February 24, 2025 • 25 mins
This episode explores the journey from good to great in education by fostering a culture of continuous improvement. Key topics include adopting a growth mindset, the value of professional development, recognition of staff, effective communication, and collaboration for better student outcomes.
• Discussing the concept of a growth mindset
• Emphasizing the importance of being 1% better every day
• Highlighting meaningful professional development opportunities
• Recognizing staff achievements to boost morale
• Building a fun and collaborative educational environment
• Implementing collaborative practices for school improvement
• Focusing on reflection as a tool for growth
• Ensuring transparent and effective communication
• Understanding the significance of trust in educational leadership
• Encouraging incremental changes leading to significant results
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Principal JL (00:09):
Hey everybody, it's great to be back with
another episode of the Coach EmUp Leadership Series.
In today's episode, we're goingto talk about going from good
to great and building thatculture of continuous
improvement.
I actually just finishedrecording an episode with Kurtis
and Lorna Hewson from theBuilding a Culture of
(00:31):
Collaboration on their podcast.
So that was a great experienceand it's kind of awesome that I
did that recording.
We talked about building aculture of collaboration and
then I'm going to talk abouttoday's episode about
collaborating.
So if you haven't had a chanceto check out Kurtis and Lorna's
work, I would encourage you tolisten to their podcast called
(00:52):
Building a Culture ofCollaboration.
So I'm just going to plug themup a little bit so you guys can
go ahead and take an opportunityto take a listen to all the
great work they're doing.
Now we're going to go ahead andwe're going to dive right in
today's episode it's building aculture of continuous
improvement.
Now, this is something, aseducational leaders, that we got
(01:14):
to do a really good job of.
Now, when it comes to buildinga culture of continuous
improvement, there's a lot ofthings that got to come in play.
We got to talk about hey, howdid you build that relationship,
do you have the trust of yourstaff, and then when you start
building this continuous cultureof improvement, it's having a
certain mindset.
(01:35):
So this takes time to do.
This is something that's notgoing to happen overnight.
The first thing we want to beable to build into this culture
of continuous improvement is agrowth mindset.
Everybody A growth mindset isbasically everybody is willing
to learn and grow, and they canlearn and grow from their
mistakes and their successes.
It's not one thing that we aredoing that we are learning and
(02:00):
growing from.
We can learn from mistakes, wecan learn from successes, but we
have a growth mindset and a waywe want to do that.
And here, where I am theprincipal at, we talk about
having a growth mindset, ofbeing 1% better every day.
It's actually a mantra that issaid after every daily
(02:20):
announcement is to be 1% bettertoday, and I say it a lot on my
podcast.
But what is the meaning behindit?
Why am I asking you to be 1%better?
Well, this is the reason why itis to be 1% better is to find
one little thing that you coulddo better and over time, you're
(02:42):
going to make incrementalchanges that are going to happen
to be big changes in a resultof those increment changes.
So you've got to find something.
So we ask our students, we askour staff, our teachers.
Even me as a leader, I askmyself what can I do better
today?
What little thing can I dobetter to make myself better as
(03:03):
a leader, to help make thoseincremental changes that will
stack up into big changes?
And so that's where that growthmindset comes in, to, where what
can I do today to get better asa teacher, as a student, as a
staff member, as a principal?
What can I do to get better?
I always look to how can Icommunicate better with people?
(03:25):
I always look to how can I leadbetter?
How can I get out and make sureI go see a staff member today
and check in on them?
Things like that is what I kindof look at and teachers can
look at is hey, what one thingcan I do to get better today?
Could I try this new teachingstrategy that I've been kind of
hanging on to?
(03:45):
Can I try something differentthat I haven't done and learn
from that positive or negativeeffects from that thing that I'm
trying?
Students could be like, hey,I'm going to turn my homework in
on time.
Or hey, I'm going to make sureI am doing the things that the
(04:06):
teacher asked me.
Or I'm going to learn somethingnew in my class day that I
haven't learned before.
What could I take from that?
Or hey, I'm just going to makesure I'm in all my classes on
time and I'm not tardy.
I mean, there's so many thingsthat you can look at when you're
trying to get better every day.
So we always talk about be 1%better, and I always talk about
(04:29):
that at the end of my podcast ishey, always look to be 1%
better.
But you guys really don't knowwhat I'm talking about until,
actually, today, I wanted toreally kind of talk about what
that is and what that means.
