In actual sense, wellness is worth exploration because lack of it can dent the leadership and management roles of Heads of Institutions. In the same sphere, when Principals suffer from mental illnesses, it can have a ripple effect on staff and students. Basically, wellness can be defined as the state of psychological, emotional, social and spiritual well-being.
In a heroic book titled The 5 AM Club, Robin Sharma writes about “The Four Interior Empires” that work in tandem to enhance wellness. One, there is mind-set, which focuses on psychology. Two, there is heart-set, which explores the emotional side. Three, health-set, which examines physiology or fitness of the body. Four, there is the soul-set, which focuses on spiritual side. The bottom line is – wellness means that all the dimensions are in synch.
In addition, human beings are totally tripartite. They are made up of the body, spirit and soul. The soul is also triad: Will-power, emotion and mind or intellect. The sickness of the spirit has a negative impact on the body. Likewise, a sin-sick-soul dents wellness to a great extent. Reading and reflecting on lovely lyrics of the hymn: It Is Well with My Soul by Bob Kauflin is important.
Again, there are two psychological spheres that have an impact on wellness. This encompasses: Emotional Intelligence and Stress Management. Dr. Daniel Goleman explored five areas in Emotional Intelligence as: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social intelligence. Principals that long to attain wellness must hone the intra-personal skill called stress management. Stress can be eu-stress (positive) or di-stress (negative). In the distant past, William Shakespeare sagely said, “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.” This is true about Heads of Institutions.
They must think critically about stress management because if liquids have boiling points then human beings also have breaking points. There are a lot of things that may stress Principals in these times and climes, which may include: Meddlesome school stakeholders, “school capture”, high expectations, poor performance, overworking, burn-out, poor work-life-balance, transfer to a school you did not expect, challenges in career progression, incorrigible staff, bad blood with deputies, financial imprudence, cash-crunch, lack of Form One admissions, students’ indiscipline, grip of grief, unpreparedness for retirement and many more. Somewhat, when (di)stress piles up, and is not cured, it can spill into depression, disorders and death through suicide.
Somehow, this implies that Principals despite being powerful as they are, they should never live in self-denial by thinking that they cannot breakdown due to psychological pressure that piles up while at work. Instead, they should manage acute levels of stress through practical practices like self-care, search for a strong-support-system, including seeking for psycho-social and spiritual support.
Moreover, Principals that long to attain wellness should purely prioritise capacity building in form of seminars and workshops. Then, there is nothing wrong with seeking professional counselling. It should never be lost on us that in Best Practices in the spheres of counselling and self-care, even practising counsellors are encouraged to attend debriefs. Then, there is the commitment to life-long-learning and personal-development that happens through reading useful self-help books that are indispensable.
No wonder, it is wrong to become a “starving bakers”. That is, making bread but starving of it. It is also bad to be caught up in the “destination disease”. This is where professionals reach a certain point in the arc of life, and think that they have arrived. Jim Collins in his heroic book titled Good to Great calls it the “curse of competence”. It is when competent people stop learning, and therefore they become “illiterate professionals”. Perhaps, this is what made Alvin Toffler to warn us, “The illiterate of the 21st Century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and re-learn.”
Therefore, prioritising wellness means that Principals read books like: Emotional Intelligence and Social Intelligence by Dr. Daniel Goleman. A heroic book like: The Art of Institutional Leadership by Professor Laban P. Ayiro is a great text for Principals. Another treasure-trove is Ikigai – the Japanese Secret to Long and Happy Life by Hector Garcia and Francesc Mirrales.
Finally, Principals can prioritise their wellness, but if this is not achieved in staff and students, then the environment will be totally toxic. Principals can train their staff on wellness. For the sake of wellness of students, there is the essence of staging periodic pep talks and one-on-one counselling sessions. It is a ministerial requirement that Principals constitute and consolidate functional departments of Guidance and Counselling in schools. To enhance effectiveness, all teacher-counsellors should be retooled. There is need for having a resident or a visiting professional counsellor to handle referral cases. It is incumbent upon Principals to ensure that they form formidable welfares to handle issues pertaining people’s wellness. By the same token, Principals should liaise with the church or sponsors and chaplaincy department to handle psycho-spiritual and metaphysical issues like cults and occults.
By Victor Ochieng’
The writer speaks in Principals’ and Deputy Principals’ conferences. vochieng.90@gmail.com. 0704420232
