Flourishing among Canada’s outstanding principal award recipients: the critical role of resilience

Abstract

ABSTRACT School leaders in Canada face increasing social, political, economic, educational, and professional demands, which often lead to increased workload, stress, burnout, decreased well-being, and lack of work-life balance. Research demonstrates that school principals with high levels of resilience are better at coping with stress and crisis, are generally more effective as leaders, are more connected to schools and districts, and have lower levels of compassion fatigue. Examining the challenges that school principals face can both prevent conditions that decrease their well-being and help understand coping strategies and resilience-building approaches necessary for successful school leadership. Drawing from the study of flourishing among the national award-winning principals in the Canada’s Outstanding Principals (COP) program, in this article we describe the participants’ perceptions regarding their resilience as school leaders, the conditions that discouraged school principals in their role, and the approaches that allowed them to develop their personal resilience. The article offers recommendations on how school administrators can overcome the challenges and flourish by fostering resilience and growing a resilient mind-set.