One of the tensions I hear most often from leaders is the tension between love and logistics.
By love, I mean the things that keep the humans going: care, listening, encouragement, hard conversations held with respect, time in classrooms, time in the playground, time in the staffroom. The small moments that help us experience the joy in our work.
By logistics, I mean the things that keep the school going: policies, compliance, timetables, budgets, structures, the necessary architecture that allows a complex organisation to function.
Both matter.
Under pressure, though, one can begin to crowd out the other.
Increasingly, I see logistics crowding out love. Not because leaders do not care, but because the system rewards compliance more visibly than it recognises human-centred leadership. This makes it harder for leaders to take principled action when it risks being labelled as “rogue.”
I once worked with a principal who said to me, “Help me find the joy in my job again.” When I asked him where he currently found joy, he did not hesitate. In classrooms. In the playground. In conversations with students.
Love was not missing from his job. It was missing from his calendar.
The shift required principled, deliberate action. He had to stand up from his desk and decide that spending time in classrooms or the playground or the staffroom was not indulgent, it was leadership.
For leaders who tend to lean more towards love, it can take courage to hold a boundary and uphold expectations. To have hard conversations and make difficult decisions that may not be popular.
Sustainability does not come from love alone. Nor does it come from logistics alone.
It comes from learning to move between them.
This is the work of building Leadership Sacred Ground. Clarifying what matters. Protecting it in your calendar. Acting in alignment even when pressure pulls you elsewhere.
So perhaps the invitation this week is simple: notice your tendency.
Where are you spending most of your energy right now, love or logistics?
And if those things that matter most to you rarely get your time and attention, are you prepared to take a stand and make a shift?