<p>Servant leadership has been shown to effectively enhance teachers’ well-being by addressing both their physical and psychological needs, contributing to the prevention of health-related issues. This study aims to explore the complex relationships between teachers’ perceptions of servant leadership and their physical health, with a particular focus on the mediating roles of challenge stress and depersonalization. A chain mediating model was constructed and tested using data from a sample of 2,599 schoolteachers in China, who completed validated self-reported questionnaires measuring all relevant constructs. The findings indicate that perceived servant leadership is a significant negative predictor of physical health issues, challenge stress, and depersonalization. Furthermore, both challenge stress and depersonalization were found to mediate the relationship between perceived servant leadership and physical health issues. Notably, the study identifies a chain mediating effect, wherein lower levels of challenge stress associated with higher perceptions of servant leadership subsequently reduce depersonalization and, ultimately, physical health issues. These results highlight the importance of promoting servant leadership in educational settings to mitigate challenge stress and depersonalization, fostering teachers’ overall well-being, and facilitating positive self-development.</p>