By Brad Gaynor
There is a quiet crisis unfolding in Australian schools. It is not just about staffing shortages, behaviour challenges or workload intensification. It is something deeper and far more costly. Our schools are running on the energy of leaders who are stretched so thin that there is almost nothing left to draw from.
We rarely name it for what it is. We dance around it with words like fatigue, pressure, stress or busy. But let us be honest. We are living through a leadership energy crisis.
And here is the uncomfortable truth.
The crisis is not happening because our leaders are not resilient enough. It is happening because the leadership model we have created is unsustainable.
We expect leaders to carry everything
School leaders today are expected to be culture builders, instructional leaders, compliance experts, pastoral carers, community diplomats and crisis managers. Often all in the same day. The emotional labour alone is enormous. A single difficult parent meeting can drain a leader more than an entire day of teaching ever did. Multiply that by dozens of decisions, conversations and pressures, and it becomes clear why leaders feel depleted before the week is even half over.
We have normalised the idea that leaders will absorb the emotional intensity of everyone else. That they will be available at all times. That they will keep the school calm while they silently carry their own burden.
It is no wonder so many describe feeling exhausted, reactive and unable to think clearly. This is not low resilience. It is chronic depletion.
This is not a time management issue
When a leader hits a point of depletion, the usual advice appears.
Take time for yourself.
Protect your calendar.
Work smarter.
Manage your priorities.
It is all well intentioned. It is just not enough.
Burnout is not a scheduling issue. It is an energy issue. Leaders are not running out of time. They are running out of capacity.
In From Burnout to Breakthrough, I write that burnout is rarely dramatic. It does not arrive with flashing lights. It creeps in quietly when leaders begin giving more than they can restore. When decision fatigue becomes daily. When small frustrations feel like major obstacles. When the ability to think deeply or strategically begins to fade.
Those are not signs of poor organisation. They are signs that the fuel tank is empty.
The energy crisis is organisational, not personal
We need to stop pretending that burnout can be solved through individual effort. The evidence is clear in every chapter of my book. Burnout is an organisational phenomenon, not a character flaw. Leaders burn out when expectations grow but structural support does not. When workload expands but time does not. When accountability increases but collaboration and resourcing do not.
The world has changed around us. The role has expanded. But the model of support has not caught up.
As long as we continue to treat burnout as a personal failure, leaders will continue to blame themselves for feeling what is, in reality, a normal human response to an unsustainable set of demands.
The solution is not tougher leaders. It is smarter systems.
There is a way forward: The Leadership Reset
When I burned out myself, I had no language for what was happening. All I knew was that leadership no longer felt like leading. It felt like surviving. That experience led me to develop the Leadership Reset Framework that sits at the centre of the book. It gives leaders a way to understand what is happening and a path to move from depletion to renewal.
The framework is built around four phases.
Recognition: Naming the real signs of burnout. Understanding the cost. Seeing through the fog of denial that so many leaders live in.
Reflection: Exploring what matters. Stepping back long enough to see what has been lost, what still aligns, and what no longer fits.
Realignment: Setting boundaries. Shifting priorities. Designing a rhythm that protects the leader rather than drains them.
Reinvention: Embedding new ways of leading. Recovering clarity. Reclaiming purpose. Leading without losing yourself.
Alongside these phases is the RESET approach which captures the practical leadership shifts needed for sustainable change.
Recognise.
Explore.
Shift.
Embed.
Thrive.
RESET is not a slogan. It is a pattern of leadership that restores energy, perspective and agency.
Thriving leaders are possible. We have seen it happen
One of the most hopeful discoveries in writing this book was realising how many leaders rebuild. They do not bounce back quickly. Burnout is not an event you recover from overnight. But when leaders reset with intention, something powerful happens. They gain clarity. They lead with a steadier hand. They stop carrying everything and start designing structures that protect their energy and their teams.
They rediscover the purpose that brought them into leadership in the first place.
The energy crisis is real. But it is not final.
Where we go from here
If we want leaders who can think deeply, act with wisdom and sustain the emotional load of modern schools, we must redesign the conditions they work within. That means:
- Fewer competing priorities
- More clarity
- More collaboration and shared leadership
- Better workload design
- Regular time for reflection
- Structures that protect leaders from constant reactivity
Most importantly, we must shift the story. Leadership burnout is not a private battle. It is a system warning light. When leaders are depleted, the school feels it. When leaders thrive, the school thrives.
Burnout is not a sign that the leader is broken. It is a sign that the system needs to change.
And change is possible. We can build schools where leaders are not running on fumes, but leading with energy, courage and hope.
Brad Gaynor is an Assistant Director specialising in school improvement, leadership development, and leader wellbeing, supporting principals to navigate the complexity and demands of modern school environments. His book, ‘From Burnout to Breakthrough: The Leadership Reset’, introduces the RESET Framework – a practical roadmap for leaders moving from exhaustion to sustainable impact. His second book, ‘Not One More Teacher Lost’, will be released in 2026.