Let's face it, being a modern day teacher isn't easy.

Not only do teachers still have to deal with lesson plans, classroom management, answering parent emails, and unrealistic principal and district expectations, but teachers also have to deal with out of control student behaviors, low teacher pay and uncontrolled teacher stress.

It's enough to make a teacher call it quits! And that's the problem. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, more than 1 million teachers have quit the profession since 2018. And that number isn't going down anytime soon.

So when Miss M started to feel overwhelmed and just wanted to escape - its no surprise that the first thought that popped into her mind was, "maybe I should quit?"

But here's what 99% of teachers don't want to admit.  

Teachers don't want to quit their jobs. 

The only reason a teacher starts to think about quitting is because they lose hope. When a teacher looks at their long term career and the only thing they can see is more and more years of hardship and misery, anyone in their shoes would come to the same conclusion.

Therefore, the real reason teachers think about quitting is because the K12 system has sucked the joy out of teaching.

So how can we help Miss M? And how can we help the 4 million teachers in America?

The answer is the 6 principles of leadership skills.

One of the reasons why Miss M feels so overwhelmed is because her to-do list has become so long that there isn't enough time in a day to get all her work done. That's the bottom line. Teachers have become overworked and underpaid. 

But if that were the whole story, then why do 60% of teachers stay?

Think about it for a second. If the problem was the teacher to-do list, then why isn't every teacher quitting? The fact is the vast majority of teachers who think about quitting are only looking for escape from the exhaustion and burnout. They don't actually want to quit their jobs.

And this is the dilemma.

How do you help teachers like Miss M overcome teacher burnout without forcing them to quit their jobs? 

So here's the game changer. 

What we teach in school matters. And one of the things we didn't teach in school are the 6 principles of leadership. And the reason these 6 principles are so important for teacher success and longevity is because they help teachers make better decisions.

For example, the biggest difference between a teacher who has 20 years experience and a novice teacher is how much less work a 20 year veteran teacher does in comparison. That's not because the veteran teacher is lazy, it's because the veteran teacher knows what's important and what's not. 

When teachers don't know the 6 principles of leadership, they think everything on the to-do list is important. But that's not true. The fact is some of the things your principal wants you to do are not important. Not only that, but some of those tasks are distractions from your real job, which is helping your students succeed in class.

But how can you manage student behaviors when you're too busy running around the school building asking your co-workers when their birthday is for the "sunshine committee?"

The reason Miss M was so exhausted at the end of the day is because she was trying to do too much. And when you try to do too much, eventually you run out of energy. 

This is why the solution to Miss M's problems was learning the 6 principles of leadership. If she could learn the 6 principles, then she would know how to sit down at the end of the week and truly self-reflect on what she was doing. That means, she could sit down and analyze which tasks are necessary and which ones are just "suggestions."

Not only that, but if Miss M knew all 6 principles, then she would finally have the self-confidence to go to her principal and say, "I don't have time to do this pet project right now."

Not everything your principal tells you to do is required. In fact, a lot of times the principal is flying by the seat of their pants. And when teachers don't know the 6 principles of leadership, they can get caught in a manic-principals chaotic leadership approach.

Teachers need to protect themselves against a bi-polar principal. 

This is why the only thing Miss M needed to do was learn the 6 principles of leadership. And this is why every teacher in America needs to learn the 6 principles as well.

Because once you know the 6 principles, you will never say "yes" to a pet project that doesn't help your students, your district or yourself ever again. And this is how you help teachers overcome teacher burnout. 

If you're a teacher who is feeling completely overwhelmed or you know someone who is thinking about quitting, tell them about the 6 principles of leadership. Better yet, buy them a copy of this book "Disrupting Education." We don't have to keep forcing teachers to quit just because we refuse to teach them the 6 principles of leadership.