Burnout in school leadership is rarely dramatic. More often, it looks like a principal who has driven home in tears after holding it together all day, or a leader who lies awake at 2 am running through tomorrow’s decisions, or someone quietly building a wall between who they are at work and who they are at home.

Brad Gaynor knows that experience firsthand. After more than 20 years as a primary school principal, Brad reached a breaking point he did not see coming. He kept it hidden from almost everyone, colleagues, family, and community, while the weight of it quietly became unmanageable. It was only when he sought support, started writing and began to make sense of what had happened that From Burnout to Breakthrough: The Leadership Reset came to life.

In this episode, Brad and I explore the story behind the book and the RESET framework it introduces. We talk about the leadership mythology that creates the conditions for burnout, the invisible load that school leaders carry, and why vulnerability in leadership is a strength, not a liability. Brad also shares what he has learned since writing the book through his current study in neuroscience and leadership, and why he believes the culture around overwork in education needs to change.

We also get into the thorny but important question of joint responsibility: yes, individuals have a role in protecting their own wellbeing, but so do organisations. The conversation sits right at the heart of what Well-Led Schools is about.

In This Episode, We Cover

• Brad’s personal burnout story and what finally led him to write the book
• Why burnout builds gradually and the physical symptoms we normalise
• The leadership mask and the invisible cost of keeping up appearances
• What vulnerability in leadership actually means — and what it does not mean
• The systemic factors in education that make burnout predictable, not inevitable
• The RESET framework: Recognise, Explore, Shift, Embed, Thrive
• The Four Rs of Brad’s personal journey: Recognition, Reflection, Realignment, Reinvention
• Joint responsibility for wellbeing: where personal and organisational accountability meet
• How leaders can model wellbeing without performing perfection
• What Brad hopes the book gives school leaders who are quietly struggling

About Brad

Brad Gaynor is an experienced educational leader and assistant director who works with principals and leadership teams across school improvement, development, coaching and leader wellbeing. After more than 20 years as a primary school principal, Brad knows firsthand the relentless pressures of educational leadership. That lived experience and his own recovery journey now underpin his work. His book, From Burnout to Breakthrough: The Leadership Reset, introduces the RESET framework as a practical, research-aligned roadmap for educational leaders seeking sustainable impact without losing themselves in the process.

Links and Resources

• BOOK: From Burnout to Breakthrough: The Leadership Reset — Brad Gaynor
• Connect with Brad on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-gaynor-92b68b53/
• Well-Led Schools Partnership Program: adriennehornby.com.au/school-partnerships/

Thank you so much for listening. I am so honoured that you are here and would be so grateful if you could leave me a review on Apple Podcasts or on your preferred podcast app, so that we can inspire and educate even more people together.

• Website: adriennehornby.com.au
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/adrienne-hornby-a4126a205/
• Email: hello@adriennehornby.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What does it really look like to lead with both strength and care — to be ferocious and warm at the very same time? In this episode of Well-Led Schools, I'm joined by leadership expert, author and speaker Tracey Ezard for one of the most energising conversations I've had on this podcast.

We dive deep into Tracey's signature concept of Ferocious Warmth — a framework built on the infinity loop, balancing head (results, strategy, cognitive reasoning) and heart (emotional intelligence, connection, empathy). The magic, Tracey explains, isn't choosing one over the other — it's reading the context in the moment and knowing how much of each you need to pour in.

In this episode, we cover:

• The Ferocious Warmth framework — the infinity loop, the four core values (Expansive, Connected, Authentic, Courageous) and the three intelligences
• Why 'soft skills' and 'hard skills' is a distinction we need to blow out of the water
• The Culture Ladder — from Corrosion through to Committed Collaboration — and where most schools are sitting right now
• How to build true leadership team alignment through intellectual friction, not the suppression of it
• Why naming the system tension is the first step to navigating it without losing your school's identity
• Leadership wellbeing as a leadership behaviour — and what happens when leaders default to the 'fearsome' or the 'enmeshed' extremes
• Tracey's personal strategies for protecting energy, building her squad and refusing to use the word 'busy'

About Tracey:

Tracey Ezard is one of Australia's most sought-after leadership experts, authors and speakers, best known for her transformational concept of Ferocious Warmth — the art of leading with both the ferocity to drive transformation and the warmth to inspire and connect people. With over 20 years' experience working across education and health, Tracey has spent her career detecting patterns in high-performing cultures and translating them into practical, evidence-based frameworks.

