Articles
"Why Teacher Wellbeing Is a Leadership Issue — Not an HR Footnote"
By Billie-Jean Sandiford | Mindset & Confidence Coach | bjsandiford.com
When we talk about teacher wellbeing, the conversation often defaults to HR policies, wellbeing days, or staff perks that look good on paper but do little to change culture. But wellbeing isn’t an HR box to tick. It is and must be seen as a core leadership responsibility.
If the 2025 Teacher Wellbeing Index has taught us anything, it is this:
School culture is the greatest predictor of staff wellbeing.
And culture is shaped not by HR handbooks but by daily leadership behaviours.
1. Leadership Shapes Emotional Climate
Teachers do not leave because of pay.
They leave because of pressure, overwhelm, poor culture, and feeling unseen or unheard.
This year’s stats underline it:
- 86% of senior leaders are stressed
- 45% say their school’s culture negatively affects their mental health
- 40% of staff feel unsupported when they struggle
Culture isn’t soft. It is structural.
And leaders create the tone consciously or not through expectations, communication, transparency, and modelling.
A healthy emotional climate looks like:
- Leaders who listen, not react
- Conversations that normalise struggle rather than punish it
- Staff who feel safe raising concerns before crisis hits
- Leadership teams who show humanity, not just compliance
When leaders protect their own wellbeing, they give permission for everyone else to do the same.
2. Leadership Decisions Directly Influence Workload
Workload is not an HR problem.
It is a systems and leadership problem.
Small leadership decisions echo across the staffroom:
- How meetings are structured
- How directives are communicated
- How behaviour policies are implemented
- How emergencies are handled
- How accountability is framed; supportive or punitive
A single poorly timed email, a reactive policy change, or continuous last-minute requests can raise stress across an entire school.
Conversely, leaders can transform the staff experience through simple shifts:
- Clear priorities
- Predictable timelines
- Fewer initiatives done well
- Effective delegation
- Trusting staff autonomy
Leadership decides whether workload feels meaningful or merely overwhelming.
3. Leadership Determines Psychological Safety
Psychological safety is one of the strongest predictors of team performance and wellbeing.
When teachers feel safe to speak openly, they:
- Share concerns early
- Admit mistakes sooner
- Ask for help
- Contribute ideas
- Engage more fully in school life
When they don’t feel safe, silence sets in.
Meeting rooms grow quiet.
Staff become withdrawn.
Innovation dries up.
Resilience drops.
Silence is not a staff issue , it is a leadership warning sign.
4. Staff Don’t Need More Resilience Training; They Need Better Culture
The burden of resilience has been placed on teachers for far too long.
Resilience is not:
- Enduring unreasonable expectations
- Absorbing impossible workloads
- Smiling through exhaustion
True resilience is the outcome of:
- Fair workload
- Supportive leadership
- Healthy boundaries
- Professional trust
Teachers thrive not because they are superhuman but because leadership has created the conditions that allow humans to thrive.
5. When Leaders Thrive, Schools Thrive
Senior leaders are in crisis and their wellbeing has a ripple effect.
When leaders:
- Work 60-hour weeks
- Skip breaks
- Carry emotional burdens alone
- Fear showing vulnerability
it becomes the model for staff behaviour.
But when leaders:
- Prioritise clarity
- Protect their own boundaries
- Ask for help
- Delegate effectively
- Model rest, reflection, and humanity
it becomes the permission slip every staff member needs.
Wellbeing trickles downward.
And so does overwhelm.
The Real Question Is Not “How Do We Support Teacher Wellbeing?”
The real question is:
“How do we support leaders so they can lead wellbeing?”
Because when leadership operates with clarity, confidence, and compassion, everything changes:
- Communication improves
- Workload stabilises
- Staff feel valued
- Retention rises
- Teaching quality improves
- Students benefit
Teacher wellbeing is not an initiative.
It is a leadership practice.
If you’re a school leader, HR professional, or trust executive…
And you want to explore how coaching, mindset work, or leadership support can transform staff wellbeing and retention:
Academic Writing
The Need for Supported Female Leaders
I’ve led teams, managed budgets, and delivered results. Yet when I first became Head of Department, I quickly realised what was missing: I’d had no real preparation for leading people.
The in-house support was helpful, but not enough—so I invested in a management diploma and used it to transform how I led.
Fast-forward to today: the data shows many women still don’t get the structured support they need at the moments that matter. That’s where tailored coaching comes in.
