this time when movement and social interactions are restricted, principals may use phone therapy to deal with burnout enabling them to restore their mental health. Teaching principals to use technology to ease stress and relieve symptoms of burnout may help them return to normalcy enabling them to make good decisions that will benefit learners.
The other goal of the career development workshop is teaching principals about the importance of delegating activities. Most principals do not delegate workload as they feel when they do the work will not be done to satisfaction. However, having excessive workload may overwhelm principals increasing their stress levels leading to burnout (Kessler et al., 2015). Burnout may make it difficult for the principal to finish the excessive workload due to emotional and physical fatigue associated with burnout. Therefore, educating principals on the importance of delegating duties may enable them to have a workload that they can manage effectively and on time without stress. Furthermore, teaching principals on strategies of delegating duties will enable them to know how to assign the workload appropriately so that high-quality output can be produced, reducing the chances of experiencing burnouts. Having an objective of teaching principals about delegation will ensure that the workshop is more successful as the principals will be able to assign workload effectively reducing their chances of experiencing burnout.
Another goal of the career development workshop is to educate principals about self-care. Even though many principals are educated and have good leadership skills most of them do not engage in self-care activities as they overwork themselves as they try to attain personal and district set goals (Wang et al., 2018). As a result, such leaders develop burnout, as they get overwhelmed with work without having time to take care of themselves. Self-care is essential for all people as it enables them to relieve stress leading to a better life. Self-care activities include cooking with family members. Cooking is a cognitive and physical activity meaning the mind and the body is engaged, enabling an individual to relieve stress. The workshop aims at ensuring that principals are aware of several self-care activities such as taking long baths and watching favourite movies or shows. Having long baths while watching a favourite show may be therapeutic enabling principles to clear their minds, which helps them to have the strength to continue working and leading the school to ensure effective learning takes place.
Benefits of Attending the Career Advancement Program
Principals who will attend the seminars will reap multiple benefits from attending the career development workshop. The first benefit of attending the professional development workshop is developing a stress-coping mechanism. Principals who will attend the workshop will benefit by developing effective stress coping mechanisms, which will enable them to deal with stress preventing them from developing burnout. By learning coping mechanisms such as self-care, principles will be able to clear their minds helping them to develop sound decisions and learning strategies that will enhance students’ learning experience (Kessler et al., 2015). Moreover, principals who will attend the workshop will enhance their knowledge about burnout helping them to design appropriate strategies that will help them deal with stress appropriately. Customizing strategies to handle stress is essential as principals may have diverse needs. Hence, each principal has a specific intervention that will work best for him or her.
The second benefit that principals will derive from attending the workshop is making sound decisions. When principals attend the career development, seminar they will be able to deal with stress, which they must feel, at some point in their career (Karakose et al., 2016). Consequently, they will have skills in handling stress, which will ensure that they have a clear mind aiding them to make sound decisions. Sound decisions are essential in a learning environment as they improve the learning system hence improving students’ experience. Furthermore, a principal that makes sound decisions is able to retain talented teachers which ensures that quality instructions are given enhancing learners’ performance. Hence, principals that will attend the seminar will benefit from being able to make sound decisions since they will have clear minds. Another benefit that principals will have from the career development seminar is that they will develop effective skills of delegating duties. Principals will know which duties to delegate and the ones to handle by themselves enabling them to have less workload, which will minimize their chances of being overwhelmed. Principals that are not overworked tend to have a clear mind, improving their effectiveness and efficiency.
Besides, principals who will attend the seminar will benefit in that they will identify risk factors for burnout avoiding them. The seminar will entail teaching principals how to identify factors that increase the chances of developing burnout. When principals have skills in identifying risk factors, they will avoid circumstances that make them vulnerable to burnout. Preventing burnout will always be better than treating it; thus, having skills of identifying risk factors is essential as one will avoid them reducing the chances of developing burnout (Kessler et al., 2015). The other benefit of attending the professional development workshop is that the principals will start having a better relationship with the schools’ stakeholders. When a principal is stressed, he or she may strain several relationships due to anger. However, when a principal attends the seminar he or she will be able to deal with stress and anger enabling him or her to have a sound relationship with schools’ stakeholders.
How the Professional Development Plan Will Address Learning Needs
The professional training seminar will address the learning needs and problems in my school in multiple ways. First, it will equip the principal with adequate self-care skills, which will be essential, as he will avoid stress, reducing the chances of contracting burnout. By attending the seminar, the principal will have learned to develop a stress-coping mechanism, which is inevitable for a principal (Bottiani et al., 2019). As a result, the principal will be able to make sound decisions that will prioritize the learning needs of the students, improving their performance. Principals with clear minds make the best decisions that best addresses the needs of the learners. Additionally, the professional development plan may address the learning issues at my school by enabling the principal to mend the strained relationship with some parents facilitating collaboration. Effective collaboration between teachers and parents enables the creation of an effective learning environment, which ensures learners have a conducive environment to learn and develop appropriate competence skills.