And so being 1% better is tofind incremental changes over a
period of time where they stackup to lead to big gains, and
(04:49):
that's kind of what our focus isas a building, and it's
something that is said every dayafter daily announcements, and
something that we do and we tryto do, and it's something we
want to keep up to the forefront.
Hey, what are you doing to getbetter today?
And that's the number one thing.
That's part of that growthmindset that we have to have is
how are we being growth-mindedand how are we trying to find
(05:10):
something to get better at everyday as we go?
Because, as leaders, if you'renot learning and growing every
day, you're not getting better.
So what can you do as leadersto do that?
And there's so many differentthings you could do when you're
trying to get better.
And then, with that growthmindset, as a leader, you have
(05:31):
to model that.
You have to go out and be growthminded, and I like to share my
stories with people about hey,this is something I learned
today.
Hey, I did this, I failed at it, but I learned from something.
From it, I learned this is whatI need to do differently,
because I'm not perfect.
I'm always going to learn andgrow, and when your staff and
(05:51):
your students see that you'retrying to learn and grow,
they're going to be moreencouraged to learn and grow
with you, and so that's going tohelp encourage the growth.
So that's the next thing.
First thing is let's talk aboutbeing growth mindset.
Let's not be afraid to fail.
Let's go out there and try newthings, because that's the way
we're going to learn and we'regoing to figure out things as we
(06:12):
go through our ups and downs ofthis job, of ways we encourage
growth.
I talk to my staff aboutprofessional development.
If there's a workshop, ifthere's a conference or
something they want to go to, Iwould love to know what that is,
and then I let them go do it.
(06:33):
I have a science teacher thatcame to me and said hey, I'd
really like to go to thisworkshop.
At this time I'm like great,let's go.
If you're going to findsomething valuable out of it,
let's do that.
But, as myself, as'm like great, let's go.
If you're going to findsomething valuable out of it,
let's do that.
But as myself, as a principal,I try to find things that I can
go to and conferences andworkshops and different things
to help myself learn and grow,and also this podcast is
(06:55):
dedicated to that.
So this podcast is to helpother people out there that may
not get to those workshops andconferences, so they can learn
and grow.
So hopefully you guys arefinding value in this podcast
and the things that are talkedabout, because if you do, I love
that.
You just subscribe to thepodcast and listen and follow as
we go here.
So, as we get going on thelearning and growing, let's talk
(07:18):
about professional developmenta little bit more.
As a building principal, I trynot to waste my time with stupid
things that teachers don't needto do.
If it's something that could beput in an email, I do daily
reminders every day to where hey, these are the nuts and bolts
of our operations, these are thethings that we do and these are
(07:39):
things that you need to beaware of and these are the
things that you need to know.
That's pretty basic stuff andthere's a lot of things.
We've got a lot of systems inthis school to where we just
reminders of what's going on,what's going to happen, what's
coming up on those things.
But when I talk aboutprofessional development, I want
to find things for my teachersthat are important to them.
(08:01):
So one of the things I did weactually just finished up a
professional development in themonth of February here, february
10th, and then I found someprofessional development I
wanted my staff to do, and itall surrounded with the idea of
how can I, as a building leader,help my staff save time
(08:22):
prepping and planning and doingthe work that they do that
they're really good at right?
How can I help them save timeso they maybe they could take
some of the workload and stressoff them.
So with one of my episodes, Iinterviewed Principal Mo and she
talked about this productcalled Spatial School AI, and so
I kind of looked into it.
I interviewed Principal Mo andshe talked about this product
called Magic School AI, and so Ikind of looked into it, I dived
(08:42):
into it and I learned that, hey, this might be something that
might be valuable to my staffand my teachers.
And so we ended up going aheadand we're doing a pilot right
now we're doing a trial on it.
And then I went ahead and did aone-hour training with my staff
to where, hey, here's magicschool way.
I want you guys to give this ashot.
(09:02):
I want to see if this reallysaves you time.
Is this something that you guysfind valuable?
And I'll be honest with you thestaff you know the response I
got from them was very positive.
Like, hey, I can see how thiscould help me be better at what
I do with this.
I can see how this saves time.
And so right now we're in themiddle of that pilot and I'll
(09:23):
probably share more as we gohere.
But at the same time I found aprofessional development
opportunity for my staff thatthey found value in, and I had a
lot of teachers tell me hey, Ireally like this, this is what
I'm doing with it, this is great.
