What’s Breaking School Leaders (And Why It’s Not Their Fault)
- Kimani
- Oct 18
- 2 min read
I was talking with a colleague the other day and we just kept coming back to this… the weight of school leadership is getting heavier.
I’ve felt it. I’ve watched brilliant leaders, people with extraordinary hearts and skill, feel it too. I know what it’s like to sit in your office long after everyone else has gone home, wondering how much more you can possibly hold.
And here’s the thing… you’re not imagining it. The job has changed. And it’s changed in ways that were never meant to be carried by one person.
-Growing demands that seem endless.
-Legal threats and shifting expectations.
-Compassion fatigue and invisible weight.
The complicated truth is that most of this weight was originally designed with good intentions.
Accountability frameworks were created to improve student outcomes.
Safety protocols were meant to protect.
Policies were designed to close gaps.
On paper, those goals make sense. In reality, they’ve been stacked one on top of another and every layer lands on the same set of shoulders: YOURS.
I need you to hear this loud and clear...You’re not tired because you’re weak. You’re tired because the system wasn’t built for one person to carry it all.
This isn’t about trying harder or pushing through. It’s about acknowledging the truth and choosing to lead differently inside that truth.
Why does this matter? We love the work we do AND…
When the weight isn’t managed, the work itself begins to shift.
Leaders move from vision to survival mode.
They spend their days reacting instead of leading.
The impact is real. Your team starts to feel the strain you’re carrying. Big-picture strategy gets crowded out by constant firefighting. Burnout doesn’t just live in the leader, it ripples through the entire culture. This isn’t about personal failure. It’s about structural weight meeting human limits.
***But here’s where power lives: what you choose to hold and what you choose to release can reshape not just your leadership… but the experience of your entire team.***
What You Can Control
No, you can’t fix the system overnight. But you can protect yourself inside it. You can lead in a way that allows you to handle your business AND take care of yourself.
That’s where sustainable leadership begins.
Protecting your energy like the resource it is.
Building leadership rhythms that prevent burnout instead of reacting to it.
Reclaiming the parts of your work that are truly yours to control.
Modeling boundaries so your team learns to do the same.
This isn’t selfish. This is what strong, long-lasting leadership looks like!
It’s Time to Lead Without Breaking
The world needs strong, grounded school leaders. But strength isn’t about doing it all. It’s about leading with clarity and refusing to carry what was never meant to be yours alone.
We can honor the good intentions behind the system while also acknowledging where we need to lead differently.
We can love the work and still protect ourselves.
We can lead with heart without breaking in the process.
This is the work I believe in. This is what sustainable leadership looks like. Start your shift today.
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