Collegiate Composition: Principal Burnout

Dr. Jeffrey D. Cornelius, Professor of Education & Department Chair, University of North Alabama

How can principals avoid burnout? To answer this question, I will first discuss research grounded in this area. In addition, I will share some practical leadership strategies that assisted me during my career as a school-based principal. Recent survey results revealed that 35% of principals were not satisfied with their job (NASSP Survey Signals a Looming Mass Exodus of Principals from Schools, 2021). Results from this survey revealed contributory factors of job dissatisfaction related to the COVID-19 impact, the teacher shortage, student/staff wellness, a tense political environment, heavy workload, state accountability measures, and time/effort for compliance requirements. These results are concerning to say the least.

RELATED STUDIES

DeMatthews et al. (2021) suggested that principals should discover ways to address burnout due to districts not necessarily being able to offer burnout supports. Three things that principals can do to address burnout included self-educating themselves, creating a leadership delegation plan/calendar, and engaging in annual planning (DeMatthews et al., 2021). To self- educate on burnout, DeMatthews et al. (2021) suggested one or more of the following reads:

The American Psychiatric Association’s (2020) Well- Being Resources which includes TED Talks on burnout, tools to guard against burnout, and assessment tools and well-being resources.

Mayo Clinic’s (2020) Healthy Lifestyle webpage which provides basic information on how to spot job burnout and how to take action.

Stanford Medicine’s (2020) Stress & Burnout webpage, which provides basic assessments, definitions, and information on how to access stress resources. (p. 164)

DeMatthews et al. (2021) also provides examples of both creating a leadership delegation plan/ calendar and engaging in annual planning. These examples may be accessed by reviewing the digital object identifier (DOI) in the reference section of this article.

Tikkanen et al. (2017) conducted a study using a scale to measure school principals’ burnout, work stress, and proactive selfregulation strategies. They discovered that principals with an increased risk of burnout profile had high scores in work stress and high scores in exhaustion. These results are not surprising when taken in consideration the many job duties of a principal. Stress appears to be a common element in relation to burnout. Therefore, it may be advantageous to recognize stressors, and thus discover ways to reduce these stressors. The results of the study also revealed that learning proactive self-regulation strategies was a practical way to minimize burnout among principals. These findings align with previous work as to the importance of principals self-educating themselves to reduce burnout (DeMatthews et al., 2021).

PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE

As a previous building-based school principal, I want to share some practical strategies that you may find helpful to avoid burnout and reduce stress. Listed below are practical strategies that may assist you to avoid burnout and reduce stress.

• Set aside uninterrupted time to accomplish goals.

• Establish short-term and long-term goals.

• Collaborate with other colleagues and mentors. Often times, you do not need to reinvent the wheel.

• Delegate when possible. Delegating is a necessary leadership activity. However, use caution concerning what is being delegated and the frequency. If not, you may risk losing staff morale very quickly.

• Educate yourself on strategies that will help in self-regulation. Self-regulation strategies continuously appear in the research concerning burnout.

• Find ways to reduce your stress outside of work whether it be exercising, finding a hobby, taking a vacation, etc.

• Stay connected to individuals that have a positive influence on your life.

• Learn to prioritize. During the school day, students, parents and teachers are high priority. It is often helpful to start each day with a priority list to shift the focus to the important things.

• Maintain a calendar. Google Calendar and Google tasks are great options to assist with time-management and may be easily shared with others. The calendar feature in Microsoft Outlook is also another option which may be shared with others.

This article discusses how principals may avoid burnout. Moreover, the article shared some practical insights from the lens of a previous principal. It is my hope that the article provided you with both theoretical and practical knowledge of avoiding burnout.