The Empowered Principal Podcast with Angela Kelly | Your Top Leadership Assets

I’m taking this episode to show you how you can maximize your top assets as a school leader. I’ve talked about all of these things before, but I want to deepen your understanding and show you how to sell your mind on why these tools are your top assets when it comes to creating the results you desire as a leader.

There are four leadership assets I believe we should all be implementing and constantly evolving in our role as a leader. And doing so will allow you to create bigger and better results and transformation in your school and your life in general at a faster rate. And who doesn’t want that?

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The Empowered Principal Podcast with Angela Kelly | How to NOT be a Busy Principal

School is back in session, and after preparing over the summer and getting ready to have an amazing year, I’m now seeing a lot of overwhelm starting to creep in. And how am I seeing people deal with this overwhelm, especially new school leaders? They’re overworking and keeping themselves busy, and we need a different approach.

I’m speaking with a lot of new principals and they’re telling me that their workload has increased since they started in their new role, and they have way less time to do it all. So, what can we do to make sure we’re getting everything done without spinning in the busyness of it all?

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The Empowered Principal Podcast with Angela Kelly | Slowing Down on Purpose

I’ve been having several conversations with my clients lately where they’ve voiced their struggles about summer coming to an end and getting back into full work mode again. For some of you, this time of year gets you revved up and filled with energy, but for others, you’re finding yourself on edge and overly exhausted.

So, this week, I’m inviting you to slow down on purpose. This might sound strange, considering you’re just getting back to work and probably feel pumped and ready to be super productive, but I promise this is going to be the perfect episode to keep coming back to when you inevitably feel like you need a reset.

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The Empowered Principal Podcast with Angela Kelly | Building a Resourceful Staff

Wouldn’t it be so great if we had staff and teachers who weren’t solely dependent on us for the answers and solutions to every problem on campus? 

As leaders, it’s our job to empower our staff and create a culture of resourcefulness. But while this sounds great in concept, it doesn’t happen often enough. We want teachers contributing new ideas and being valuable members of our schools, in turn enhancing our legacy as a leader, but there are a few obstacles that get in the way, and I’m laying them out today. 

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The Empowered Principal Podcast with Angela Kelly | Leading Untrustworthy Colleagues

Last week, we talked about building the school year on trust as a leadership tool, and we’re continuing on our topic of trust this week. The reality of trust is that for some of us, trusting others comes naturally and easily, while for others, it’s a real challenge. So what do we do when there are untrustworthy colleagues in our work environment? 

The truth is that you do not have to trust every single human on campus in order to be an effective leader. If there is currently distrust between you and your colleagues, peers, district admin, or anyone in your sphere, faking it is simply not going to work. But I’ve got an alternative solution for you this week. 

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The Empowered Principal Podcast with Angela Kelly | Trust as a Leadership Tool

Over the summer, so many of my clients have been coming to me saying they were revved up, riding a wave of adrenaline while they finished out the year. They experienced peace over the beginning of summer break, but now we’re toward the end of summer and their minds have started worrying about next year. And some of my clients could not turn it off at all.

So this got me thinking, what is the opposite of worry and fear? How can we enjoy our summer without responding to the urge to work? And I realized, in those moments when I’m not worried at all, it’s because I’m trusting that things are going exactly the way they’re supposed to. And the best part about all of this is that you can intentionally create this trust and use it as a leadership tool. And I’m showing you exactly where to start with this work.

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The Empowered Principal Podcast with Angela Kelly | Interview Preparation and Landing Your Dream Job with Kate

I am featuring another one of my wonderful clients on today’s show. Kate is a brand new principal, and the coming year will be her very first in this position. And I know so many of you are in the same situation or are working towards where Kate is, so her insights into the interview preparation that landed Kate her dream job are going to be so valuable.

I’ve been working with Kate for a few months now, and she came to me when she was in the process of applying for the role that she has now, and how she worked on her mindset and leadership capacity to position herself as the leading candidate is a great example of how to do this work. So if you’ve got your eyes on the top job, you need to listen to Kate’s story.

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The Empowered Principal Podcast with Angela Kelly | The Value of Questioning

I’ve been spending the summer talking a lot about how to increase your value as a school leader, and questioning is actually one of the simplest and most powerful tools you can use in contributing more to your school and community. So, we’re taking a deep dive into questioning today.

When it comes to asking questions, my brain jumps straight to kindergarteners, who are always asking why, why, why… They want to know how things work. But as adults, especially with a serious and demanding job, we stop asking questions and just try to get on with whatever it is we’re doing. So, it’s time we take a step back and get curious. And I guarantee, when you start questioning, you’ll see and feel the difference.

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The Empowered Principal Podcast with Angela Kelly | Leading Breakthrough with a Half-Managed Mind

Are you waiting to up-level your school leadership career until you’re “ready”? Do you believe you have to be older, have more experience, have certain qualifications, or gain more skills to list on your résumé before you can fully go for it?

So many of the people I work with feel compelled to know everything, to be emotionally in control all the time, and to be confident in every way possible to be the school leader they want to be. This is especially prevalent for those of you who have just landed a leadership role, or for those you aspiring to get to this place. And this week, I’m showing you why you can be an effective leader with a half-managed mind.

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The Empowered Principal Podcast with Angela Kelly | A Year of Coaching with Dustin

On the podcast this week, I have a client that I’ve wanted to share with you again for some time. Dustin has been my client for just over a year, and you may remember him from an earlier episode when he had signed up for coaching at the start of the pandemic and shared that whole process with us. But now, we’ve been through the year working together, and he’s on the show to share his experience of being a first-year school leader with the help of me as his coach!

Dustin is the lead principal of a middle school, and even though he had AP experience, being a first-year principal during a pandemic was no joke. He has made it to the end of his first year, and I know that what he was able to achieve will empower and inspire all of you on a similar journey.

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