As the new school year looms, I know many of my clients are feeling anxious. There’s a lot of uncertainty about whether schools are going to open or what changes are going to be implemented, and so it’s no surprise if your brain is spinning right now. We all want to have plans and feel prepared ahead of time, and our brains are constantly having to reassess and shift priorities as new information comes in.

Last week, we talked about what emotional resiliency is and why it’s important for us school leaders to expand our capacity to feel emotion. Today, I’m diving into the process of what this actually looks like and how to start allowing your emotions. We’ve been taught to sidestep negative emotions because they undoubtedly feel awful, but my goal today is to show you why we need to unlearn what we’ve been taught about emotion and start a practice of processing them all the way through.

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So many school leaders are going through a time of conflict right now. There are discussions going on about how to best approach reopening our schools for next year, and chances are, you’re coming up against a lot of opinions from a lot of different angles about what you should be doing.

These decisions are made between a lot of people, and even as a principal, it’s easy to feel like your opinions are being drowned out by the powers that be. So, this week, I want to share a conversation I had with a client recently who was going through exactly this. Valuing your own opinion doesn’t always seem like the easy option, and it’s not always the right option, but it’s important to put this in perspective for when you just know your opinion is of huge value.

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I have a special episode for you this week. To kick start the conversation around equity and race in education, I have a very special guest on the show to discuss her experience as a student and teacher and coach-of-color, and how we can make our schools inclusive and equal environments.

Natalie Wilson is a former teacher who has moved into the field of coaching, helping women who want to find long-term loving relationships. Natalie and I met at an event a few years ago, and we bonded over our shared passion for education. Natalie has a unique perspective on the impacts of racial biases in our school system and the impacts they have on students. This is something I believe the field needs to hear right now.

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I had an email exchange recently with a potential client that really caused me to have a hard think about how we, as leaders, make decisions. When making decisions, there are several different roads we go down, and I’m outlining them here today.

When we’re making an important decision, our brain often wants evidence and guarantees that what we are deciding will definitely yield our intended result. Or worse, we want to say decisively yes or no, but we feel like we should go the other way. This is not how we make empowered decisions as the leaders of our schools.

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Over here in the month of June, we’re discussing the potential and possibility that can come out of this crazy uncertain time we’re living in. We can consider what is possible if we apply ourselves, but we have to be willing to do the thought work that takes our mindset from where it is now to where we want it to be.

I see this especially with new leaders. You want to believe you are competent and you can be confident in your role as a principal from the get-go, but just telling yourself that you can do the job flawlessly is not going to create a true belief in your abilities. And this is where the Rungs of Belief come in.

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