Governance for Human Leadership: What Governors Must Understand About Workload, Capacity and Culture
When I think back to my years as a headteacher, the most impactful governance relationships I ever experienced weren’t the ones where governors offered the sharpest challenge or the toughest questions. They were the ones where governors understood the humanity of leadership.
The 2025 landscape is brutally complex: safeguarding demand has intensified, attendance has destabilised, behaviour is more challenging nationally, and leadership recruitment is more fragile than at any point in recent memory. Schools Week recently reported that leadership burnout now constitutes a strategic risk for trusts, not merely an HR concern.
Against this backdrop, governance matters more than ever. Ofsted 2025’s new emphasis on leadership sustainability, culture and lived staff experience underscores this shift:
Governors are not merely guardians of strategic direction, they are custodians of leadership capacity.
The unseen weight governors must understand
Workload is never just workload.
For today’s leaders, it is:
Operational load: decisions, deadlines, compliance, parent escalation
Cognitive load: safeguarding analysis, risk assessment, behaviour systems
Emotional load: supporting overwhelmed staff, anxious pupils, pressured families
Moral load: making choices where every option impacts children
TES published a piece earlier this year describing leadership as “a constant negotiation of competing emotional, operational and ethical priorities.” That aligns with every fibre of my own leadership story.
In my headship, the weeks that drained me weren’t necessarily the busiest. They were the ones where the uncertainty and emotional strain snowballed without anyone noticing.
Leaders don’t burn out because they can’t handle pressure. They burn out because they carry pressure without strategic support or containment. That’s where governance comes in.
The governors who made the biggest difference
The most effective governors I ever worked with did two things exceptionally well:
1. They asked about capacity before outcomes
They understood that good outcomes cannot be willed into existence through pressure. They grow from cultures where leaders can think clearly.
2. They recognised the emotional labour of leadership
As one governor said to me: "If the person leading isn’t well, nothing else in this building can be well."
That single sentence changed my view of governance forever.
Questions every governing board should ask in 2025
These are reflection prompts I now use with MATs and governing bodies:
Clarity & Culture
Do our leaders have the clarity they need to make good decisions?
Where does our strategic plan unintentionally create confusion or overload?
Capacity & Sustainability
Where in the system are leaders stretched too thin?
How often do we examine leadership workload?
Support & Accountability
Do we expect leaders to be superhuman?
How do we know our leaders have thinking time?
Safeguarding
How do we protect those making high-risk safeguarding decisions?
Where is emotional containment built into our system?
Practical governance moves that change everything
Here are the actions that consistently transform leadership health across trusts:
1. Termly capacity review
Not a long paper, a strategic conversation.
2. Leadership “stop doing” list
Governors encourage reducing unnecessary processes.
3. Protected strategic time for leaders
Governors monitor, and safeguard, thinking time.
4. Real listening
Two SLT-to-governor listening sessions per year without judgement or agenda.
5. Culture monitoring
Governors ask staff: “What’s it like to work here right now?”
Strong governance is not soft governance. It is strategic, human and future-focused.
Good governance protects leaders. And protected leaders transform outcomes for children.