The educational landscape has undergone a dramatic shift since the 2020 pandemic shutdowns. With an increasingly polarized environment seeping into the nation and local academic setting, leading our staff and students is increasingly complex. Adding to the complexity, some of the communities we serve face ongoing challenges such as poverty and violence. We need more leaders who can support the community in ways beyond what we originally asked for. We need more emotionally aware leaders who can support people in all their humanness and create and improve systems and structures. We need leaders who have been healed and can help others heal. 

I am an optimistic realist (I am unsure if this is a real term). It means that I see many possibilities for what can be, but also know that to make those possibilities a reality, I must be aware of and address the reality of where we are, thereby closing the gap between reality and the wonders of future possibilities. Effective leadership today requires significantly more inner work than it did in the past, and this does not end once you leave the site and go to the district office. We need leadership in all roles and titles. In my 15 years of leadership, regardless of the role, I have learned that the more self-love and self-awareness I possess, the better I can show up for others and be the leader I strive to be. 

Today, there is considerable discussion about trauma-informed practices in relation to the health and wellness of students. This focus on mental health is a fantastic shift in our world today. It even extends to discussing what teachers must teach in the classroom to provide trauma-informed teaching. One of my favorite books on this subject is Fostering Resilient Learners: Strategies for Creating a Trauma-Sensitive Classroom by authors Kristen Souers and Pete Hall (2016).  The book explores the concept of trauma-sensitive teaching, which suggests that it is not essential to identify the specific trauma but rather to adopt healing behaviors for students. I love it because it gives clear and actionable steps to implement immediately. I led a book study with this book with a high school staff, chosen by the leadership team, which was also very well received. 

There are even some mentions of needing trauma-informed Leadership in an article in Edutopia online, which gives three practical tips on creating a safe school environment.  Overall, however, much of the literature focuses more on classroom strategies than on the need for leaders to possess the skills to support teachers in their emotional well-being. I would like to focus on the trauma-informed or healing leader who has the responsibility to help the adults in their care (starting with themselves). We recognize that in education, our roles are designed to serve adults, children, and young adults. But regardless of the organization, we are responsible for those we serve.

However, to serve our customers, whether students or end-users of a product, we do so through the adults who have direct contact with them on a daily basis. The more I experience the educational system as a system of humans, the more I believe in the philosophy embodied by Richard Branson’s sentiment that if you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients. I truly believe this is also true in educational leadership. I know some people rankle with this idea, and I understand. I invite you to sit with it for a moment and evaluate what comes to mind. 

The old me's first reaction was, "We are here for the kids; the adults should do their job, they are getting paid, and they should not be in the profession if they don't want to do right by kids." The current me still holds some of that belief because I believe that we have a moral obligation to be the voice for students and families who either don't know how to advocate for themselves or cannot. However, I also believe that we overlook the complexities of what adults bring with their own traumas and life experiences, as well as the challenges and needs for support to be successful in their quest to do right by students. 

As an institution, we do not always practice what we believe about hope, learning, and the possibility that everyone can and wants to achieve. We generously apply these principles to students but often forget that we are leading and teaching many other adults throughout our schools, adults who were once children and have grown up, still navigating the world to the best of their ability. This begs the question: how do we serve the adults in the system with the same assumptions, care, and safe spaces as we expect them to provide for our children? 

Think about the adults in your care right now. Are you extending to them the same assumptions of capacity, hope, and growth that you expect them to extend to students? Or, is there a gap between what you believe and how you lead?

This week, identify one adult on your team who may be struggling beneath the surface. Don't fix anything. Don't schedule a formal check-in. Just make genuine contact, a real conversation, a moment of acknowledgment, a question that signals you see them. Notice what happens in them and in you.

If you’d like to record your thoughts or feelings, you can use our Talk and Jot app, or on the website.

In this special edition episode, Dr. Antoinette Gutierrez is a guest on the Your Story Matters Podcast with Dr. Renae Bryant. Dr. Gutierrez discusses Healing for Leadership: How Emotionally Intelligent Leaders Build Safe, Resilient Teams.