Where has this been?
I mean, those are the commentsI'm getting from them just doing
(09:45):
this pilot.
So that is what will happen.
If you find professionaldevelopment that is meaningful,
is your staff's going to findvalue into it?
And I always have to think as aleader what's the value of this
training?
And sometimes there's trainingthat you just got to do and it's
understandable, but at the sametime, it's a valuable training.
But if you're just filling uptime for them to do all these
(10:09):
trainings and it's not valuableto them, you just wasted their
time where they could be doingsomething more valuable with
their time, and it could besomething as simple as getting
in their classroom and workingon their lesson plans and
creating better strategies forthem to go out and teach and
learn or just to go out and toutilize within their classroom.
(10:32):
So I always try to make sure onthat professional development
piece and I wanted to give youguys an example of what that
might look like when it comes tomaking sure that it's
professional development thatwill actually encourage growth
and it will encourage them tofind the value in that
professional development Becausethat's how, as a leader, you
can help your staff learn andgrow is by having meaningful
(10:54):
professional developments.
The next thing that you can doto encourage growth is to
recognize your staff doingawesome and amazing things.
I like to recognize like rightnow we're in the middle of the
implementation of our attendancepolicy and, man, we're getting
some really good results.
But guess what?
It wouldn't work without thework of the leadership team, my
(11:15):
assistant principals and ourattendance coordinator.
They do a lot of the leadershipteam, my assistant principals
and our attendance coordinator.
They do a lot of the hard workbehind it when it comes to
figuring out which kids aremissing, how do they intervene
with systems and supports.
We also have a communityliaison.
That's a part of that team thatreally does an awesome job, and
I try to make sure I recognizethose people in front of other
(11:38):
staff.
Like we had a professionaldevelopment, I said, hey guys, I
would like to take the time torecognize these people for the
awesome things they did, and soI recognize the attendance
coordinator, our assistantprincipals, our community
liaison for the things they do,because I want people to know
(12:06):
that you know what they don'tget to see the hard work that
goes into some of that.
They need to be recognized oncein a while, as well as
recognizing teachers for whenthey do great things, because
really it takes a collaborativeeffort, this thing, and let's
you know, let's give them a biground of applause because that
wasn't easy and we reallyappreciate the efforts.
And so when you're able torecognize the efforts of other
(12:28):
people, that is huge to do andyou can celebrate that
internally.
You can celebrate it by doing asocial media post.
I know we have a team of peoplethat will actually put social
media posts out there for youknow, secretary Day, for
Counselor Week, for SchoolResource Week.
You know they do a great job ofrecognizing the people that do
(12:53):
the great things within theschool that you don't think
about, and so that's reallyanother huge thing you would
like to do is recognize peoplewhen you could do that, because
that's going to encourage themto continue to go and do the
work that is really hard to doat times.
The next thing I would like totalk about is hey, in this job
you got to have fun, right, youcan't be afraid to have fun.
(13:16):
I want to make sure people knowthat.
Hey, yes, I am the buildingleader, I'm the principal here,
but at the same time I am aperson.
There are some things I like todo.
I like to have fun, I like tojoke around, but that also keeps
that culture of just everybodyknows that we're in it together.
We're going to have fun in theprocess, and so I like to crack
(13:37):
jokes.
I like to do things.
I like to set up times during,times where staff can get
together, get to socialize andget to see each other outside of
their departments once in awhile.
So there's those things, and sowe try to do those things to
where we're trying to build justthat collaboration but build
that community as well, just notas just teachers and educators,
(14:01):
but as people in general thatcan come together and socialize
and have fun together, and so wetry to do those things as well.
There's times where I will rentout a place.
We had some pizza and we justcome together and we just hung
out after a work day or after aprofessional development time.
(14:23):
I've done that a few times, butthat's just an idea that you
could do to try to just havesome fun and do some things that
are just a little bit differentoutside of work.
The next piece here that we wantto talk about that helps build
that collaboration of continuousimprovement is to have
collaboration right.
There are things that we do,that we collaborate on, that
(14:45):
work together.
Our school improvement team isanother team that I give shout
outs to because they do a reallygood job of bringing issues in
and finding solutions to that.
Bringing issues in and findingsolutions to that, and so with
them, they are a hugecollaboration tool or piece that
helps our building findsolutions to the issues we're
(15:06):
having Now.
Outside of that, we also are aPLC school.
We have dedicated time whereour staff will meet once a week
and there's similar responseteams where they're talking
about students.
They're talking about studentlearning.
They're talking about hey,these students are doing this
target, these students have itdone.
For hey, I see you over here.
(15:28):
Your students are doing reallywell at this target.
Hey, would you like to have anintervention session with these
students and help them, becausemaybe I am missing something,
maybe I am not explaining it theway you are.
Maybe they'll get value out ofthat.
So the teachers will actuallycoordinate which students will
go to an intervention piece,which teacher are going to lead
(15:49):
those sessions, and so thattakes a lot of collaboration to
do.
And that is something that we doweekly, every week, to where
we're trying to stay on top of,be proactive in the student
learning, so we understand or weknow where they're at and we're
utilizing data to drive thatcollaboration and to drive those
expectations and to drive thelearning of the students.
(16:12):
And so at that time it mightfeel like some experimentation
as well, to where, hey, we'regoing to try some things,
especially with our attendancepolicy.
This was something that weworked hard together and we
implemented, but as a leader, Iwas nervous.
I was like I don't know howthis is going to go.
But since it was acollaborative effort and it's
(16:33):
implemented and we have allthese systems and things in
place, we have people that havetheir roles in it, it's really
great to see the effectivenessof that collaboration come into
fruition.
And so even this might startsomething as like we don't know
how it's going to go, but if youcollaborate with your people,
you're going to be successfulbecause you've built that buy-in
(16:56):
with that collaboration process.
And then the next thing we'regoing to talk about is
reflection.
There's times where we got tosit back, reflect on the work
we've done as leaders and gowhat did I learn from this?
What can I take from this?
So if I see this again, I canimplement something even better.
(17:17):
Or, hey, what did I learn fromthis failure or this mistake?
Because, as a leader, I'm goingto mess up, I'm going to make
mistakes, but I have to be ableto reflect and show my staff
that I can reflect and learnfrom my mistakes as well.
And what that does is it modelsthat, hey, as a leader, I'm
going to reflect on my stuff.
As a teacher, you reflect onthe things you can learn and
(17:40):
grow on.
And that's kind of the wholepiece where I talk with teachers
about hey, what can you do toget better?
What can I help you, supportyou with to get better?
So, if they're being reflectiveand they're learning from hey,
this went really well and Ireally like this.
Or hey, this didn't go so well,so maybe there's something I
need to think about to do better.
(18:00):
And so when you have theprincipal or the building
leaders reflecting and gettingbetter, you have your teachers
and your staff reflecting to getbetter.
That's just going to trickledown to your students to be more
reflective and to learn fromtheir mistakes.
And so that's where buildingthat collaborative piece for
continuous improvement tricklesdown from the top all the way
(18:21):
down to the bottom.
Because if everybody isreflecting and trying to get
better and, like we say, we'realways looking to be 1% better
every day, that is the essenceof building that continuous
improvement in your building isto have that understanding and
being able to reflect and dothose things.
Finally, you got to have greatcommunication, and those
(18:45):
communications need to betransparent.
As a leader, you need to dowhat you say you're going to do.
If you say this is what's goingto happen when this happens,
you better do it, because withthat, the teachers need to know,
or the staff needs to know,that hey, he is going to, he
(19:09):
means what he says.
And it comes down to not froman authoritarian standpoint but
from a collaborative standpointis, when you collaborate
together and you communicatewhat that is and you have
clarity, you're going to havethat buy-in, you're going to
have that growth mindset, you'regoing to have that continuous
improvement throughcollaboration.
That is going to be valuableand it's going to permeate
(19:29):
throughout your building, wherepeople feel empowered to be the
best versions of themselves whenthey are doing the job, and so
being able to have concisecommunications and clarity of
what those things are isimportant.
Then, as a building principal,my job is to hold people
accountable when those thingsaren't going the way they need
(19:51):
to go.
Or another thing is a big thingis the support teachers when
they're struggling, and tosupport staff members when
they're going through, goingthrough tough things or things
are struggling with.
How can I support them, becauseI always want to come through.
How can I help you not do this?
I'm not going to tell you whatto do.
You're you're an adult, likeI'm an adult, and I want to
(20:13):
support you through the thingsthat you're learning and growing
on.
And my final thought is creatinga collaborative culture of
continuous improvement does nothappen overnight.
