Principal and Leadership team forums | Reflection |Rebalance |Recalibrate |Reorient

Craig Petersen NSWSPC President and I collaborated with Kristen Douglas to present 4 forums in two weeks to provide the Principalship with a raft of ideas for themselves as well as how they can best support their colleagues, students’ and communities.

Kristen spoke about mental health literacy and how to lean in and support each other during times like these. The art and skill of reflective practice has never been more important for high performing leaders. In essence we need to s l o w down to speed up. Trauma, grief and loss manifests just like prolonged disruption and that is exactly what we are experiencing through COVID 19. Humans ‘process’ or ‘park’ such events in life. Kristen spoke about the importance of processing the feelings and emotions we are feeling as we go – to lean in on our families, friends and colleagues who are experiencing many of the same emotions.

We are all in the same storm right now – we have different vessels – being impacted differently – we have different sailors and we are all moving at a different pace. We all have an anchor. The anchor is our rock-solid go to. You are tethered to that anchor. Kristen spoke about how important it is to protect and privilege that tether line as it is our way to heal.

Kristen provided each participant with the slide deck and one such slide was the battery – the thermometer about how you are feeling. She noted that on any one day that could vary and how to ensure we fully recharge to draw on our resilience as required.

Now is a time for relational leadership and our staff and communities are all looking to us to move forward and also to nurture when required. Sleep as we all know is KEY to our wellbeing – Kristen again reinforced the importance of rest and recovery.

If you haven’t yet been able to jump in on one of these sessions, I encourage you to do so – feedback has been amazing. Two sessions are being offered on Thursday this week.