Her career began in Victoria's state education system, where she rose through to Assistant Principal before immersing herself in industry through the prestigious Teacher Release to Industry Program (TRIP) — an experience that became the cornerstone of her thinking around leadership, collaboration and professional cultures. She later spent time in the hospitality world managing her brother-in-law's acclaimed three-hat restaurant, Ezard, where the interplay of results and relationships in high-performance environments further shaped her frameworks.

Tracey is the author of Ferocious Warmth, Glue and The Buzz — and has now had over 16,000 people move through The Buzz diagnostic across almost 700 schools. She is a National Fellow of ACEL, the 2022 ACELVic Hedley Beare Educator of the Year, and a Certified Speaking Professional. Her newest book is due for release soon.

Connect with Tracey:

• Website: www.traceyezard.com
• LinkedIn: Tracey Ezard
• Facebook: Tracey Ezard — Engage, Collaborate, Act
• Instagram/X: @traceyezard

Books by Tracey Ezard:

• Ferocious Warmth (also available on Audible and Spotify Premium)
• Glue
• The Buzz

Other resources mentioned:

• Heifetz & Linsky — Balcony and Dance Floor metaphor (from Leadership on the Line)
• Red Brick Thinking by Donna McGeorge
• The Pruning Principle by Dr. Simon Breakspear and Michael Rosenbath
• Esther Perel — author and speaker on workplace relationships and relational intelligence
• Dylan Wiliam — collective efficacy, professional learning cultures

Connect with me via:

• My website: adriennehornby.com.au
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/adrienne-hornby-a4126a205/
• Email: hello@adriennehornby.com.au
• Well-Led Schools Partnership Program - https://adriennehornby.com.au/school-partnerships/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Emotional intelligence is not an optional extra in schools. It is a foundational capability that influences how leaders lead, how staff relate, and in terms of wellbeing and psychosocial safety.

In this episode, I’m joined by Emma Gentle, former teacher and Assistant Principal turned Emotional Intelligence Coach, to explore why emotional intelligence and nervous system awareness sit at the heart of staff wellbeing and psychosocial safety.

When leaders and teams can recognise stress responses, regulate under pressure, and communicate with clarity and care, schools move from reactive to responsive, and the conditions for a safer and more sustainable culture are created.

We unpack how emotional intelligence shows up beyond theory in: capacity, boundaries, behaviour responses, difficult conversations, and the micro moments that either build trust and safety or slowly erode them.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why emotional intelligence is a core leadership capability and how it shapes the climate of a whole school
• How nervous system awareness connects directly to staff wellbeing, burnout risk and psychosocial safety at work
• Why one-off professional learning rarely creates lasting change and what it takes to embed emotionally intelligent practice into culture
• Why supporting the adults changes what is possible for students and why trying to fix students misses the point
• How leaders can seek feedback about their emotional impact in a way that is safe and constructive
• First small steps to build emotional intelligence, including noticing patterns, journaling and choosing regulation strategies that match your nervous system

About Emma:

Emma Gentle is a former teacher and Assistant Principal turned Emotional Intelligence Coach with more than a decade of experience in education. Her work sits at the intersection of emotional intelligence, trauma-informed practice, nervous system awareness and neuro-affirming education.

After beginning her career as a primary teacher and moving into school leadership, Emma became increasingly aware that many of the challenges facing educators were not about strategy or compliance, but about regulation, capacity and unprocessed stress. Her own journey into motherhood and personal development deepened this insight and shaped the direction of her work.

Emma now supports educators and school leaders to move from reactive to responsive, from punitive to restorative, and from stressed to regulated. Through her coaching, workshops and leadership programs such as The Emotionally Intelligent Educator and Lead with EQ, she helps schools build emotionally safe, connected environments where both adults and students can thrive.

Her approach blends practical tools with deep inner work, supporting leaders to understand their own patterns, imprints and nervous system responses so they can lead with clarity, compassion and sustainability.

Connect with Emma via:

• Connect with Emma Gentle on LinkedIn: Em Gentle
• Website: https://emmagentle.com.au/
• Email Emma: hello@emmagentle.com.au

Emma’s resources mentioned:

• Momentum Call - https://emmagentle.com.au/momentum-call
• The Emotionally Intelligent Educator

Thank you so much for listening. I’m so honoured that you’re here and would be so grateful if you could leave me a review on Apple Podcasts or on your preferred podcast app, so that we can inspire and educate even more people together.

Connect with me via:

• My website: adriennehornby.com.au
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/adrienne-hornby-a4126a205/
• Email: hello@adriennehornby.com.au
• Well-Led Schools Partnership Program - https://adriennehornby.com.au/school-partnerships/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.