Ways to Share Effective Self-Care Practices

stress and burnout educators experience there. Educators know they face a battle with stress and burnout, but few mention it or want to discuss it. And putting a finger-length bandage (individual self-care tips) on an elephant (stress and burnout) won’t make it leave the room (workplace). Leaders must be incredibly careful that making productive health decisions or practicing self-care does not become a character issue. Again, people work in complex systems, and individuals are responsible for their own

The education health—to a certain extent. If I’m a teacher on your staff, your workplace is a goal isn’t to guilt me into action or take personal responsibility complex system, for my individual health. However, many things are the responso leaders must sibility of the collective or institution outside the individual’s control. As a leader, you cannot only focus on what the individbe careful to ual (self) is doing. You must also acknowledge that how your staff acknowledge that work together (other) and how your system is structured (system) and make sure also have an impact. Recognizing and acting on the self, other, self-care support and system components of self-care will get that elephant moving is not used as— in the right direction: out of the room. or even seen as— a bandage-on-anelephant solution.

Ways to Share Effective SelfCare Practices

It is important for everyone to learn about the powerful health benefits of self-care, so how do leaders spread the word about effective self-care practices without making self-care look like an inadequate adhesive bandage? I suggest three simple steps, which I explain in detail in the following sections. 1. Acknowledge that self-care is just one part of a larger plan. 2. Keep messages simple and personal. 3. Include SEL in SELf-care.

Acknowledge That Self-Care Is Just One Part of a Larger Plan

While supporting self-care among your staff, acknowledge and create a placeholder for the other parts of well-being—wellness of others and wellness within the organizational system, as figure I.1 (page 5) illustrates—even if you are not working on those other parts yet. Even just mentioning there are three parts and which ones you are working on helps frame the work and lets people know you know the importance of considering all three interconnected parts.

For example, I worked with a district leader who put together an excellent presentation on staff well-being. We met as a district team to develop the presentation that team members would then share with school-level teams. The team was only at the beginning of a journey into developing a staff well-being plan and was focused more on traditional self-care support and also on building team relationships and connections. The team knew this was a great place to start, and members knew they needed to act immediately, but they also wanted to acknowledge they knew work was needed at the systems level. The team wanted to both hear from school staff and reassure them support was available.

There was a small amount of money schools could apply for to support wellbeing, with little required in return other than a short report about what the school used the money for. The report the team needed to file (see figure 2.1, page 28) simply allowed the district to see what each school team was doing so members could share the ideas and get some feedback about what worked well. My team added three checkboxes to the short report form so school teams could report if they used their money to support individual self-care, collective care for one another, or some kind of system support or change. There was no pressure for school teams to do anything in particular, nor was it their responsibility to do it all, but each school had the opportunity to be creative and do what worked for its staff. Just having the three boxes on the form was both an acknowledgment and an excellent prompt to expand people’s understanding of well-being. This concept is so simple, you could easily use a form like figure 2.1 for your district or school.

A form like the one in figure 2.1 prepares school teams with a great mix of empathy and acknowledgment of the challenges. The presentation should include a list of existing resources staff can access, like counseling available through an employee-assistance program, union-sponsored web-based stress-management programs, and other links for more health information. Note that this approach still embodies a traditional approach to promoting information about wellbeing. There is still a need to provide information about where to go for support, but such an offering must include an acknowledgment that well-being is bigger than just looking after oneself. It’s critical to include a slide or handout page about the three interconnected parts of well-being (self, other, and system). When our district team did this, I could almost hear the sigh of relief when staff saw it was not all their responsibility to make things better.

Although our presentation and the well-being supports we offered were both wonderful strategies, I do not share this story to imply you should adopt these specific strategies exactly as we did, but rather to emphasize that no matter what

There are three parts that work together to promote our well-being. We have to consider them all together.

SYSTEM

• District, schools, and teams as a system • Structures and practices that promote happiness through a lens of well-being

SELF

• Self-care • Self-awareness and self-regulation

OTHERS

• Community of care within our places of work • Connection, relationship, and communication with all people we work alongside • Joy in purpose

Which part of well-being are we focusing on? Choose at least one: Self Other System

Source: Adapted from © 2018 by Crystal Loyer. Used with permission.

Figure 2.1: Example of ways to acknowledge all three parts of well-being.

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/educatorwellness for a free reproducible version of this figure.

self-care support and suggestions you offer, please remember to acknowledge to staff that individual self-care is just one part of the plan. Self-care is an important part of well-being, but it is not sufficient all by itself. In other words, let your employees know you see the elephant!

Keep Messages Simple and Personal

Very few people want long, detailed messages about self-care practices filling up their already-full inboxes. If you have ever struggled with an overflowing inbox, you know receiving emails you didn’t ask for that suggest you do something you don’t have time for is not benign or neutral. There is nothing wrong with providing links to additional details in your messages for anyone who wants to learn more about a particular point or topic, but be thoughtful about the length and frequency of the messages you do send out.

The Behavioural Insights Team (https://bi.team), which studied effective communication during COVID-19 in England and North America, finds it is very important to simplify communication to reduce employees’ cognitive load when things get overwhelming (as cited in Larson & Jivapong, 2021). Present the most important facts first, use as few words as possible, and do not worry about fancy design or pictures; some of the most effective messages are pictureless. In the same study, coauthors Emily Larson and Belinda Jivapong (2021) also find that health messages are more impactful when a trusted leader or influencer (at any level of the organization) delivers them, rather than a human resources representative employees don’t know well.

Another study from the Behavioral Insights Team invited principals to send weekly text messages or emails to their staff (as cited in EdCan Network, 2021). The messages came from four evidence-based concept areas proven to increase well-being: (1) well-being endorsement, (2) fresh start (the energy for wiping the slate clean and starting again), (3) mental health support during COVID-19, and (4) gratitude (as cited in EdCan Network, 2021). The researchers gave the principals a list of short, simple, prewritten messages to choose from and encouraged them to make the messages their own. Principals reported positive responses from the prewritten emails when they took the time to adapt the messages to their own school culture (as cited in EdCan Network, 2021). Additionally, the recipients reported enjoying the messages coming directly from their leaders and noted the messages served as a reminder to focus on their own well-being (as cited in EdCan Network, 2021). You can easily adapt prewritten evidence-based text messages or emails to fit your school or work team’s own context and provide the benefit of an easy-to-implement strategy while maintaining a personal, authentic message.

Include SEL in SELf-Care

If you really want to harness the power of self-care, move beyond the traditional health promotion materials and include social-emotional learning (SEL) practices. All staff, including leaders, still need health reminders, so keep sending