It takes work, it takes time todo, and before you can really
build that collaborative culture, you have to build trust of
(20:33):
people within your building.
You got to be able tounderstand how they work, how
they tick, buildingrelationships with them, not
just on a professional level,but get to know them as people
and they get to know you as aperson because they need to
understand your heart as aleader.
You're here to help.
You're here to support becauseyou want everybody to work
(20:54):
together for the common goal ofhelping students learn and
helping them become the bestversions of themselves and as
leaders.
If we're helping, if we aredoing the things to make
ourselves the best version ofourselves and our teachers and
our staffs are doing the samework where they're being the
best versions of themselves, ourstudents will become the best
versions of themselves andthey'll have a great experience
(21:17):
within their educational journey.
With that said, guys, I reallyappreciate you guys tuning in
for this episode on how to gofrom good to great, building
that collaboration of continuousimprovement, and I hope you
guys get something out of this.
If you did, I'd love to hearfrom you guys.
Please follow the podcast,reach out, email me Everything
(21:41):
is in the bottom of the shownotes that you can reach out and
connect with me on thesedifferent topics.
And so, with that said, hey,this has been a fun journey.
So far, I have actually onlygot one episode left of the
Coach Em Up Leadership Series.
I really hope that you guyshave enjoyed the Coach Em Up
Leadership Series and you findvalue in it.
(22:02):
And to end on that note, I hopeyou guys are always looking to
be 1% better.
Bye.
Hey everybody, it's great to be back with
another episode of the Coach EmUp Leadership Series.
In today's episode, we're goingto talk about going from good
to great and building thatculture of continuous
improvement.
I actually just finishedrecording an episode with Kurtis
and Lorna Hewson from theBuilding a Culture of
(00:31):
Collaboration on their podcast.
So that was a great experienceand it's kind of awesome that I
did that recording.
We talked about building aculture of collaboration and
then I'm going to talk abouttoday's episode about
collaborating.
So if you haven't had a chanceto check out Kurtis and Lorna's
work, I would encourage you tolisten to their podcast called
(00:52):
Building a Culture ofCollaboration.
So I'm just going to plug themup a little bit so you guys can
go ahead and take an opportunityto take a listen to all the
great work they're doing.
Now we're going to go ahead andwe're going to dive right in
today's episode it's building aculture of continuous
improvement.
Now, this is something, aseducational leaders, that we got
(01:14):
to do a really good job of.
Now, when it comes to buildinga culture of continuous
improvement, there's a lot ofthings that got to come in play.
We got to talk about hey, howdid you build that relationship,
do you have the trust of yourstaff, and then when you start
building this continuous cultureof improvement, it's having a
certain mindset.
(01:35):
So this takes time to do.
This is something that's notgoing to happen overnight.
The first thing we want to beable to build into this culture
of continuous improvement is agrowth mindset.
Everybody A growth mindset isbasically everybody is willing
to learn and grow, and they canlearn and grow from their
mistakes and their successes.
It's not one thing that we aredoing that we are learning and
(02:00):
growing from.
We can learn from mistakes, wecan learn from successes, but we
have a growth mindset and a waywe want to do that.
And here, where I am theprincipal at, we talk about
having a growth mindset, ofbeing 1% better every day.
It's actually a mantra that issaid after every daily
(02:20):
announcement is to be 1% bettertoday, and I say it a lot on my
podcast.
But what is the meaning behindit?
Why am I asking you to be 1%better?
Well, this is the reason why itis to be 1% better is to find
one little thing that you coulddo better and over time, you're
(02:42):
going to make incrementalchanges that are going to happen
to be big changes in a resultof those increment changes.
So you've got to find something.
So we ask our students, we askour staff, our teachers.
Even me as a leader, I askmyself what can I do better
today?
What little thing can I dobetter to make myself better as
(03:03):
a leader, to help make thoseincremental changes that will
stack up into big changes?
And so that's where that growthmindset comes in, to, where what
can I do today to get better asa teacher, as a student, as a
staff member, as a principal?
What can I do to get better?
I always look to how can Icommunicate better with people?
(03:25):
I always look to how can I leadbetter?
How can I get out and make sureI go see a staff member today
and check in on them?
Things like that is what I kindof look at and teachers can
look at is hey, what one thingcan I do to get better today?
Could I try this new teachingstrategy that I've been kind of
hanging on to?
(03:45):
Can I try something differentthat I haven't done and learn
from that positive or negativeeffects from that thing that I'm
trying?
