Hitting stress for six

How clear boundaries protect your hauora

Rob Clarke

CEO of Learning Architects

Do the constantly shifting priorities and demands of leading a school ever make you feel like you keep taking two steps forward and then three steps back?

If so, then you are not alone. Leading a school is a psychologically and emotionally challenging job at the best of times, and there’s no doubt that in the past two years, without any notice, it got a whole lot harder. In the last issue I wrote about how important it is to ‘put your own oxygen mask on first’ and to actively take steps to protect your hauora. Now, I want to highlight another of the factors in protecting your hauora - ensuring you maintain healthy boundaries that support you to thrive.

Why boundaries are important

Commonly thought of as physical, especially in terms of protecting ‘personal space’, boundaries help us to manage our relationships in different situations. However, they are much more than just the limits to our personal space. They are also mental and emotional, and they straddle our personal and professional lives. Rarely are your boundaries physical barriers that are clear for others to see. And also, it is quite possible - even if you know where they lie, that they are not always ‘front of mind’ for you either - especially in times of high pressure. For example, when was the last time you were intentional about leaving your laptop at school and having a night off from email? Has it been a while? If so, it’s probably a sign that a boundary is being stretched! The degree to which you create healthy boundaries that encourage a balance between the professional demands of your role and your personal life has a dramatic impact on your effectiveness. Essentially, they enable you to live a healthy, sustainable and fulfilled life. This is why it’s important to consciously work to protect the boundaries we have in place, and critically, if we don’t really have any, create some that support us. Even something as simple as making sure that you avoid checking your social media feeds multiple times a day can make a big difference. Unfortunately (and this might even be you), too many of us know of colleagues whose wellbeing has been under threat at some point. This could be due to challenging circumstances in their school, or how they are managing the pressures of the job, but whatever the cause, it is likely a good indicator that their boundaries are out of kilter.

How to tell when your boundaries are out of sync

A lack of boundaries can lead to emotional and physical fatigue which over time creates a lessened sense of resilience and wellbeing. However, boundaries are different for different people, which means so too are the signs that your boundaries are out of sync. One of the easiest ways to tell if you need to improve your boundaries is that you’ll feel unbalanced and stressed. You might feel tired all the time, or find it hard to think clearly. For example: • Do you find others interrupting you throughout the day and that pile of ‘to dos’ starts to feel like it’s snowballing? • Does having to manage unexpected updates or changes to

MoE guidelines leave you feeling

stressed about the tasks you thought you could do and have now bumped further down the list? • Do you ever find yourself checking your phone or email when meeting with others, or at home? • Do you find yourself checking your emails multiple times every hour? • Are you working at home every night after dinner?

Know your strengths and acknowledge your weaknesses

Different types of boundaries are important for different people. Do you know what you need in order to get the very best out of yourself on a daily basis? The answers to this question are a clue to the sorts of tasks in which you excel; they also provide insight into any potential blind spots which you might need to manage, if you are to avoid overdoing it. In order to get the best results on a daily basis, it’s useful to know: 1. What you are naturally really good at. 2. The area(s) in which you need help or support. If you can take action on each, then you will likely find it easier to thrive. For example, if you are: • A highly strategic thinker, you might be amazing at coming up with solutions to problems, thinking ahead, or creating innovative strategies and visions. If this sounds like you, how do you ensure that each day you have time for doing your best thinking, as well as clearing your busy head? • Someone who connects with and senses feelings of others, how do you ensure that the feelings and needs of others don’t overrun and impinge on your feelings, draining your emotional reserves? In short, how do you protect yourself emotionally from others’ feelings?

And further to this, how might you decompress at the end of a day? • The type of person who loves to get things done and work extremely hard to finish things, how do you know if you are doing the right tasks? And if in your school, your staff do the right types of jobs based on what they are naturally good at? How do you identify what to say ‘no’ to, or when to stop and recharge?

Or learn to accept that we all do things differently (ie know when to relax).

