Senior lecturers’ feelings about their college leaders’ treatment of their wellbeing: Implications for leadership readiness

College lecturers’ wellbeing is critical to the effective management and functioning of colleges, and this criticality is amplified when lecturers assume senior lecturer (SL) positions in leadership. In Jamaica, some senior lecturers perceive their college leaders are insufficiently attentive to their wellbeing. This qualitative research utilized semi-structured interviews to investigate how six senior lecturers felt about this inattentiveness to their wellbeing. The findings indicated several feelings they experienced resulting from their response to the insufficiency of their college leaders’ treatment of their wellbeing, in two categories – emotional and occupational. Among them are exclusion from decision-making, primarily related to their consideration for promotion, perceptions of nepotistic leadership behaviours, guilt when they attempted to impose boundaries to stymy being overwhelmed and a sense that it was risky to articulate this to their college leaders. The study concluded that a strong sign of leadership readiness is when leaders enact wellbeing care in their stewardship of those they lead and being able to navigate the travails of their leadership journey. Further, it recommended a work culture that is psychologically safe in which senior lecturers feel heard and respected, some policies to address nepotism and areas needing further research.