We Don't Need More Heroes: Avoiding School Leadership Burnout

What if the biggest mistake you can make in 2026 is assuming you need 'more' - more effort, more time at your campus, more meetings, more... you fill in the blank? The change you want in 2026 won't happen if it is rooted in your effort alone. Many of the districts I have partnered with struggle with the move from people excellence to systems excellence. Here's why that matters: research shows that individual leader-dependent approaches undermine the sustainability of changes, yet we keep doubling down on heroic leadership. Initial hopes that a single heroic leader could bend a school to their will have been repeatedly disappointed. The data is clear - solutions that start with a fix in mind rather than diagnosing the system problem fail because they ignore how interactions and feedback loops actually produce outcomes. Your burnout isn't a personal failure. It's a predictable result of trying to be the system instead of building one. And until you recognize the difference, you'll keep working harder while your school stays stuck.

The Death of Heroic Leadership

Let me be clear about what the research shows. Distributed leadership correlates positively with student outcomes, teacher morale, and school improvement. Teacher leadership has a greater effect on student engagement than principal leadership alone.

Yet most leadership development programs never teach us systems thinking. We default to what feels natural. Work harder. Control more. Be the solution to every problem.

It is killing us.

Schools with substantial leadership distribution show positive correlations with staff morale, which in turn affects student behavior and learning. One person cannot be the system.

The Questions We All Must Answer

These questions will make you uncomfortable. Good. The cost of avoiding them is another year of exhaustion with nothing to show for it.

Question 1: On Your Leadership Model

What decisions did I make this year that only I could make? Was that actually true, or was it just easier than building the system to distribute that decision-making?

• Be specific. Did you approve every purchase order just to make it faster? Handle every parent complaint because you do not trust your team? Attend every meeting because you think your presence is essential?

• Now answer this. What happens if you are out for two weeks? Does your school function or grind to a halt? If it grinds to a halt, you have not built a system. You have built dependency.

Distributed leadership must be purposefully designed. The most effective schools create intentional structures that allow leadership to be shared, not hoarded.

Question 2: On Admitting You Don't Have All the Answers

• Where did my need to be seen as the strong leader prevent me from building collective problem-solving capacity?

  • Think about your last crisis. Did you gather your team to diagnose the root cause? Or did you dictate the solution?

  • Heroic leadership says you need all the answers. Systems thinking says you need structures that help your team find answers together.

One burns you out. The other builds capacity.

Question 3: On Building vs. Being

• What structures did I create this year that function without me? What processes still require my constant intervention?

  • This is the difference between people excellence and systems excellence.

• Do you have a PLC structure that functions, or meetings that happen because you run them? Do you have data protocols teams use independently, or do you analyze all the data yourself?

Systems outlast your energy. Personal heroics do not.

Well-implemented PLCs improve teacher practice and student achievement. Most fail because they are leader-dependent rather than system-embedded.

Question 4: On What You Haven't Built Yet

• If I could only build three systems next year that would multiply leadership capacity, what would they be? Why haven't I built them?

  • The question is not whether you can do this yourself. The question is how you build the system so you do not have to.

Question 5: On What You're Undermining

• What did I do this year that reinforced the belief that success depends on me?

  • Every time you swoop in to save the day, you send a message. You need me to succeed.

  • Every time you solve the problem instead of coaching your team through solving it, you undermine their efficacy.

• Higher-functioning PLCs predict higher teacher collective efficacy, which in turn predicts student achievement. But you cannot build collective efficacy while playing hero.

  • Pick one.

Teacher collective efficacy is one of the strongest predictors of student achievement. It requires distributed leadership and functional systems to develop.

Question 6: On Leadership Hoarding

• Who on my team has leadership capacity I failed to develop because it was easier to do it myself?

  • You know exactly who I am talking about.

  • The teacher who could lead professional learning but never gets the chance because you always present.

  • The coach who could build capacity but spends their time on tasks you assigned. The department chair with ideas you will override anyway.

That is not leadership development. That is leadership hoarding.

Question 7: The Brutal Honesty Test

• What would collapse at my school if I left tomorrow?

  • Would your PLCs function? Would instructional quality hold? Would collaborative planning continue? Would data-driven decisions persist?

    • If the answer is no, you have not created sustainable improvement. You have created a system that requires your constant intervention.

That is not a system.

Individual leader-dependent approaches undermine sustainability. When the heroic leader leaves, improvements collapse. Systems persist.

What This Actually Requires

The research is unambiguous. Schools improve when leadership is distributed, when teachers collaborate in well-structured PLCs, and when systems develop collective capacity rather than relying on individual heroics.

But here is what that requires. You have to stop being the hero.

• You must acknowledge your limits. Build structures that distribute leadership. Create protocols that embed collaboration. Develop systems that function without your direct involvement.

• Shift from I need to work harder to I need to build systems that work smarter.

• This is uncomfortable. It means admitting you cannot do it all. Trusting others with responsibility. Investing time in building systems instead of solving immediate problems.

It means measuring your leadership by how much happens without you.

What the Shift Looks Like

Here is what moving from heroic to systemic actually looks like.

1. Stop being the instructional expert who coaches everyone.

   1. Build a teacher leadership pathway. Develop instructional experts across grade levels. Create a distributed network of expertise.

2. Stop running all the PLC meetings.

   1. Build protocols that enable teams to collaborate without you. Use rotating facilitators. Create shared accountability.

3. Stop analyzing all student data yourself.

   1. Build data protocols teams use to analyze student work, identify patterns, and adjust instruction. With or without you in the room.

4. Stop making every decision.

   1. Build decision-making frameworks. Clarify which decisions belong at which levels. Empower teams within clear parameters.

5. Stop being the accountability enforcer.

   1. Build peer accountability. Teams monitor progress, support development, and hold themselves to standards.

A strong correlation exists between distributed leadership and school effectiveness. When distributed leadership increases, effectiveness improves. But it requires intentional system-building.

Your One Thing for 2026

Before you write goals for next year, sit with these questions. Write honest answers. Then share them with your leadership team.

Then commit to building one system that does not require you.

Just one. Building systems takes time and focus. Pick the system that would have the greatest impact if it worked independently.

• A PLC structure where teams examine student work without you facilitating.

• A coaching model where teacher leaders develop capacity.

• A data protocol that puts insights in teachers' hands.

Build it intentionally. Give it structure. Create protocols. Develop the people who will lead it.

Then step back. Let it function without your constant intervention.

Sustainable improvement does not come from working harder. It comes from building systems that work when you are not in the room.

Ready to make the shift?

NextPhase Schools helps leaders move from being the system to building systems that work. Our coaching and transformation programs are grounded in research on distributed leadership, systems thinking, and sustainable improvement.

We work with leaders who are done with heroic leadership. Leaders ready to build structures, systems, and collective capacity that create lasting change.

Schedule a strategy session. We will help you build systems that distribute leadership, develop collective efficacy, and create sustainable improvement without burning out.

Join our community of leaders shifting from working harder to building smarter. Get research-backed strategies, practical tools, and honest conversations about what works.

The best time to stop being the hero? Right now.