In education, every day can be a rollercoaster. You can be flying high all morning, only for something to knock you a bit in the afternoon. Your week can be a bit grim and then out of nowhere, an affirming moment turns it all around. Whether, the sudden change is positive or negative, we have to context shift constantly, pivoting into different situations that require a fresh outlook.
But it takes a lot out of us. I’ve been curious recently about what it is we do in our heads when something knocks our confidence:
- A lesson you carefully planned falls flat.
- You don’t get the job you applied for
- A parent meeting turns confrontational
- The class you have made lots of progress with suddenly lose focus and behaviour slips
- An observation leaves you replaying every moment in your head at 3am.
- A safeguarding incident has you questioning if you followed the right steps
These are events we can all relate to, and what’s more relatable is the way we mentally wipe the slate clean and go again, just minutes later usually.
What’s more incredible is that we often do this countless times a day. School staff probably have hundreds or thousands of interactions per day, and they don’t all go well. But our role means that we have to recalibrate and move onto the next one.
In other words, we have bouncebackability! Have I made up a word? Well, actually, no!
In the 2003-2004 football season, me and my friends were avid Crystal Palace supporters, and when the team were hovering above the relegation zone in December, about halfway through the season, we had little cause for optimism. But under manager Iain Dowie, there was a spring revival and somehow Palace’s band of misfits ended up in the playoffs; more miraculous still, we won the playoff final (in Cardiff’s Millennium stadium, it was a splendid day) and got promoted to the Premier League. During that topsy turvy season, Dowie coined the word ‘bouncebackability’, to describe how the team kept picking themselves up from every setback. A year later, it found its way into the dictionary.
So, while the term was popularised in football, it captures something essential about working in schools: the ability to absorb a setback, learn from it, steady yourself emotionally, and return with purpose.
It isn’t toxic positivity and saying we must put a smile on our faces when we feel down, and nor is it pretending things don’t hurt, or brushing off disappointment.
It’s the capacity to recover from a setback, without becoming cynical, defensive or depleted.
I’d hasten to add that bouncebackability isn’t me imploring people to toughen up or be more resilient. But it’s an incredibly useful part of what we do, and there are aways to improve how we bounce back.
I’ve done a range of roles in my career, and learnt the hard way that you can’t let things get to you. We all make mistakes or endure days where things go unexpectedly wrong. I like to always consider: what can I control, and what can’t I control? I can’t control this thing that has already happened, but I can control my response. I can’t control my feelings of injustice or sadness right now, but I can understand that they won’t serve my next steps, and therefore use them to shape a productive plan moving forward.
I also like to map out my options, taking a dispassionate view, e.g. without considering my emotions right now, what are the available options here? What can I learn from this for next time, regardless of how it’s making me feel?
David Goggins talks about having a ‘morning meeting’ with yourself when you’re feeling demotivated or if things get on top of you. The purpose is typically direct from Goggins: regroup, and go again. It sounds silly, but I do regularly have a little chat in my head when I need to get over one thing and move onto the next.
But the ability to bounceback is made more effective when you are in a workplace that promotes both support and challenge.
Firstly, it thrives in organisations that have high levels of trust, psychological safety, and where mistakes are framed as inevitable bumps in the road. When we are being self critical, we need those around us to help put it into perspective and to help affirm us, provide some useful feedback, and move forward without judgment.
It can be nurtured in the moments where a colleague sees your struggle and shows empathy and admits their own. When a line manager comes to see you after that tough meeting to check in and see what you need. Or when a leader shares their own experience of not getting a job they applied for, and what they did next.
Bouncebackability doesn’t mean immediately moving on – there’s a great deal to be learnt from taking stock, sharing things with valued colleagues, and then planning your next steps.
The message should be clear: you are allowed to fall short; you are not alone in recovering. We move forward and learn together.
Educators already demonstrate bouncebackability every day. They teach the next lesson after a bad one. They apply again after rejection. They walk into the next parent meeting with professionalism intact. They return after difficult inspections with renewed focus.
They get back up and they go again, because they know it’s the right thing for the children and their teams.
But bouncebackability, whether you innately feel that it’s a strength of yours or not, is much easier and more productive when we have mutually supportive teams and schools and we actively recognise how many times a day all of us have to reset and go again.
So, educators, you are amazing! Keeping bouncing back, but, more importantly, forge an organisational climate that recognises how difficult this is and helps everyone to find a way forward.
Sam Crome 