For 12 years, as a high school administrator, I have wrestled with the daily demands of the job: seemingly endless deadlines, unceasing interruptions, and unlimited fires to put out. Often, the best planned days result in chaos. I felt overwhelmed and stressed. I often wondered how long I could maintain the pace and continue to be effective. The burden of leadership rested heavily on my shoulders as everyone looked to me for solutions to the latest problem, forgetting the last miracle I performed. I started to ask, “How do I continue to do this work without being burned out?”

I knew that I had to take charge and make some changes. I started researching, reading, and investigating a whole range of ideas, strategies, and processes to find the answer to my situation. After a lot of time, effort, and money, I worked out the right combination of tools, methods, systems, and procedures that started to have a positive impact in both my working and personal lives. I found new ways of thinking and communicating and developed habits that transformed my leadership and the school. I got more in touch with what I truly valued and what I truly wanted to accomplish as a school leader and as a human being.

Armed with this new knowledge, a new mindset, and new habits, my desire is to help other administrators find the same calm in the eye of the storm. I want schools to be excellent and equitable, but I know that they can’t get there unless their leaders, essential to any change that happens, are balanced, healthy, energized, and clear-thinking. This is my contribution to the important work schools do in transforming individuals and society. Transform the leaders, I realized, and the students, the teachers, the organization, and the world will inevitably be transformed.

David Allen is the founding principal of Bard High School Early College Brooklyn who has taught and led in public and private schools for over 30 years. He is an ACC-certified coach, trained to help leaders transform. He is also versed in restorative practices through the Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility in New York City and is currently pursuing a doctorate in education policy and leadership at American University in Washington, DC. David has won numerous awards as a writer and is a powerful public speaker.