Take time to reflect and reset

While we all have different boundaries, no one wants to crash and burn, and/or leave others to pick up the role if we get sick and need time out to recover. By limiting your exposure to stress, you are able to give yourself a sense of autonomy, which is really important to promoting wellbeing. So, what can you do about it and what is important for you? Sally Baker, a UK-based therapist, says that setting boundaries is beneficial because it enables you to place “limits on your exposure to stress and the [body’s] production of adrenaline and cortisol [the stress hormone],” Baker says. “It protects your mental well-being.”

So, in this sense, part of being an effective professional is about setting boundaries that enable us to do our best work, relax and recharge at the right times, as well as establish patterns that support our resilience and our ability to thrive.

Do it yourself • Proactively prioritise activities

- to replenish your physical and mental energies every day. Plan this routine into your week and stick to it. Make sure this is built into your Professional Growth

Cycle/Appraisal. If necessary, block out time in your diary to do this and let people know that you are unavailable. This is time for you.

• Limit work encroaching into

personal time - while this has certainly been challenging to achieve in recent times, can you give particular tasks like communication with staff/board/ community a finite time frame and diarise it for the same time each afternoon or week? Or can you get help from others to summarise complex communications before deciding what goes out to the team?

• Control your tech use - just as gas will expand to fill an available space, technology will interrupt you as much as you let it. Try turning off notifications on your phone, or even better, leave work email off your phone and only check emails once or twice a day. What else can you turn off or leave behind?

• Trigger + response = habit -

when you recognise things that cause you stress, you can learn to manage them, or avoid them altogether. Examining your triggers and your responses to them will give you insight into your habits.

For example, if you find yourself overworking to prepare for that upcoming Board meeting, what is it that is causing you to feel the need to get it all right?

• Better communicate your

needs - this is a great way to show vulnerability. It models that you are human, which can lead to increased understanding and trust.

Share the load

• Confide in people you trust - take advantage of the power of external perspective. For example, you might have a colleague or team member (such as your DP) who you can ask for feedback on whether they see you as a balanced person whose boundaries are in sync, or if you are a ‘possum in the headlights’! • Re-assign your energies - when you are faced with multiple tasks, what can you move and defer, or reassign? For example, do you have a DP who can help with the communications from MoE, or can you work with neighbouring principals? Different types of boundaries are important for different people. Do you know what you need in order to get the very best out of yourself on a daily basis?

• Re-align shared expectations - help your key stakeholders (staff and importantly, your Board of

Trustees) understand and readjust their expectations. When your

Board is ‘on board’ with this, it will relieve the pressure you are under. It doesn’t all have to get done.

• Set organisational boundaries

- for example, would your staff or community benefit from knowing when it is okay to contact one another, and how best to do so? Do your staff know when you should not be interrupted?

• Look out for others whose boundaries are out of kilter -

identify those in your workplace who could improve their boundaries - expect improvements and coach them towards this, it will pay off. This will also help you to practice what you preach.

Strengthen your boundaries and thrive

Having clear boundaries provides you with a means to take care of yourself; to build up your resilience, and to protect you when times get tough. So, if you find there is an imbalance, what might you do to refocus and re-calibrate? Only you can make the changes necessary so that you can truly thrive. So, what existing boundaries might you strengthen and what new ones might you create? Making small, incremental changes to your boundaries today will help create a more sustainable tomorrow.

A NEW BERNINA HAS NEVER BEEN SO AFFORDABLE • POWERFUL TO SEW THROUGH HEAVY FABRICS • EASY TO USE AND THREAD • SMALL, STRONG AND QUIET • 30% SAVING ON RRP FOR SCHOOLS

The BERNINA 3 Series is small but powerful enough to stitch through your toughest materials and ideas! Fashion and design is going through a resurgence in New Zealand schools, and BERNINA is committed to helping schools meet the demands of today’s students.