Designing and Conducting the Career Development Plan
The professional development workshop will be entirely online due to the social distancing policies implemented by the government to combat COVID-19. The workshop will be for five days so that principals can have ample time to learn how to fight burnout. The primary audience for this professional development program is principals. The lessons will be taught through zoom whereby the facilitator will have a live session with the principals enabling them to have room to ask questions. The facilitator will instruct the principals on the ways of combating stress and burnout, strategies of delegation, mending the broken relationship with teachers, ways of using technology to cope with burnout and strategies of self-care (Perry, 2016). In addition to the live sessions, the principals will be sent notes from the live session so that they can enhance their understanding of the taught material. Further, optional resources will also be sent to the principals just in case they want to learn more. Each online session will be about 60 minutes and there will be a short evaluation quiz at the end of each lesson. The quiz will be about 10 multiple-choice questions that will be used to evaluate the principals’ understanding.
After five days, a comprehensive evaluation that entails multiple-choice questions, one essay, and case studies will be issued to gauge principals’ understanding of the taught material. After two days, principals will be divided into groups of two and a small group assessment will be given to evaluate their comprehension of the short course. The group assessment will test whether the principals understand ways of coping with stress. The short course will have a couple of objectives, which include principals developing self-care skills (Wang et al., 2018). Another objective is that learners should learn to use technology to deal with stress and burnout. The third objective is that learners should develop strategies for delegating duties. The last objective is that learners should have extensive knowledge about burnout. The primary learning materials include access to a strong network and having access to a computer or a phone that can support zoom meetings. After the completion of the short course, the facilitator will set a zoom meeting with the principals to evaluate how they are doing and the effect of the implementation of the learned material.
Implementation Plan of the Career Development Plan in My Community
The first step of implementing my professional development program is creating awareness about it among the community member especially principals. Creating awareness about the program is essential, as it will make principals interested when they learn the benefit they stand to gain. I would secure necessary support through educating the people about the importance of principals avoiding and coping with burnout. By showing the people the benefits the principals stand to reap from the workshop I may get the support I need, which would ensure my dream come true and principals can deal with stress and burnout effectively. I would also gain support through educating how principals’ burnout compromises the leadership of a school. I would enlighten members of my community by showing them the statistics, which suggest that one of every three principals is experiencing burnout compromising the quality of their work. Showing the community and school that burnout is substantially affecting principals’ quality of leadership and life would enable me to gain support to start the professional advancement program.
Even though I may get the necessary support, I may experience several challenges that may make it difficult for me to attain the goals of the professional advancement program. The first challenge that I anticipate is budget constraints. Getting a licensed clinical social work or therapist to instruct the principals about burnout may be expensive. Getting a highly qualified therapist may be expensive since most of their services are not cheap due to the quality of their work. Furthermore, accessing empirical studies that would serve as resources for principals is also expensive, as most of the empirical articles have to be paid for, making it difficult to start and run the professional development workshop. Another challenge is that the career advancement program may face resistance from non-supporters compromising the launching of the workshop. Individuals who do not support the career advancement program may criticize it winning the support of the people making it difficult for the program. Another constraint to my career development workshop is lack of time. Principals are usually busy and may find it difficult to commit to a training program that takes five days and has future follow-ups.
Despite the career development plan anticipating challenges, a couple of strategies may be implemented to offset the challenges. The first way that the challenges can be countered is by talking with stakeholders such as administrators and parents so that they can raise a certain amount of money to support the career development program furthermore, I can apply for grants from organizations that seek to give back to the society. Another strategy that can be used to counter the anticipated challenges is by educating the school’s stakeholders about the importance of the career development program so that they can be fully convinced of the efficacy of the workshop, reducing the chances of some people criticizing the program.
References
Beausaert, S., Froehlich, D. E., Devos, C., & Riley, P. (2016). Effects of support on stress and burnout in school principals. Educational Research, 58(4), 347-365.
Bedi, I. K., & Kukemelk, H. (2018). School Principals and Job Stress: The Silent Dismissal Agent and Forgotten Pill in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4. US-China Education Review, 8(8), 357-364.
Bottiani, J. H., Duran, C. A., Pas, E. T., & Bradshaw, C. P. (2019). Teacher stress and burnout in urban middle schools: Associations with job demands, resources, and effective classroom practices. Journal of School Psychology, 77, 36-51.
Dadaczynski, K., & Paulus, P. (2015). Healthy principals–healthy schools? A neglected perspective to school health promotion. In Schools for health and sustainability (pp. 253-273). Springer, Dordrecht.
Gluschkoff, K., Elovainio, M., Kinnunen, U., Mullola, S., Hintsanen, M., Keltikangas-Järvinen, L., & Hintsa, T. (2016). Work stress, poor recovery and burnout in teachers. Occupational medicine, 66(7), 564-570.
Henebery, B. (2020, May 11). One in three principals face stress and burnout – report. The Educator. https://www.theeducatoronline.com/k12/news/one-in-three-principals-face-stress-and-burnout–report/271320
Karakose, T., Kocabas, I., Yirci, R., Esen, C., & Celik, M. (2016). Exploring the Relationship between School Principals’ Burnout Situation and Life Satisfaction. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 4(6), 1488-1494.
Kessler, S. S., Snodgrass, A. M., & Davis, A. T. (2015). The Principal’s Survival Guide: Where Do I Start? How Do I Succeed? when Do I Sleep?. Free Spirit Publishing.
Perry, T. M. (2016). Stress and coping strategies among Minnesota secondary school principals.
Wang, F., Pollock, K., & Hauseman, D. C. (2018). Ontario principals’ and vice-principals’ well-being and coping strategies in the context of work intensification. Perspectives on Flourishing Schools, 287-304.