3 leadership strategies to help educators feel seen, safe, and supported

A follow-up to 10 Things I Wish You Knew About School Leadership

Let’s be real: school leadership isn’t just about keeping the lights on. It’s about creating a culture where people can thrive rather than just survive the term.

Leadership in schools is often misunderstood from the outside, but those of us on the inside know the truth. It’s a relentless balancing act. You’re expected to support teachers, lead learning, handle admin, field parent emails, meet system demands, and somehow not burn out in the process. (If you’ve cracked all of these, please get in touch - we need to work together.)

Recently, I came across a compelling meta-analysis by Slemp et al. (2024), which synthesises over two decades of leadership and wellbeing research. Grounded in Self-Determination Theory, it highlights three core psychological needs that, when supported by leaders, lead to better performance, deeper motivation, and greater wellbeing:
→ Autonomy (feeling trusted and in control)
→ Competence (feeling capable and effective)
→ Relatedness (feeling connected and valued)

And here’s the big takeaway:
The best school leaders don’t just manage people. They build the conditions where their people thrive.

Leadership that builds autonomy

In my early leadership days, I thought being helpful meant being across everything. I’d try to support everyone, which often looked like checking in too often, tweaking others’ work, and unintentionally taking over. What I now see is, that it wasn’t supporting. It was control, disguised as care.

Autonomy doesn’t mean leaving people to fend for themselves. It means creating psychological freedom. This is the space to make meaningful decisions and bring personal strengths to the work. Ryan & Deci (2017) show that autonomy-supportive leadership builds trust, motivation, and creativity across workplaces including education.

In practical terms, this could be as simple as inviting staff into decision-making conversations, offering choices in how initiatives are implemented, or explaining the “why” behind school-wide changes. The staff cultures I’ve seen that thrive the most, are ones where teachers feel trusted, where their judgement is valued, not second-guessed.

Leadership that grows competence

In many schools, a quiet challenge sits just under the surface. Teachers feel overwhelmed but unsure how to ask for help. They’re given goals but not always the tools or feedback needed to reach them. It’s no surprise that confidence dips and when it does, performance often follows.

The concept of competence, as discussed in Slemp et al.’s study, is more than knowing your content. It’s about feeling capable, supported, and continually improving. That aligns with work from van den Broeck et al. (2021), who found that workplaces supporting competence see increased engagement and lower burnout.

I once worked under a leader, who always offered feedback in a way that built you up. He’d say, “Here’s what’s working and here’s one shift that could make it even better.” That one-liner changed the way I coach others today. Competence grows when we treat feedback as fuel, not fault-finding.

Leadership that fosters connection

It’s easy to focus on systems, strategy, or policy but the heartbeat of any school is the relationships. Without connection, cultures fracture. When teachers feel isolated, unseen, or undervalued, it ripples into every classroom.

According to the Visible Wellbeing Framework by Professor Lea Waters, connection and relational trust are fundamental to staff wellbeing and engagement. And the Slemp study reinforces this - when leaders support relatedness, team members feel more resilient, collaborative, and motivated.

I’ve seen this firsthand in leaders who intuitively create spaces where staff feel safe to speak up, take risks, and be themselves. That sense of belonging isn’t just a ‘nice to have’ it’s clear now that it was a part of their leadership strategy.

Connection isn’t just about morning teas or check-ins (though those help!). It’s about leading in a way that shows people: “You matter here. You belong here.” In a high-pressure environment like education, that sense of being seen is everything.

So what’s the takeaway?

If you’re in school leadership, your job isn’t to do everything. It’s to build the environment where your team can do their best work. That means focusing not just on what gets done, but how people feel while doing it.

If you support your team’s sense of autonomy, competence, and connection, you’re not just improving staff morale, you’re building a stronger, more resilient, and more effective school culture.

Want to explore more?

Here are some great places to dig deeper:
🔗 Read the Slemp et al. (2024) meta-analysis
🔗 Explore Self-Determination Theory
🔗 AITSL Leadership Profiles
🔗 Visible Wellbeing by Lea Waters