What if one of the biggest threats to principal wellbeing isn’t simply workload but the constant complexity of navigating it?
Last week, in a LinkedIn post from Adam Voigt about principal wellbeing, he said:
“Almost half of our principals were assaulted at work last year.”
The figures behind that are sobering. In 2025, 47.8% of Australian principals experienced physical violence at work, 53.7% faced threats of violence, and 54.4% were seriously considering leaving the profession. As Adam pointed out, we’ve known about these pressures for 15 years.
Think about why principals take on this enormous responsibility.
It’s to lead education. To work alongside passionate educators and make a difference for children and young people. Yet their time is increasingly consumed by student complexity, behaviour, wellbeing, staffing, compliance, accountability, risk, administration and challenging interactions with students and families.
These aren’t simply additional tasks. They require judgement, communication, documentation, risk management and significant emotional energy. And somewhere amongst all of this, education itself can start slipping down the list.
This is where clear school protocols can make a difference. Not protocols that create more bureaucracy but protocols that give leadership back. Clear roles, clear responsibilities, clear authority, clear decision-making pathways.
When ambiguity reduces, Principals can get back time to lead, time to be visible, time to build relationships, time to support educators, time to focus on teaching and learning.
Protocols create the conditions for leaders to flourish. Supporting principal wellbeing must also mean giving leaders back the clarity, confidence and time to lead education.
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