Train your mind

At the start of this academic year I was Acting Headteacher and one thing I was taken aback by was the sheer amount of decisions Headteachers are expected to make on any given day. Decisions can come from emails, random corridor conversations, meetings with colleagues - students and parents. Each time someone appears there is a possible decision to be made. One thing I quickly figured out was that I was expected to rationally and swiftly make a decision and remain calm, as well as seemingly knowledgable.

As the year progressed so too did my ability to train my mind not to explode with the speed of information and random topic jumping. A micro moment just to breathe and think about what additional information was needed to take the decision with the knowledge that there is always time to say you’ll get back to the person with a considered response. 

A long commute gives me time at the start and end of every day to really consider those tricky issues waiting for a headteacher decision. Often decisions interlink and impact on numerous parts of school and community life. Being able to step back and think outside of the school building can often remove the day to day pressure. It is also the time to let the build up of having to get a perfect answer dwindle. Compromise or offering a few solutions can sometimes be better than a concrete answer. 

Later in the year my headship became a substantive post and that did bring a change in the way people appeared to expect even more decisions to be made rapidly. I have had to learn to be at peace with my decisions, even when I have an angry adult in front of me demanding a U-turn to suit their position. As long as I have rationally thought through the consequences then I can know that I have done my best. 

Of course 4 months into my substantive headship a pandemic arrived to test out my mind training. As the mind gym training in the previous part of the academic year had shown, time to reflect, time to get information and time to consider the impact of decisions had served me well. Pandemic leadership really was the complete reverse. The week beginning 16th March I had several versions of letters being typed simultaneously for parents and staff. Waiting for staffing updates, government and trust guidance. I have never had to read and type so quickly, whilst letting my mind analyse what had been read to hit sensible timings for all stakeholders. I must thank my A level History teachers for telling me speed reading would be a skill I could always fall back on. It’s true. 

What I learnt during the week of Department of Education guidance document after document delivery was that there is truly an absorption point where information is not going to stick. I needed to only take in the important and necessary information required to make decisions. At the start of the year I had been doing the opposite as I had time.

Time pressures+information quantity+decision quantity=mind control required

All headteachers around the globe were taking decisions which impacted on their communities. Education, safety and employment decisions at a moment in time would be considered as the time to take your time but it felt like there was never enough time to hit deadlines. I will look back on my first year as headteacher and remind myself that you can train your mind to cope with the situation. Mind training can happen on the job. When there is time to stop and reflect your mind will absorb what has been achieved. Anatomically your brain may not be a muscle but by treating as one and exercising it you will benefit from that in the future.

My mind has been truly exercised this year. To keep it healthy and functioning I will take a rest this summer. I know there will be more brain gym activity in pre-September opening decisions but I am hopeful that year 2 of headship may be the time I can lean on the training I carried out this year. Daily training this year has made my mind stronger but now it is time to switch off.