Welcome to The Empowered Principal Podcast. Every tenth episode, I am paying tribute to my greatest teachers and influencers. And with this being the 20th episode, I have some words of gratitude for one of the people who has been a huge influence in shaping my journey as a coach and my life as a whole – the awe-inspiring Dr. Martha Beck.
This week, I want to share some of my personal gratitude and love for Martha, along with some stories of how her teaching has influenced the ups and downs of my life. If it wasn’t for Martha, I honestly don’t know where I’d be today. Her advice has gotten me through the past few years, so this is my way of saying a massive thank you.
We generally have an idea of the kind of principal we want to be when we finally receive the news that we have achieved the position. It’s usually exactly what we ourselves appreciated in a leader before we made it to the top. But it can be challenging when your vision and expectations don’t match up with the results you’re getting in your school.
I don’t think there is a human being on this planet who looks forward to receiving criticism. As school leaders, everything we do is scrutinized; by parents, students, and staff. It really is part of being a principal that we know all too well.
On the show last week, we dived deep into our brain’s predisposition to blaming other people for how we’re feeling based on their words and actions when really it’s our thoughts about a person’s actions that dictate our feelings. Toward the end of that episode, I mentioned boundaries and how it is possible for people to overstep into our emotional or physical space, which blurs the lines of blame.
On last week’s show, we talked about the importance of taking responsibility for our thoughts, feelings, actions, and results. Taking this responsibility in our lives makes us feel empowered and helps us take ownership of our actions and results.
Do you always take responsibility for the things in your control? Most likely, you’re avoiding it at least a little bit. It makes sense why we want to resist or avoid responsibility when we hear that we have to be answerable and accountable for something within our control… nobody likes having too much accountability in their lives.
This episode is all about operating as our essential self, balanced with our social self. Often we find ourselves caught between what we think we should do and what we actually want to do.