By now, school leaders have spent countless hours planning for the new academic school year. The bridge between preparation and execution is strategy.

The etymology of the word “strategy” comes from the ancient Greek word of strategos and is a combination of two Greek terms: stratos (“multitude,” “army,” or “camp”) and agein (“to lead”). When leadership is void of strategy, it is chaos — and strategy void of joy is not authentic.

So why joy? Despite popular assessments that reduce joy to general feelings that come and go like an ocean’s tide, joy is not an assessment of current trends, realities, or mood movement; it is the deep knowing, the unconventional understanding that no matter the turbulence around me, my leadership remains steadfast to positively shift the trajectory of outcomes for all those my leadership serves.

The “why” of educational leadership, at its core and across differences, is the shared purpose of teaching and learning. The “how” of educational leadership — from early learners to adult education and post-secondary — is more nuanced. No matter the topography of the educational system under the leader’s charge, the one variable that is more pronounced than ever in terms of leadership application is the cadence of change. The truth is no leader is immune to change, and change is challenging. Even necessary change can be stifling. The complexities of change are stressful, ambiguous, and anxiety ridden. These conditions, despite the leader’s best preparation, act as the thief to the strategy of joy in leadership.

Whether it is your 30th year or first as an educational leader, you have and will continually navigate the winds of uncertainty that come with change. These seismic shifts over the past few decades that have reframed and reformed leadership include the creation of charter schools, artificial intelligence, cell phones and social media. Demands on school leaders have increased around social policy and justice, immigration, and even bathroom use. New terms have been embedded into the lexicon of education like “active school shooter drill,” “student voice,” or “misgendered.” And yes, things are still changing.

To close the 2025-26 school year, ACSA Senior Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Professional Learning Services Dr. Tracie Noriega offered a summer assignment grounded in the intentionality of rest, relationships, and belonging. Rest is vital because equitable leadership is heavy. The equity-centered leader’s strategy of joy accepts the pain and pressure points inherent to leading. They deploy the strategy of joy as a commitment to stand in the gap and lead for change because they know both the good and bad times grow up together. They know that what they do now — and how they choose to do it — will produce other leaders who grow to be cultural carriers of transformation.

One example of this dichotomy in action is John Robert Lewis. In 1963, a 23-year-old Lewis addressed a crowd of 250,000 people gathered to advance change at what is known as the March on Washington. Two years later in 1965, his skull was fractured at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, because of a reluctance to change.

Lewis has set a standard for all leaders living a strategy of joy. He is quoted as saying, “Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”

Joy as a leadership strategy will not lighten your load, it does not reduce friction or release you from the uncertainty of change. Joy as the underpinning of your leadership strategy will bring you a focus and resolve that not only sustains you but will also ground you and energize you. Of all the things I wish this new academic year yields for your leadership, I hope it is the persistent refinement of your strategy of joy!

Cherina Betters, Ed.D., is the chief of Equity and Access at San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools.