January 27, 2025 • 24 mins
Discover the essentials of motivating and inspiring educators in our latest Coach"EM Up leadership series episode. What if unlocking the true potential of your teaching staff could be achieved through authenticity and vulnerability? We promise you’ll walk away with strategies to cultivate a positive school culture, from sharing personal stories to offering tangible rewards like food trucks and gift cards. We unravel the art of building trust and understanding with your staff, emphasizing the critical role of purposeful professional development. By creating an environment where teachers feel valued, we enhance their performance, which ultimately benefits our students.
Our conversation extends to fostering teacher growth and collaboration, with insights on granting autonomy, encouraging creativity, and the power of mentorship programs for new educators. Learn how AI and technology can streamline tasks, liberating educators to focus on effective teaching. We highlight the importance of consistent motivation, where social interactions and fun activities play a vital role in strengthening team cohesion. As we wrap up, we invite you to share your strategies for inspiring your teams, encouraging a culture of continuous improvement and aiming to be 1% better every day. Each chapter of our discussion is designed to equip you with actionable insights to elevate your educational environment.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Principal JL (00:10):
Hey there, educational leaders, it's so
great to be back as we continuethe Coach EM Up leadership
series.
We kind of took a break lastweek and I was able to bring you
guys an episode with PrincipalMo, so if you haven't been able
to take a listen to that episode, I would encourage you to go
back to episode 14 and to listento Principal Mo, because she
(00:32):
has some really great insightsabout being a building principal
, but also her journey intobeing a Princf luencer, as well
as her next steps into helpingprincipals utilize AI to help
them become more efficient as aprincipal.
So I'd go ahead and I wouldencourage you guys to listen to
that episode.
(00:52):
This episode we're really goingto focus on motivating and
inspiring teachers and staffmembers.
This is one thing that we haveto do really good at as building
principals, because it's reallyimportant to help with the
culture of your building andyour school environment, because
if your teachers feel goodabout coming to school and
(01:14):
working, they're going to teachgood, they're going to do
everything well for you, whichwill, in fact, affect your
students.
So, as building leaders, wehave a chance to build teacher
capacity by inspiring them, bymotivating them, and there's
lots of different ways.
So we're really going to lookat the art and science of
motivating, inspiring educators.
(01:35):
We're going to dive into somepractical strategies.
I'm going to give you guys someexamples that I have done.
That I have done.
Of course, there's so manydifferent ways you can do this,
so I want you to respond to anytype of ways you motivate your
teachers and staff to thisepisode.
In the fan mail link.
You can send me messages on howyou guys do that as well.
(01:56):
I would love to hear thosethings.
The one thing we got toremember to do is we have to be
intentional when it comes touplifting teachers and building
morale.
The first thing I'm going toreally talk about is being
authentic as a building leader.
I am who I am All right.
I'm not going to change myselfor anybody.
I love having fun, I lovejoking around, but yet when the
(02:21):
rubber meets the road, I do myjob and I do what I got to do in
some of those toughcircumstances.
So for me, I got to be able toshow that I'm a human just like
they are, even though I'm thebuilding principal.
I'm the leader.
They look up to me.
They also have to see me bevulnerable.
I'm going to make mistakes.
I got to be able to admit them.
When I do that, I'm going tonot be perfect and I don't
(02:42):
expect my teachers to be perfect, but if they see that I'm
vulnerable, they'll be morevulnerable and then we could
build that relation of trust.
And then when I do do things tomotivate and inspire them, it's
coming from a good place andthey know that.
And I think that's number one isto be vulnerable, be who you
are, tell personal stories aboutyourself, let them in a little
(03:04):
bit.
Let them know you know yourlikes, your dislikes, you know.
One of the things I'm able tospeak to is I was 11 years in
the math classroom, where I havea lot of experience being a
teacher.
So I really work hard toremember that as a principal
because I was once in their shoeand I will tell stories about
when I taught different thingsbecause I want to understand
that I've been shoe.
And I will tell stories aboutwhen I taught different things
(03:25):
because I want to understandthat I've been there and when I
make decisions I want to be ableto keep those type of things in
the forefront.
So when I make those decisionsI know where they're at because
I've been there, and so when youhave to make those tough
decisions, that's important,that you are very authentic with
them.
The next thing is recognition.
(03:45):
There's so many ways you canrecognize your teachers.
This is something that I liketo do is I am recognizing my
staff at certain times of theyear.
So things like I like to do isI like to get food trucks.
So I will schedule a food truckfor a professional development
day once in the fall, once inthe spring.
(04:07):
Okay, I like to do that.
I like to spoil them a littlebit, buy them lunch, because
they work extremely hard andthat's a reward for them that I
like to do.
Another thing I like to do isaround the holiday break
Sometimes it's before theholiday break, sometimes it's
after the holiday break I liketo get them gift cards.
(04:30):
The last few years I've been atthis building, I've been able to
do those things and be able toshow just tokens of appreciation
.
It's not a lot, but it'ssomething that they appreciate
and I want to show myappreciation in those ways.
Now you don't have to go buythings to show your appreciation
as well.
Now you don't have to go buythings to show your appreciation
as well.
Other things that I do is I dowords of affirmation.
I like to let the teachers knowhow much I appreciate them
(04:52):
because they work hard, and itcould be as simple as I
appreciate the things you do.
It could be as simple as I'mglad to see you here.
It could be as simple as hey, Ireally appreciate when you did
this thing.
Or I really appreciate youstepping up and taking a lead on
this thing, letting them knowthat you appreciate them.
(05:13):
One thing I do is I like to getaround to my staff at the
beginning and at the you know,throughout the year.
Let them know hey, thank youfor being here.
I appreciate everything you do.
Is there anything you need?
Just checking in.
So checking in with them isalso another way to help
motivate and inspire them to doa good job.
Now the next thing I want totalk about is professional
(05:34):
development.
As a building principal, Istrongly believe that I do not
want to waste my teacher's timeon unnecessary professional
development.
The professional developmentthat I will line up is going to
have a purpose to it, and if itdoesn't have a purpose for it, I
don't do it.
I don't want to have my teachersitting in meetings for no
(05:57):
reason.
But there's times where there'sgot to be training, there's
times that we've got to havethese professional development
things and I always want theprofessional development to be
something tangible that they canuse in the classroom or
something that we are workingtowards as a building to lead
the way to get us in thedirection we need to go when it
(06:19):
comes to that training.
So I am very, very picky aboutmy professional development and
what I have my staff do, becauseI want it to be meaningful,
something that will impact it,but something that they will be
tangible for them to use.
So being able to have goodprofessional development can
motivate and inspire them, butit's got to be professional
(06:41):
development that is useful andsomething that's gearing towards
your vision and goal of theschool.
So that's super important toremember when you are setting up
those professional developmentopportunities as well.
Another professional developmentopportunity is when you allow
your staff to go to workshops,when you allow them to go to
state conferences, do thosedifferent things and be okay,
(07:04):
because they're out therelearning and growing and we want
to.
We want to encourage that, asbuilding leaders is have your
staff go, do these things andyou want to support them on
those things as much as possible, they will come to you and say,
hey, I see this workshop, thisis why I like to go, and a lot
of times nine out of 10, I'mlike, go on, go do it.
It'd be awesome.
I'm like, go on, go do it.
It'd be awesome, because I wantto know what you're learning,
(07:28):
how you're going to apply thatinto the classroom and how
that's making you better.
So that's a really greatconversation to have with your
teachers and your staff when youhave those professional
development opportunities.
You also want to empower yourteachers.
You got to give them autonomy.
I mean, just this past week,you know, I had to explain to
somebody that I give my teachersautonomy to do their jobs.
(07:49):
I'm not going to sit there andlook over their shoulders
because they're adults.
There are people that can dotheir job and do it well.
But there's times that I got tobe able to step in there and I
got to be able to guide them orredirect them, because maybe
something they're strugglingwith or something going on.
I have to let them know like,hey, this is our expectations,
(08:10):
these are the things that we'retied on and I have to be able to
do that.
That's part of my job as well,but I also give my teachers the
opportunity to be creative.
I don't want them to be afraidto try new things.
I always tell them don't beafraid of failure.
If you fail, what did you learnfrom it so you can move on and
do the next thing?
(08:31):
Well, so give them the autonomy.
Empower your staff, give them avoice.
That's super important.
Give them a voice so when youare working together, they
understand that they've been apart of that process, in those
decision-making opportunities.
So that's another way you canempower your teachers as well.
(08:52):
Another thing that's big to helpmotivate and inspire staff is
to have some sort of mentorshipprogramming within your building
.
One thing that we do reallywell is we give every teacher
that is new no matter if they'rea brand new teacher or they
taught for 10, 15, 20 yearscoming into our building.
(09:12):
They get a guide teacher.
They get somebody that theyhave a go-to when it comes to
building procedures, how weoperate, what are we about, how
do we do things.
That's super important.
Of course, they can always cometo me as a building principal
or to the assistant principalfor guidance as well, but we
want to give them thatconnection to a staff member
(09:34):
that's been there, done that.
They know the ropes.
They can help them with theropes, especially when it comes
down to the little things likehow do you post grades, how do I
update my weekly planner.
You know what is theexpectation when I you know for
a classroom.
What does the bell ringers looklike?
All these different things.
Those teachers can collaborateand work together.
No-transcript about to helpmotivate and inspire.
(10:19):
I'm always looking for ways totry to make my teacher's job
easier, as well as my own job,and so this is where being able
to integrate technology.
So some things I'm reallylooking at as a building
principal is how can we leveragetools that are AI, like
AI-specific tools.
(10:40):
How can we leverage that?
There are some things that I'mlooking at right now that do
utilize AI, because guess what?
It's not going nowhere.
It's something that we canleverage.
I know some of my teachers useAI technology, so it's really
important to figure out.
You know how to lead with thisnew technology that's coming out
(11:00):
, but also how to inspire staffto use it.
But also, you know, if theyknow how to utilize these things
, could they free up time to bemore creative and to be more
inspirational with theirteaching If some of the remedial
tasks that they do can besimplified and something that
they can do in a timely manner,to where they're spending less
(11:22):
time doing the paperwork stuffbut more time on the creativity
side and helping those kidslearn even more effectively.
The next thing is is I want tohave my staff be growth mindset,
so I want to encourage them togrow by setting goals and
milestones.
So these are things that I dowith my teachers.
When it comes to, you know, theevaluation time, I have them
(11:46):
fill out the pre-evaluation formwe talk about.
Hey, what are your goals?
What do you want to do?
You know these are things thatare really important because I
want to be able to help themreach those goals, and these
goals don't have to beclassroom-specific goals.
These can be career goals.
Hey, how can I help you, as aprincipal, to get to the next
step?
Because what I want is I wantmy teachers to be happy where
(12:07):
they're at.
I want them to enjoy whatthey're doing.
And if they're not enjoyingwhat they're doing, and if I can
help them to the next step, Iwant to do that Because I want
to do that, because I want themto be happy personally and not
just be there and not be happy.
That's important to me is tomake sure what are their goals,
what can I do to help them reachthose goals, and then how can I
(12:29):
help them get there.
So those are things that areimportant when it comes to
motivating.
Inspiring your staff with thegoal setting part.
Collaboration guys this issomething that's huge.
When it comes to inspiring,inspiring your staff with the
goal setting part.
Collaboration guys this issomething that's huge when it
comes to inspiring, motivatingyour staff is being able to
collaborate with them.
Just the other day, I had ateacher with a situation.
We were talking it through andthen we were able to find a
(12:50):
solution to that situation, andbeing able to collaborate with
that teacher and talk thingsthrough was super important but
great to do, because that alsoput that teacher at ease and
made them feel better about okay, this is the situation, this is
how we're going to solve it,and then we move forward, and so
what I always like to do isI'll follow up with those later
just to see how things are going, as well as when we collaborate
(13:14):
.
I like to bring in that schoolimprovement team process, and
that's super important becausewe've done a lot of things I've
talked about in my previousepisodes when it comes to school
improvement and collaboratingwith those teams of teachers,
because if you're not doing that, you ain't going to be doing
this job very long, because yougot to get them to buy in and
have that voice and be a part ofthat team that we need to be
(13:37):
successful as building leaders.
Another thing is, as a buildingprincipal, I want to be
accessible.
I also want to be visible.
I want people to see that I amnot just going to sit around and
just do paperwork, push paperall day.
That's not what I want to do.
I want to be out.
I want to be seeing what myteachers are doing.
I want to come in the classroom.
(13:57):
I don't want to be evaluationtime the first time that they
see me in their classroom.
I want to be in there multipletimes prior to that so they know
that when I'm there, you knowdoing the evaluation.
I'm there just at differentcapacity.
But this also goes back to whenI was a teacher, when I became a
first year teacher.
(14:17):
Anytime I saw a principal comeinto my classroom something was
not good Like.
It was like something like hey,you had this person complain
about this.
It was always a negativeinteraction.
So I work really hard to makesure I have a lot of positive
interactions.
(14:38):
So I have to go.
Those negative interactionsthey're not so personal.
They understand where I'mcoming from.
They understand because webuilt that relationship and it's
not the first time I've been intheir classroom.
A lot of times I'll just go inand say I just want to see
what's going on, look aroundDoing a great job, peace out,
you know.
And on to the next one.
(14:58):
But I also like to keep an opendoor policy.
I say I'm always here for youguys and if you guys want to
come into and have aconversation, I'm more than
willing to do that.
I'm here to help you and I wantyou to learn and grow and if I
can help you in any way, justjust come on in.
My door's always open.
Now I do have a couple ofboundaries I set, you know, when
(15:18):
it comes to this stuff.
Like if my door's closed in myoffice, that means I have
something super important I gotto do and I can't be interrupted
, but I keep it open when I'mnot doing those like super
important things.
Um, so they know that they're,they're welcome just to walk on
into my office.
So that's, that's just beingaccessible, being able to work
(15:41):
with your staff in a capacityand be visible in a way that
they see you more than just as aleader but as someone that they
can go to when they need help.
And, of course, all of thesethings that we talk about we
have to lead by example about.
(16:06):
We have to lead by example,just like we talked about in our
last episode in 13 in ourCoaching EM Up Leadership Series
.
If you haven't listened, goahead and go back and listen to
that one where I talk aboutleading by example, where we set
the tone.
Guys, as a building leader, weset the tone and the energy that
you bring to the building, theenergy that you put off, is what
your energy, your staff andyour students get and that also
motivates and energizes them.
(16:28):
So if you come in with a crappyattitude and bad energy, guess
what?
You're going to have staff withcrappy attitudes and bad energy
as well as students with crappyattitude and bad energy.
But if you come in with apositive mindset and you come in
every day going.
You know what?
We're going to have a great day.
Even though yesterday was rough, we're going to have a great
day.
Setting that tone is superimportant, guys, and if you do
(16:51):
that, in a way, you're going togive energy out to your staff
and your students and they'regoing to be more positive and
they're going to have energythat they feed off of you to get
them through as well.
And so those are reallyimportant things to remember
when you guys are leading byexample as well, and also be in
growth mindset yourself, becauseif you're expecting your staff
(17:12):
to be growth mindset, you betterbe out there being growth
mindset and growing and learningas well, because they're going
to see that and that's reallysuper important to do.
Another thing is is you want toreward risk-taking with your
staff?
If your staff are puttingthemselves out there and they're
trying something new, supportthem, help them with that
risk-taking opportunity andcelebrate it when they're
(17:34):
successful and, you know, andhelp them out when they're not,
so if they can learn from thosethings.
So being able to celebraterisk-taking is super important
because we don't want our staffto be afraid to take those risks
.
We talked about recognition.
They do staff shout outs.
I do those sometimes in ourprofessional development
meetings and when we dosomething really well, I like to
(17:56):
go hey, these are some numbersthat I have out here, some data.
You guys are doing a reallygood job on these things.
So data that I recently sharedwas our attendance data from the
first semester, where we are up3.79% our daily average
attendance rate and we are downeight and a half percent on our
chronic apatism.
(18:17):
And guess what?
That takes everybody in ourbuilding to do that.
And so I, you know, appreciatedall the hard work and I gave
them a shout out, I told themgood job, I appreciate it.
And then I reward them with agift card when they came back
from their their holiday break,because I did appreciate all the
hard work that they they did,and and those small little
(18:37):
tokens of appreciation do matter, they build up and guess what?
When you appreciate them, theyappreciate you and it's all
where you need to be as abuilder and leader.
Another thing is incorporate fun.
I always say when people comein it's a great day to be a
tiger.
You know I love.
You know, welcome to the jungle.
(18:57):
There's a lot of differentsayings I have.
So where you know, hey, be 1%better today.
Different sayings I have to,where you know, hey, be 1%
better today.
And my newest one is whenyou're at Hastings High, you get
to be Sigma.
Yep, the kids love that one.
That's a new one that I learned.
They love it when I ask them ifthey're being Sigma today.
So try that with some of yourkids and see how it goes.
(19:19):
And then the last thing we'regoing to talk about is
consistency.
(19:50):
I also look for ways to get ourstaff together to be social,
because some of our staff needto be able to come together and
be social because, with 135people in my building, they
don't always get to see eachother.
So I create opportunities to besocial and I do a lot of that in
our professional developmenttime, where I build in
opportunities for our staff toget together and just relax and
(20:11):
have fun together, tell stories,you know, just fellowship and
that's super important.
But being consistent is thelast thing you got to do is be
consistent when you aremotivating and inspiring your
staff.
There you have it, everybody.
That is my tips on how tomotivate and inspire your staff.
(20:32):
If you have some things thatyou do, I would love to hear
from you on how you motivateyour staff, because there's so
many different ways you guys canmotivate your staff to be the
best they can be, and I wouldlove to hear what those are.
Well, this does it for thisepisode.
I hope you guys really enjoyedthis episode as much as I did,
(20:53):
and I hope you guys are outthere ready to motivate and
inspire your staff to become thebest they can be and, as we
always like to say, always lookto be 1% better.
Hey there, educational leaders, it's so
great to be back as we continuethe Coach EM Up leadership
series.
We kind of took a break lastweek and I was able to bring you
guys an episode with PrincipalMo, so if you haven't been able
to take a listen to that episode, I would encourage you to go
back to episode 14 and to listento Principal Mo, because she
(00:32):
has some really great insightsabout being a building principal
, but also her journey intobeing a Princf luencer, as well
as her next steps into helpingprincipals utilize AI to help
them become more efficient as aprincipal.
So I'd go ahead and I wouldencourage you guys to listen to
that episode.
(00:52):
This episode we're really goingto focus on motivating and
inspiring teachers and staffmembers.
This is one thing that we haveto do really good at as building
principals, because it's reallyimportant to help with the
culture of your building andyour school environment, because
if your teachers feel goodabout coming to school and
(01:14):
working, they're going to teachgood, they're going to do
everything well for you, whichwill, in fact, affect your
students.
So, as building leaders, wehave a chance to build teacher
capacity by inspiring them, bymotivating them, and there's
lots of different ways.
So we're really going to lookat the art and science of
motivating, inspiring educators.
(01:35):
We're going to dive into somepractical strategies.
I'm going to give you guys someexamples that I have done.
That I have done.
Of course, there's so manydifferent ways you can do this,
so I want you to respond to anytype of ways you motivate your
teachers and staff to thisepisode.
In the fan mail link.
You can send me messages on howyou guys do that as well.
(01:56):
I would love to hear thosethings.
The one thing we got toremember to do is we have to be
intentional when it comes touplifting teachers and building
morale.
The first thing I'm going toreally talk about is being
authentic as a building leader.
I am who I am All right.
I'm not going to change myselfor anybody.
I love having fun, I lovejoking around, but yet when the
(02:21):
rubber meets the road, I do myjob and I do what I got to do in
some of those toughcircumstances.
So for me, I got to be able toshow that I'm a human just like
they are, even though I'm thebuilding principal.
I'm the leader.
They look up to me.
They also have to see me bevulnerable.
I'm going to make mistakes.
I got to be able to admit them.
When I do that, I'm going tonot be perfect and I don't
(02:42):
expect my teachers to be perfect, but if they see that I'm
vulnerable, they'll be morevulnerable and then we could
build that relation of trust.
And then when I do do things tomotivate and inspire them, it's
coming from a good place andthey know that.
And I think that's number one isto be vulnerable, be who you
are, tell personal stories aboutyourself, let them in a little
(03:04):
bit.
Let them know you know yourlikes, your dislikes, you know.
One of the things I'm able tospeak to is I was 11 years in
the math classroom, where I havea lot of experience being a
teacher.
So I really work hard toremember that as a principal
because I was once in their shoeand I will tell stories about
when I taught different thingsbecause I want to understand
that I've been shoe.
And I will tell stories aboutwhen I taught different things
(03:25):
because I want to understandthat I've been there and when I
make decisions I want to be ableto keep those type of things in
the forefront.
So when I make those decisionsI know where they're at because
I've been there, and so when youhave to make those tough
decisions, that's important,that you are very authentic with
them.
The next thing is recognition.
(03:45):
There's so many ways you canrecognize your teachers.
This is something that I liketo do is I am recognizing my
staff at certain times of theyear.
So things like I like to do isI like to get food trucks.
So I will schedule a food truckfor a professional development
day once in the fall, once inthe spring.
(04:07):
Okay, I like to do that.
I like to spoil them a littlebit, buy them lunch, because
they work extremely hard andthat's a reward for them that I
like to do.
Another thing I like to do isaround the holiday break
Sometimes it's before theholiday break, sometimes it's
after the holiday break I liketo get them gift cards.
(04:30):
The last few years I've been atthis building, I've been able to
do those things and be able toshow just tokens of appreciation
.
It's not a lot, but it'ssomething that they appreciate
and I want to show myappreciation in those ways.
Now you don't have to go buythings to show your appreciation
as well.
Now you don't have to go buythings to show your appreciation
as well.
Other things that I do is I dowords of affirmation.
I like to let the teachers knowhow much I appreciate them
(04:52):
because they work hard, and itcould be as simple as I
appreciate the things you do.
It could be as simple as I'mglad to see you here.
It could be as simple as hey, Ireally appreciate when you did
this thing.
Or I really appreciate youstepping up and taking a lead on
this thing, letting them knowthat you appreciate them.
(05:13):
One thing I do is I like to getaround to my staff at the
beginning and at the you know,throughout the year.
Let them know hey, thank youfor being here.
I appreciate everything you do.
Is there anything you need?
Just checking in.
So checking in with them isalso another way to help
motivate and inspire them to doa good job.
Now the next thing I want totalk about is professional
(05:34):
development.
As a building principal, Istrongly believe that I do not
want to waste my teacher's timeon unnecessary professional
development.
The professional developmentthat I will line up is going to
have a purpose to it, and if itdoesn't have a purpose for it, I
don't do it.
I don't want to have my teachersitting in meetings for no
(05:57):
reason.
But there's times where there'sgot to be training, there's
times that we've got to havethese professional development
things and I always want theprofessional development to be
something tangible that they canuse in the classroom or
something that we are workingtowards as a building to lead
the way to get us in thedirection we need to go when it
(06:19):
comes to that training.
So I am very, very picky aboutmy professional development and
what I have my staff do, becauseI want it to be meaningful,
something that will impact it,but something that they will be
tangible for them to use.
So being able to have goodprofessional development can
motivate and inspire them, butit's got to be professional
(06:41):
development that is useful andsomething that's gearing towards
your vision and goal of theschool.
So that's super important toremember when you are setting up
those professional developmentopportunities as well.
Another professional developmentopportunity is when you allow
your staff to go to workshops,when you allow them to go to
state conferences, do thosedifferent things and be okay,
(07:04):
because they're out therelearning and growing and we want
to.
We want to encourage that, asbuilding leaders is have your
staff go, do these things andyou want to support them on
those things as much as possible, they will come to you and say,
hey, I see this workshop, thisis why I like to go, and a lot
of times nine out of 10, I'mlike, go on, go do it.
It'd be awesome.
I'm like, go on, go do it.
It'd be awesome, because I wantto know what you're learning,
(07:28):
how you're going to apply thatinto the classroom and how
that's making you better.
So that's a really greatconversation to have with your
teachers and your staff when youhave those professional
development opportunities.
You also want to empower yourteachers.
You got to give them autonomy.
I mean, just this past week,you know, I had to explain to
somebody that I give my teachersautonomy to do their jobs.
(07:49):
I'm not going to sit there andlook over their shoulders
because they're adults.
There are people that can dotheir job and do it well.
But there's times that I got tobe able to step in there and I
got to be able to guide them orredirect them, because maybe
something they're strugglingwith or something going on.
I have to let them know like,hey, this is our expectations,
(08:10):
these are the things that we'retied on and I have to be able to
do that.
That's part of my job as well,but I also give my teachers the
opportunity to be creative.
I don't want them to be afraidto try new things.
I always tell them don't beafraid of failure.
If you fail, what did you learnfrom it so you can move on and
do the next thing?
(08:31):
Well, so give them the autonomy.
Empower your staff, give them avoice.
That's super important.
Give them a voice so when youare working together, they
understand that they've been apart of that process, in those
decision-making opportunities.
So that's another way you canempower your teachers as well.
(08:52):
Another thing that's big to helpmotivate and inspire staff is
to have some sort of mentorshipprogramming within your building
.
One thing that we do reallywell is we give every teacher
that is new no matter if they'rea brand new teacher or they
taught for 10, 15, 20 yearscoming into our building.
(09:12):
They get a guide teacher.
They get somebody that theyhave a go-to when it comes to
building procedures, how weoperate, what are we about, how
do we do things.
That's super important.
Of course, they can always cometo me as a building principal
or to the assistant principalfor guidance as well, but we
want to give them thatconnection to a staff member
(09:34):
that's been there, done that.
They know the ropes.
They can help them with theropes, especially when it comes
down to the little things likehow do you post grades, how do I
update my weekly planner.
You know what is theexpectation when I you know for
a classroom.
What does the bell ringers looklike?
All these different things.
Those teachers can collaborateand work together.
No-transcript about to helpmotivate and inspire.
(10:19):
I'm always looking for ways totry to make my teacher's job
easier, as well as my own job,and so this is where being able
to integrate technology.
So some things I'm reallylooking at as a building
principal is how can we leveragetools that are AI, like
AI-specific tools.
(10:40):
How can we leverage that?
There are some things that I'mlooking at right now that do
utilize AI, because guess what?
It's not going nowhere.
It's something that we canleverage.
I know some of my teachers useAI technology, so it's really
important to figure out.
You know how to lead with thisnew technology that's coming out
(11:00):
, but also how to inspire staffto use it.
But also, you know, if theyknow how to utilize these things
, could they free up time to bemore creative and to be more
inspirational with theirteaching If some of the remedial
tasks that they do can besimplified and something that
they can do in a timely manner,to where they're spending less
(11:22):
time doing the paperwork stuffbut more time on the creativity
side and helping those kidslearn even more effectively.
The next thing is is I want tohave my staff be growth mindset,
so I want to encourage them togrow by setting goals and
milestones.
So these are things that I dowith my teachers.
When it comes to, you know, theevaluation time, I have them
(11:46):
fill out the pre-evaluation formwe talk about.
Hey, what are your goals?
What do you want to do?
You know these are things thatare really important because I
want to be able to help themreach those goals, and these
goals don't have to beclassroom-specific goals.
These can be career goals.
Hey, how can I help you, as aprincipal, to get to the next
step?
Because what I want is I wantmy teachers to be happy where
(12:07):
they're at.
I want them to enjoy whatthey're doing.
And if they're not enjoyingwhat they're doing, and if I can
help them to the next step, Iwant to do that Because I want
to do that, because I want themto be happy personally and not
just be there and not be happy.
That's important to me is tomake sure what are their goals,
what can I do to help them reachthose goals, and then how can I
(12:29):
help them get there.
So those are things that areimportant when it comes to
motivating.
Inspiring your staff with thegoal setting part.
Collaboration guys this issomething that's huge.
When it comes to inspiring,inspiring your staff with the
goal setting part.
Collaboration guys this issomething that's huge when it
comes to inspiring, motivatingyour staff is being able to
collaborate with them.
Just the other day, I had ateacher with a situation.
We were talking it through andthen we were able to find a
(12:50):
solution to that situation, andbeing able to collaborate with
that teacher and talk thingsthrough was super important but
great to do, because that alsoput that teacher at ease and
made them feel better about okay, this is the situation, this is
how we're going to solve it,and then we move forward, and so
what I always like to do isI'll follow up with those later
just to see how things are going, as well as when we collaborate
(13:14):
.
I like to bring in that schoolimprovement team process, and
that's super important becausewe've done a lot of things I've
talked about in my previousepisodes when it comes to school
improvement and collaboratingwith those teams of teachers,
because if you're not doing that, you ain't going to be doing
this job very long, because yougot to get them to buy in and
have that voice and be a part ofthat team that we need to be
(13:37):
successful as building leaders.
Another thing is, as a buildingprincipal, I want to be
accessible.
I also want to be visible.
I want people to see that I amnot just going to sit around and
just do paperwork, push paperall day.
That's not what I want to do.
I want to be out.
I want to be seeing what myteachers are doing.
I want to come in the classroom.
(13:57):
I don't want to be evaluationtime the first time that they
see me in their classroom.
I want to be in there multipletimes prior to that so they know
that when I'm there, you knowdoing the evaluation.
I'm there just at differentcapacity.
But this also goes back to whenI was a teacher, when I became a
first year teacher.
(14:17):
Anytime I saw a principal comeinto my classroom something was
not good Like.
It was like something like hey,you had this person complain
about this.
It was always a negativeinteraction.
So I work really hard to makesure I have a lot of positive
interactions.
(14:38):
So I have to go.
Those negative interactionsthey're not so personal.
They understand where I'mcoming from.
They understand because webuilt that relationship and it's
not the first time I've been intheir classroom.
A lot of times I'll just go inand say I just want to see
what's going on, look aroundDoing a great job, peace out,
you know.
And on to the next one.
(14:58):
But I also like to keep an opendoor policy.
I say I'm always here for youguys and if you guys want to
come into and have aconversation, I'm more than
willing to do that.
I'm here to help you and I wantyou to learn and grow and if I
can help you in any way, justjust come on in.
My door's always open.
Now I do have a couple ofboundaries I set, you know, when
(15:18):
it comes to this stuff.
Like if my door's closed in myoffice, that means I have
something super important I gotto do and I can't be interrupted
, but I keep it open when I'mnot doing those like super
important things.
Um, so they know that they're,they're welcome just to walk on
into my office.
So that's, that's just beingaccessible, being able to work
(15:41):
with your staff in a capacityand be visible in a way that
they see you more than just as aleader but as someone that they
can go to when they need help.
And, of course, all of thesethings that we talk about we
have to lead by example about.
(16:06):
We have to lead by example,just like we talked about in our
last episode in 13 in ourCoaching EM Up Leadership Series
.
If you haven't listened, goahead and go back and listen to
that one where I talk aboutleading by example, where we set
the tone.
Guys, as a building leader, weset the tone and the energy that
you bring to the building, theenergy that you put off, is what
your energy, your staff andyour students get and that also
motivates and energizes them.
(16:28):
So if you come in with a crappyattitude and bad energy, guess
what?
You're going to have staff withcrappy attitudes and bad energy
as well as students with crappyattitude and bad energy.
But if you come in with apositive mindset and you come in
every day going.
You know what?
We're going to have a great day.
Even though yesterday was rough, we're going to have a great
day.
Setting that tone is superimportant, guys, and if you do
(16:51):
that, in a way, you're going togive energy out to your staff
and your students and they'regoing to be more positive and
they're going to have energythat they feed off of you to get
them through as well.
And so those are reallyimportant things to remember
when you guys are leading byexample as well, and also be in
growth mindset yourself, becauseif you're expecting your staff
(17:12):
to be growth mindset, you betterbe out there being growth
mindset and growing and learningas well, because they're going
to see that and that's reallysuper important to do.
Another thing is is you want toreward risk-taking with your
staff?
If your staff are puttingthemselves out there and they're
trying something new, supportthem, help them with that
risk-taking opportunity andcelebrate it when they're
(17:34):
successful and, you know, andhelp them out when they're not,
so if they can learn from thosethings.
So being able to celebraterisk-taking is super important
because we don't want our staffto be afraid to take those risks
.
We talked about recognition.
They do staff shout outs.
I do those sometimes in ourprofessional development
meetings and when we dosomething really well, I like to
(17:56):
go hey, these are some numbersthat I have out here, some data.
You guys are doing a reallygood job on these things.
So data that I recently sharedwas our attendance data from the
first semester, where we are up3.79% our daily average
attendance rate and we are downeight and a half percent on our
chronic apatism.
(18:17):
And guess what?
That takes everybody in ourbuilding to do that.
And so I, you know, appreciatedall the hard work and I gave
them a shout out, I told themgood job, I appreciate it.
And then I reward them with agift card when they came back
from their their holiday break,because I did appreciate all the
hard work that they they did,and and those small little
(18:37):
tokens of appreciation do matter, they build up and guess what?
When you appreciate them, theyappreciate you and it's all
where you need to be as abuilder and leader.
Another thing is incorporate fun.
I always say when people comein it's a great day to be a
tiger.
You know I love.
You know, welcome to the jungle.
(18:57):
There's a lot of differentsayings I have.
So where you know, hey, be 1%better today.
Different sayings I have to,where you know, hey, be 1%
better today.
And my newest one is whenyou're at Hastings High, you get
to be Sigma.
Yep, the kids love that one.
That's a new one that I learned.
They love it when I ask them ifthey're being Sigma today.
So try that with some of yourkids and see how it goes.
(19:19):
And then the last thing we'regoing to talk about is
consistency.
(19:50):
I also look for ways to get ourstaff together to be social,
because some of our staff needto be able to come together and
be social because, with 135people in my building, they
don't always get to see eachother.
So I create opportunities to besocial and I do a lot of that in
our professional developmenttime, where I build in
opportunities for our staff toget together and just relax and
(20:11):
have fun together, tell stories,you know, just fellowship and
that's super important.
But being consistent is thelast thing you got to do is be
consistent when you aremotivating and inspiring your
staff.
There you have it, everybody.
That is my tips on how tomotivate and inspire your staff.
(20:32):
If you have some things thatyou do, I would love to hear
from you on how you motivateyour staff, because there's so
many different ways you guys canmotivate your staff to be the
best they can be, and I wouldlove to hear what those are.
Well, this does it for thisepisode.
I hope you guys really enjoyedthis episode as much as I did,
(20:53):
and I hope you guys are outthere ready to motivate and
inspire your staff to become thebest they can be and, as we
always like to say, always lookto be 1% better.
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