Winter Is Coming: Is Your Culture Ready?
The warmth of summer evenings can feel like a distant memory as the days grow shorter and the chill of winter settles in, well, a Queensland winter at least. With earlier sunsets and colder mornings, we often begin to feel the weight of the season. Fatigue creeps in, illness makes its rounds, and the busyness of school life begins to show its strain. It is in these moments, when energy fades and pressure rises, that we are reminded of the importance of wellbeing.
In schools, wellbeing is about more than feeling good. It is about creating the conditions where students, teachers, leaders and teams can connect, grow and navigate challenges together. It requires deliberate attention to mental health, emotional resilience and the reduction of unnecessary stress. But wellbeing cannot exist in isolation. It must be supported by collective action, shared responsibility and a culture of care.
Recently, I’ve been reflecting on Michelle Loch’s Leading Humans approach, which highlights the importance of brain-based leadership. Her work emphasises the need to understand how our brains respond to trust, safety, and meaningful connection. Michelle suggests by fostering these elements, leaders can create spaces where people feel supported, valued, and empowered. Through having intentional, consistent, human-centred conversations that focus on facilitating deep and useful thinking and problem-solving, leaders can move from reactive to deliberate, building stronger relationships and psychological safety.
Teacher wellbeing, in particular, is a cornerstone of thriving schools. As Amy Green reminds us, supporting teachers requires more than kind words, it demands action. Leaders must prioritise psychological safety, where open communication and mutual respect are the norm, and teachers feel comfortable sharing both challenges and successes.
By integrating brain-based leadership principles with a clear commitment to teacher wellbeing, schools can build cultures that value and nurture their educators. Michelle Loch refers to this as building School Cultures of Substance – schools that work for humans! When schools prioritise teacher wellbeing through sustainable practices and reduced burdens, they create a culture where people are empowered to do great work.
I believe we must shift from wellbeing to well-doing. Wellbeing, while vital, can sometimes remain a passive state; something we hope to feel or achieve. Well-doing demands action, intentionality and a deliberate commitment to cultural and systemic change. It is not about quick fixes or token gestures. It is about addressing the deeper challenges that undermine wellbeing in our schools.
It asks us to consider the harder questions. What are we prioritising? What are we tolerating? What are we allowing to continue because it has always been done that way? How are our systems, routines and leadership behaviours either reducing pressure or unintentionally adding to it?
Well-doing challenges us to move beyond talking about values such as trust, safety and care, and instead operationalise them in the way we lead, support and connect with our people. From hoping to helping!
This is not easy work. It is not a checklist, and it is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Shifting from wellbeing to well-doing is long-term, culture-shaping work. It requires courage, vulnerability and persistence. It means leaning into the discomfort of change, confronting the barriers we have allowed to remain, and recognising that we are working with humans; complex, incredible humans.
The reality is that what got us to here, won’t get us where we need to go. We need to be and show up differently and build a new set of skills.
As winter reminds us of the need for warmth and renewal, it also offers an opportunity to reflect on how we can better support one another. What will it take to move from wellbeing to well-doing in your context? How will you contribute to a culture that thrives – this winter and beyond?
References
Green, A. (2022). Teacher wellbeing: A real conversation for teachers and leaders. Melbourne, Australia: Amba Press. ISBN: 9781922607386
Loch, M. (2018, December). Rewired conversations: How to have conversations that create connection and build trust. Leading Humans. Retrieved April 28, 2026, from https://leadinghumans.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/18-12-Insight-Rewired-Conversations-1.pdf
Loch, M. (2019, February). Rewired leadership: Leading in a way that inspires trust and engagement. Leading Humans. Retrieved April 28, 2026, from https://leadinghumans.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/19-02-Insight-Rewired-Leadership.pdf
Loch, M. (2019, April). Leading with substance: How to lead with clarity, confidence, and connection. Leading Humans. Retrieved April 28, 2026, from https://leadinghumans.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/19-04-Insight-Leading-with-Substance.pdf
Loch, M. (2020, August). Schools of substance: Building cultures of clarity, connection, and contribution. Leading Humans. Retrieved April 28, 2026, from https://leadinghumans.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Schools-of-Substance-20200817.pdf
Riley, P., See, S., Marsh, H., & Dicke, T. (2020). The Australian Principal Occupational Health, Safety and Wellbeing Survey: 2019 Data. Australian Catholic University. Retrieved from https://www.principalhealth.org/reports/2020_AU_Final_Report.pdf