Light Up Leadership: Becoming a Healthy Leader

Wellbeing is crucial for school leaders because it directly impacts their ability to effectively manage and inspire their staff and students. Leaders with high wellbeing demonstrate better decision-making, resilience, and creativity, which are essential for navigating the complexities of educational environments. Moreover, their positive state of mind fosters a supportive and productive school culture, enhancing overall school performance.

When leaders prioritise their wellbeing, they model healthy behaviours for staff and students, promoting a culture of care and balance. This not only helps prevent burnout and high turnover rates among teachers but also ensures that leaders remain energetic and engaged. Ultimately, prioritising wellbeing among school leaders creates a ripple effect, improving the educational experience for everyone in the school community and contributing to long-term success and sustainability.

Your coach

Jenny Swift is the lead coach and founder of Light Up Leadership. Her approach is one that centres around supporting leaders wellbeing in order to create a healthy platform for their personal and professional lives.

As Jenny explains, “As a school leader, my working week included moments of pure joy, belly laughs and a real sense of meaning and purpose. It also included an array of complex challenges, competing demands and required a deep well of emotional resilience. But then as I began my first solo-headship the pandemic hit and an already challenging role suddenly became even more complex!”

Jenny coaches leaders around the world and goes on to explain, “My belief in the power of coaching grew as I applied it in my school and I became passionate that more school leaders should have access to this support. I took the difficult decision to leave working in schools to pursue my Masters’ in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology, to hone my coaching skills and learn about how the science of flourishing can be applied to education. I miss many aspects of working in schools – meeting families at the gate, seeing children blossom on residential and getting stuck into conversations about curriculum and pedagogy.”

In this course, you will learn more about the pathways to positive wellbeing and how a coach and self-talk can enhance your practice as a leader.

Jenny gives us a quick introduction to herself, her background and her coaching experience below. Begin your learning with the lessons beneath the video. You can continue your learning by contacting Jenny here.

Once you have completed the course, please do click the link to share your feedback with our Learn team: You can feedback to the team here.