Ep #112: Thinking Vs. Doing

As school leaders, we are very effective when it comes to doing. We schedule ourselves to be busy and we’re go, go, go pretty much all day. And that makes sense. I loved the feeling of accomplishment I got from a productive day where I got plenty done. However, that kind of behavior isn’t sustainable long-term.

With our default being taking action as prolifically as possible, it really takes its toll when we get interrupted or things don’t go according to plan, and we feel we’ve had a bad day because we didn’t accomplish everything that we’d planned to. But that, my friends, is just a thought, and it isn’t serving us.

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Ep #111: The Illusion of Control

We are at the effect of so many illusions in our work as school leaders. Whether it’s time, money, perfectionism, we waste so much brainpower on these illusions. One thing I see most in my clients is that they want to have control over everything. However, the only thing we have control over is ourselves and full control simply isn’t an option.

Because we are in charge of a school, it’s understandable that we would think that this positional authority would lead to and require total control. We think of our boss as having control over us in our job, so why shouldn’t we have control over our teachers, parents, students? However, if you dig deeper, you’ll see that people cannot make you act against your will. And the same is true of the people you lead in your school.

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Ep #110: Leading in Alignment with Your Values

As school leaders, our values are incredibly important. I’m sure that your values are a big part of what got you to a leadership position in the first place. But the really important question to ask yourself now that you are a leader is: Is your leadership in alignment with your values?

Being in full alignment with yourself, your thoughts about your values and your belief systems is the only way to create results that are in alignment with your values. And even if you don’t see those results right way, you’ll be so much more grounded as a leader, and it makes every aspect of the job easier. Read more

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Ep #109: Empowered Decisions

When I was a principal, I would get home from school and my husband would ask me a simple question, like where would I like to go for dinner. And at the end of a long day, I remember that the idea of making another decision sounded painful. And I know that I’m not alone in this experience.

As school leaders, we make decisions all day long and it can be extremely taxing to our brains. Not all of them are big decisions, but they all take a little (or a lot) out of us. Have you really considered how you make decisions and what goes into reaching them? I want to bring some awareness to our decision-making process this week because the way we make decisions impacts everything in our lives.

 

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Ep #108: Become a Better Leader Through Accountability

Back when I was working as a principal, the word accountability used to make me a little bit nervous, and I know I’m not alone. In those days, fear was the main motivator used by my superiors for hitting our targets. However, today, I want to talk about accountability that comes from a place of love.

We know that holding ourselves to account can be difficult. Sometimes we say to ourselves that we’re going to hit the gym after work, but then, when the time comes, the motivation to go just isn’t there. And when it comes to holding others accountable, things get a whole lot trickier.

 

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Ep #107: Starting 2020 with Renewed Belief

We are now into the second half of the school year, and I hope you’re all rejuvenated after the winter break. This is the perfect time to talk about how to take a good look at our beliefs and begin the process of renewing our faith in them.

The best part of a brand-new year is the anticipation of what is possible in our future. We love a new year so much is because we spend time before January planning and dreaming of the impact we can make on our own lives and our school, and we have a clean slate with which to do it.

 

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Ep #106: How to Be an Emotionally Developed Leader with Jenn David-Lang and Kim Marshall

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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Ep #105: When We Fail

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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Ep #104: 2020 Vision

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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Ep #103: Emotional Self-Care

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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