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Work/Life Balance And Other Myths

For many School Leaders and Teachers we’re in the midst of one of the most challenging stretches on the school calendar.  June is often when a combination of:

  • Report writing.
  • Exam/NAPLAN administration.
  • Winter lurgies
  • Wet day timetables
  • … and just about anything else you can think of!

… conspire to consume what feels like more than the 24 hours there actually are in a day.

It’s also the time of the year when a well practiced mantra around “Work/Life Balance” can emerge in our staff’s vernacular.  I’d like to put it to you that Work/Life Balance is about as real and likely to arrive in June as the Easter Bunny.

Teaching and School Leadership is a non-linear professional existence.  There is no clocking on and clocking off as in a factory and there is no consistency or continuity in the complexity and difficulty of the product or day-to-day role.

We have signed on for a roller coaster that will rise and fall through critical work dimensions like enthusiasm, time, effort and priority.  The notion that there is some magical percentage that we can apply to a school week where we allocate an appropriate amount of time to work, sleep, exercise, family, exercise and reality TV is nonsense.

Better then, would be to enjoy the ride!

School Leaders who celebrate achievement, enjoyment and going beyond the call, but who also respect and reward the tough times are those who will hear less of the desire for the mythical creature that is Work/Life Balance.

Don’t waste any more time chasing a myth.  Instead, spend a little time in genuine gratitude and acknowledgement of your staff.  They are having a crack right now.  And sometimes, all they need to know is that their Leaders and colleagues noticed.

6 Seats! 

Let’s get to the point!  There are only SIX SEATS left for this Tuesday’s School Leaders’ Boot Camp.  If you’d like the chance to connect with a room full of dedicated, reflective and innovative School Leaders around:

  • Defining the task and importance of building School Culture
  • The Nine Behaviours of Highly Effective School Leaders
  • Developing your own Leadership Models & Metaphors (rather than stealing somebody else’s from a book!)
  • Disruptive Innovation

… then just click here or email info@realschools.com.au to get your name on the list.