Part 4: Burnout - how leaders can look after their team
Put on your own oxygen mask first and then attend to others. This rule is useful when it comes to preventing burnout. It can help us understand the work involved in first taking care of ourselves and then using this to role-model effective strategies and behaviours, and to support others to do the same.
Memo to school leaders and team leaders: while self-care is essential, looking after your team is also a core part of your leadership work.
Leaders, your teaching and staff teams, and the students, are all watching you. You provide a role model for self-care and care for others. While it adds to your pressures, it is part of your leader’s privilege to understand and use your platform to thoughtfully model good self-care and care for others. As a leader working in a time of high burnout you can:
Model and encourage good self-care
Model and encourage holding boundaries and taking breaks
Be present
Be open and communicative about work issues and challenges
Encourage connection and teamwork
Reinforce the connection between the everyday work and its broader purpose.
Model and encourage good self-care
Part of your work is sharing with others your approach to leadership. That means openly talking about how you manage workload, protect some time-out, seek connection, and undertake self-care. There is no right way to do this – it depends on your comfort with being open and even vulnerable.
What you decide, over time, that you are willing to share will provides you with a solid foundation for encouraging others to do the same. When you can be open about your self-care and show that you believe self-care and wellbeing are important at work, you are clearly signalling that you want others to do the same.
Previous articles in this series have detailed some things that are part of self-care. Remind yourself of these, and aim to talk openly about them, showing that they are work issues. Bring them into staff and team meetings, and your communications to start and end the term and year, as appropriate.
Model and encourage holding boundaries and taking breaks
Setting boundaries as a way of managing workload and protecting time and energy for other parts of life is an important part of work. It is part of planning and organising, priority-setting and communication.
A leader needs to set an example around boundaries, especially through taking adequate breaks. A leader who is always at work and always responds immediately on email does not give team members a sense of when he or she takes a break, rest or relaxation. It can send a message that staff are expected to be ‘always on’.
By contrast, leaders who say they are leaving early on a particular day, disconnecting over the weekend (except for emergencies) or taking a family holiday for a week, communicate that these breaks are legitimate and important. This approach also allows the team to plan for that absence in a practical and load-sharing way.
Being able to talk about leave, breaks and holidays is an important part of a healthy and sustainable work culture. The more we can be open about when and how we take time off, the more we can plan for everyone to take what they need, making sure no one is overly burdened during busy periods or times of workforce shortages.
Be present
To be present means to be there for your staff – to see them, notice them, engage with them, care about what’s going on and be available to meet, talk and give feedback as is relevant and helpful.
This demand can feel overwhelming for leaders. They say, ‘This is impossible! How can I be present for everyone, I can’t get my own work done as it is.’ Leaders worry they will be met by a need they can’t meet, too many people needing too much support. It can all feel like a path to burnout.
However, it is crucial to know that you don’t have to be available to everyone at all times. It is enough that your team know that you hold them in mind, that you do connect from time to time, and that you are available if they really need to reach you. A few regular and predictable routines can put you outside your office, and make you accessible and visible. For example, you might:
Walk around the corridor, playground or staff room once a week
Check-in on different departments, offices, teams, clubs once a week
Share information via email updates once a month or term.
Open communication about work challenges
Leaders can build a safe and productive workplace through open and honest communication that strikes a careful balance between being aware of difficulties and challenges while being optimistic and proactive about the work ahead. Good leader neither give a sense that ‘this is all too terrible’ nor do they fall into toxic positivity: all optimism without acknowledging the hard parts.
The prevalence of burnout makes communication crucial work. Leaders need to talk openly about what things are like right now. They need to be upfront that times are hard, stress and exhaustion are prevalent, student needs are high and sometimes going unmet, and that these difficulties are causing distress across the system.
At the same time, they can protect and encourage their teams by helping to structure a good-enough path forward, and that aligns with education’s vision and purpose (more on this below).
Encourage connection and teamwork
Earlier articles have discussed the importance of social connection and relationships in preventing burnout. Leaders can consider what structures and work design can create conditions for connection and teamwork.
For example, what work is best done in pairs or teams, and who is best suited to these teams? Who can align team members around shared goals and purpose. How can leaders support connection and teamwork by recognising and celebrating examples of employees supporting one another?
Reinforce the connection between the everyday work and the broader purpose
Teachers have a strong sense of moral duty. Strong school leaders recognise and draw on this quality in teachers, holding it up as a source of shared pride and shared purpose. Strong leaders connect with teachers by emphasising the importance of inclusion, increasing attendance, modelling positive behaviour, focusing on learning, excellence, and school pride.
Provide links to previous and future articles
References and resources
Help Your Team Manage Stress, Anxiety, and Burnout by Rich Fernandez
https://hbr.org/2019/03/how-to-help-your-team-with-burnout-when-youre-burned-out-yourself?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/pauladavis/2026/05/14/8-leaders-practices-that-slow-team-burnout/
https://hbr.org/2025/05/when-the-best-leadership-skill-is-just-being-present