Today, I have two very special guests on the show. First, I have the creator of The Main Idea, Jenn David-Lang. The Main Idea was developed with the thought that school leaders are so busy working in the field that they struggle to make time to research all the latest strategies and resources available that would actually help them become better leaders. I found The Main Idea incredibly useful when I was a principal, and I know you will too.

I also have Kim Marshall, founder of the Marshall Memo, on the show. Kim condenses vast amounts of information into an easily digestible format to keep school leaders informed of the journals and articles coming out on the subject of education. Jenn and Kim have recently collaborated on the book The Best of The Marshall Memo, and I’m thrilled to have them both on the show with me this week!

 

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I’ve been looking back on 2019 – the actions I’ve taken, the emotional states I’ve been in, the thoughts I’ve been thinking – and while I’ve had some huge successes, I’ve found it hard to ignore the flops and failures.

“Failing is not an option.” We are inevitably going to fail at some point or another, but as humans, we still inherently believe that failure is bad and that we should avoid it at all costs. So, it’s time to see failure for what it is and begin to embrace it so we can get back on track afterward.

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Here we are at the end of 2019. Now, if you’re anything like me, you’ll be filled with excitement for a fresh start and new goals for the New Year. However, we also feel the burn of disappointment for the targets we didn’t reach and the experiences we missed out on in the past year, and that can create a lot of discomfort and reluctance to really analyze what went wrong.

The way we set goals is incredibly important. Sure, achieving your goals is important and feels great, but that shouldn’t be the only focus. If we set goals that are easy to achieve, what’s the point? Setting easy goals doesn’t serve you, and it certainly doesn’t serve your students and staff.

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Over December, we’ve been discussing what self-care is, what it isn’t, and how to hone your self-care discipline so that time for yourself is scheduled and boundaries are set around it so you can honor your body’s needs. And while physically attending to ourselves is important, today’s focus will be on how you can empower your emotional and mental wellbeing.

This is a topic that is less a part of the discussion around self-care because there’s something vulnerable about exposing our mental health needs to others, especially as administrators of a school. However, it’s time to talk candidly about our own emotional self-care and how taking the time to see to your emotional needs will transform your work as a school leader.

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We are continuing on with December’s theme of self-care. We spoke last week about what self-care really is and why it often takes a back seat when it comes to our work as school leaders. Now you have that in your consciousness, I want to discuss how to build up your self-care discipline, so you can incorporate it into your life in a way that serves you.

Just like anything, having boundaries around your self-care is incredibly important. It’s so easy to neglect yourself when your work is demanding, as it is when you’re the principal of a school. A lot of us even think about self-care as selfish, but when you consider self-care as for the benefit of everyone you deal with in your day-to-day, you’ll see a huge difference in your life. 

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One thing I took from working as a principal is that the hours are long and it can feel like the work is never done. I even know some school leaders who, after they’ve finished up for the day at their school, will go and volunteer at their child’s school.

With such an incredible workload, there is one thing that almost always falls by the wayside – self-care. When you’re focusing so much of your time on work, a little self-care can go a really long way to helping you be the effective leader your school deserves.

 

 

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Oh, my gosh, we are at episode 100! To mark this momentous occasion on the podcast, I’ve got a special treat for you this week. I have Daniel Bauer on the show, the mastermind behind Better Leaders Better Schools. I’m so happy to have Daniel here and I know he’s going to have a ton of amazing insights for you.

Daniel has had an amazing journey up until this point. As is the case with so many school leaders, Daniel got to the top of his profession and was disappointed with the lack of professional and personal development opportunities for school leaders, so he started his mission to cultivate better leaders while still in the job of principal and has not looked back.

 

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We’re continuing the subject of time scarcity this week with some of the easiest to digest work on the subject. However, it is also some of the trickiest work to implement in your professional and personal life. All of these time fails are going to make sense to you, but you will definitely experience some pushback from your brain, so it’s time to get to work.

The process of thought work around time scarcity is never finished. I find myself having similar conversations with my coach week after week. The work is hard, but it’s also incredibly worthwhile and you will be astounded at what you can achieve when you implement what I’m sharing today.

 

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Over the last couple of episodes, we’ve been talking about time management, specifically about getting your mindset in the right place about what you have to do and how long you have available to do it. This week, we’re bringing that work together with some real actionable tips for making the most out of the time you do have.

Our to-do lists can be pretty intimidating, and especially if it’s all up in your head, it becomes an all-consuming monster that you can’t stop thinking about. Well, it doesn’t have to be this way and I can’t wait to share with you how you can put your to-do list into perspective and give yourself the best chance of getting everything completed.

 

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The thought that there is just not enough time in the day to get all of our things done is present in the minds of, I would say, all educators in America. It doesn’t matter if you love your job and you wish the days were longer so you get to spend more time doing it, or that you think your day is so busy already that there is no way you could fit anything else in, time scarcity is incredibly prevalent.

The thing about our perception of time is it’s just that: our perception. Our beliefs around how much time we have really do affect the way we work, and without us even knowing, have us making poor decisions that could actually make us less efficient.

 

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