1 minute read
EDITORIAL
Investing In Psychological Capital
When professionals use well-being as a reason for not producing high quality work, and when leaders feel guilty asking people to do the jobs for which they are being paid, well-being as a concept is misunderstood and likely being abused.
As an employer you are not responsible for others’ well-being – whether it’s their social, spiritual, economic, intellectual, emotional, psychological, physical, environmental, or societal well-being. In the workplace, occupational well-being (or being well at work) we believe is also primarily the responsibility of the individual - but your people can need a bit of help too.
Investing in your peoples’ Psychological Capital is a well-researched and powerful framework supporting & challenging educators to look after their occupational wellbeing. In New Zealand educational settings, educators whose occupational well-being is healthy have not fallen prey to a range of micro-stressors, which when aggregated, diminish their ability to be well at work considerably.
Micro-stressors include parent-teacher meetings; overseeing teacher-aides & learning assistants; enmeshed relationships with parents & whānau (within which teachers can become personal advisors, emergency responders, confidantes, counsellors, coaches, mentors, nannies & social workers); and new & inexperienced teachers needing support with the mental and emotional sides of teaching, not just narrow support around their teaching & learning.
In school settings some of the highest frequency micro-stressors occur at the adult to adult interface and it’s those professionals who skilfully and confidently manage the adult sides of their roles who fortify their occupational well-being. Everyone benefits because they find more joy in their roles and because they possess higher levels of self-efficacy, hope, resilience & optimism (psychologists refer to these 4 elements as psychological capital), they are psychologically, psychosomatically and emotionally more well at work.
We have programmes specifically designed for educators in mainstream schools, specialist schools and for RTLB.
Online Pedagogical Strengthening Tool
SLEUTH
SLEUTH™ is a developmental tool.
It allows teachers to identify their pedagogical strengths and weaknesses and provides solutions to implement and track progress to improve the identified pedagogical areas.
If you would like to know more about SLEUTH™ please contact either Tony / Andrew or any of the team as they will be more than happy to provide further details..