The Market Reality for Women Leaders
- Progress at the top is fragile. The FTSE Women Leaders Review (2025) reports women now hold 45.7% of leadership roles across FTSE 350 Executive Committees and their direct reports—a slight decrease on last year.
- Executive pipelines have slipped. Women Count 2024 shows women hold fewer than one-third of Executive Committee positions—the first decline in eight years.
- The “broken rung” persists. Globally, for every 100 men promoted to manager, only ~89 women are promoted, with worse outcomes for women of colour.
- Pay gaps remain—and widen with age. UK mothers earn substantially less than fathers each week, and the graduate pay gap emerges within five years of leaving university.
- Macroeconomic stakes are high. PwC’s Women in Work 2025 highlights that raising female participation and progression would significantly boost UK productivity.
“Even as board representation improves, the leadership pipeline remains leaky and uneven. Women face headwinds at every stage.”
Why Tailored Coaching Works
Coaching isn’t a perk—it’s a performance intervention. Research shows workplace and executive coaching improves leadership behaviours, goal attainment, engagement, and wellbeing.
- A 2023 meta-analysis reports significant positive effects on organisational outcomes like performance and goal achievement.
- Executive coaching studies consistently show moderate, reliable effects across multiple trials.
- Organisations that embed coaching cultures see wider benefits in retention and performance.
“Well-designed coaching tied to clear goals delivers measurable results—for leaders and for the organisations they serve.”
What Women Leaders Need from Coaching
- Mastering the first step up – Breaking through the “broken rung” with skills in delegation, feedback, and strategic thinking.
- Strategic visibility without burnout – Gaining recognition while managing workload sustainably.
- Negotiation and influence – Building confidence to secure resources, pay equity, and influence.
- Career-life design – Protecting momentum during maternity, caring, and perimenopause transitions.
- Resilience and energy management – Preventing burnout in high-stakes, visible roles.
How Tailored Coaching Works in Practice
- Diagnostic clarity – 360 feedback and measurable goals.
- Personalised leadership plans – Linking habits directly to business outcomes.
- Evidence-based skill sprints – Negotiation scripts, sponsorship asks, boundary-setting.
- System alignment – Engaging sponsors and managers to embed change.
- Measured impact – Tracking promotions, pay movement, team engagement, and wellbeing.
What This Means for Organisations
- Protect the pipeline by investing at first-line management and mid-career inflection points.
- Pair coaching with systemic levers such as flexible work and sponsorship.
- Measure what matters—promotion rates, retention, and pay equity progress.
“Without tailored coaching, organisations risk losing female leaders at the very moments that shape the diversity of their future leadership.”
Summary
The Market Reality:
- Gains in women’s leadership remain fragile.
- The “broken rung” still limits early-career promotions.
- Pay and progression gaps widen with age and motherhood.
Why Coaching Works:
- Evidence shows coaching improves leadership, performance, and wellbeing.
- Tailored programmes prepare women for transitions and prevent burnout.
- Organisations benefit through retention, stronger pipelines, and measurable ROI.
Bibliography
- FTSE Women Leaders Review (2025). UK Government / Hampton-Alexander successor review.
- The Pipeline (2024). Women Count 2024: Holding Women Back.
- McKinsey & LeanIn.org (2024). Women in the Workplace.
- Office for National Statistics (2024). Gender Pay Gap in the UK.
- Financial Times (2025). Graduate earnings gap analysis.
- PwC (2025). Women in Work Index.
- Jones, R.J., Woods, S.A., & Guillaume, Y.R.F. (2023). Meta-analysis of workplace coaching effectiveness. Journal of Occupational & Organisational Psychology.
- Grover, S., & Furnham, A. (2021). Executive coaching outcomes: A systematic review. Frontiers in Psychology.
- CIPD (2022). Coaching and Mentoring in Organisations.
About Me
Like many women stepping into leadership for the first time, I had to build the toolkit on my own. Today, tailored coaching provides that toolkit by design—so women don’t have to “figure it out alone,” and organisations don’t lose momentum (or talent) at the exact moments that determine the diversity of their future leadership.
If you’d like a focused conversation about your context—whether you’re a woman leader preparing for your next step, or an HR/OD leader building a stronger pipeline—I offer targeted 1:1 programmes and cohort-based sprints aligned to your goals and metrics.
Contact: info@bjsandiford.com