Technology in the sewing world has moved greatly in the last 15 years, however, many schools still have fleets of machines in need of replacement. BERNINA, as a platinum sponsor of HETTANZ, offer special school prices on a full range of machines suited to the demands of the modern classroom. We do not sacrifice on the quality or robustness of our machines, we believe that a machine that lasts is the right investment to make in schools. Machines in classrooms need to be durable and user friendly but also suitable for all students from Year 7 through to Year 13. We still have the heart of the BERNINA machines that teachers, and students, have loved and trusted for decades but with technology that is advanced enough to keep students engaged during class. Sewing is such an important skill for the future and students deserve the best tools to learn with. Through our association with HETTANZ, BERNINA offer training to help your teachers get the most from their machines and we have a nationwide network of trained BERNINA Service Centres to ensure your machines are kept in the best condition and last.

To discuss your schools sewing needs, or for more information contact your local BERNINA Sewing Centre or call BERNINA NZ on 0800 701 818 or email info@bernina.co.nz

Feature | Lincoln University Student potential flourishes at Lincoln University

At Lincoln University, students cultivate their potential and grow their career opportunities in a world-class learning and research environment that prioritises using the planet’s resources wisely and sustainably.

Growing great careers

Lincoln’s specialist programmes focus on the country’s largest export sectors, from agriculture to tourism, agribusiness, food production, property management, and more. Students gain the expertise to make meaningful contributions to society at local, national and global levels, with Lincoln graduates helping to shape environmental policies, develop sustainable practices in a range of sectors, and solve issues relating to utilising resources. Hands-on practical experience is key to a Lincoln education, as are opportunities for involvement in cutting-edge research projects. Small class sizes mean that lecturers get to know their students by name, making for a truly thorough learning experience, where personalised assistance is always close at hand. Strong partnerships within the industry offer invaluable connections with employers, meaning that students often secure jobs before even completing their qualifications.

Te Waihora campus

The learning begins at Lincoln’s picturesque Te Waihora campus, where students join a thriving and inclusive community, meeting likeminded people and forming lifelong friendships. The university recently welcomed a group of secondary school careers advisors from all over the country to visit campus, where they were shown a range of state-of-the-art learning environments and research labs. They also visited recently completed campus development projects, including Whare Hākinakina | Lincoln University Gym, and an Agricultural Sciences Building that houses cuttingedge research facilities, labs, offices, collaboration spaces, and social areas. Another important campus location is Grounded, a vibrant and bustling hub of student life featuring a large café, mini-theatre, work and collaboration spaces, comfortable seating areas and a games zone all surrounded by a garden courtyard. In its design phase, Grounded was heavily influenced by student feedback, resulting in a space that reflects the particular needs and preferences of a world-class student experience.

Support for students

A top priority at Lincoln University is supporting students to achieve their best and make the most of their tertiary experience. A wide range of support services is available, beginning with the Lincoln University Students’ Association (LUSA); the Maori students’ association, Te Awhioraki; and the Pasifika students’ association, LUPISA. Additionally, Inclusive Education services are available for those with injuries, disabilities or illnesses, a campus Student Health & Support service provides medical care and counselling, and a dedicated oncampus wellbeing team works hard to deliver a broad range of initiatives aimed at keeping students happy and well during their time at Lincoln. Study assistance is available via the Learning, Teaching and Library team, who offer comprehensive learning support and access to an extensive collection of online and print resources. Learn more about Lincoln University at www.lincoln.ac.nz

NEED A NEW website FOR YOUR SCHOOL?

Fattastic websites starting from $997+GST

Simply email enquiries@fatweb.co.nz your domain / website address, and we’ll send you a comprehensive audit of your current school website. And if you’d like to chew the fat after, we’re here to help. 1. We can write all the content for you and load it 2. We have made over 2000 websites, we know what we’re doing 3. People tell us our websites are the easiest to use, if you want to change any of the content, photos etc.

www.principalstoday.co.nz Term 2, 2022 | 17