Students could be like, hey,I'm going to turn my homework in
on time.
Or hey, I'm going to make sureI am doing the things that the
(04:06):
teacher asked me.
Or I'm going to learn somethingnew in my class day that I
haven't learned before.
What could I take from that?
Or hey, I'm just going to makesure I'm in all my classes on
time and I'm not tardy.
I mean, there's so many thingsthat you can look at when you're
trying to get better every day.
So we always talk about be 1%better, and I always talk about
(04:29):
that at the end of my podcast ishey, always look to be 1%
better.
But you guys really don't knowwhat I'm talking about until,
actually, today, I wanted toreally kind of talk about what
that is and what that means.
And so being 1% better is tofind incremental changes over a
period of time where they stackup to lead to big gains, and
(04:49):
that's kind of what our focus isas a building, and it's
something that is said every dayafter daily announcements, and
something that we do and we tryto do, and it's something we
want to keep up to the forefront.
Hey, what are you doing to getbetter today?
And that's the number one thing.
That's part of that growthmindset that we have to have is
how are we being growth-mindedand how are we trying to find
(05:10):
something to get better at everyday as we go?
Because, as leaders, if you'renot learning and growing every
day, you're not getting better.
So what can you do as leadersto do that?
And there's so many differentthings you could do when you're
trying to get better.
And then, with that growthmindset, as a leader, you have
(05:31):
to model that.
You have to go out and be growthminded, and I like to share my
stories with people about hey,this is something I learned
today.
Hey, I did this, I failed at it, but I learned from something.
From it, I learned this is whatI need to do differently,
because I'm not perfect.
I'm always going to learn andgrow, and when your staff and
(05:51):
your students see that you'retrying to learn and grow,
they're going to be moreencouraged to learn and grow
with you, and so that's going tohelp encourage the growth.
So that's the next thing.
First thing is let's talk aboutbeing growth mindset.
Let's not be afraid to fail.
Let's go out there and try newthings, because that's the way
we're going to learn and we'regoing to figure out things as we
(06:12):
go through our ups and downs ofthis job, of ways we encourage
growth.
I talk to my staff aboutprofessional development.
If there's a workshop, ifthere's a conference or
something they want to go to, Iwould love to know what that is,
and then I let them go do it.
(06:33):
I have a science teacher thatcame to me and said hey, I'd
really like to go to thisworkshop.
At this time I'm like great,let's go.
If you're going to findsomething valuable out of it,
let's do that.
But, as myself, as'm like great, let's go.
If you're going to findsomething valuable out of it,
let's do that.
But as myself, as a principal,I try to find things that I can
go to and conferences andworkshops and different things
to help myself learn and grow,and also this podcast is
(06:55):
dedicated to that.
So this podcast is to helpother people out there that may
not get to those workshops andconferences, so they can learn
and grow.
So hopefully you guys arefinding value in this podcast
and the things that are talkedabout, because if you do, I love
that.
You just subscribe to thepodcast and listen and follow as
we go here.
So, as we get going on thelearning and growing, let's talk
(07:18):
about professional developmenta little bit more.
As a building principal, I trynot to waste my time with stupid
things that teachers don't needto do.
If it's something that could beput in an email, I do daily
reminders every day to where hey, these are the nuts and bolts
of our operations, these are thethings that we do and these are
(07:39):
things that you need to beaware of and these are the
things that you need to know.
That's pretty basic stuff andthere's a lot of things.
We've got a lot of systems inthis school to where we just
reminders of what's going on,what's going to happen, what's
coming up on those things.
But when I talk aboutprofessional development, I want
to find things for my teachersthat are important to them.
(08:01):
So one of the things I did weactually just finished up a
professional development in themonth of February here, february
10th, and then I found someprofessional development I
wanted my staff to do, and itall surrounded with the idea of
how can I, as a building leader,help my staff save time
(08:22):
prepping and planning and doingthe work that they do that
they're really good at right?
How can I help them save timeso they maybe they could take
some of the workload and stressoff them.
So with one of my episodes, Iinterviewed Principal Mo and she
talked about this productcalled Spatial School AI, and so
I kind of looked into it.
I interviewed Principal Mo andshe talked about this product
called Magic School AI, and so Ikind of looked into it, I dived
(08:42):
into it and I learned that, hey, this might be something that
might be valuable to my staffand my teachers.
And so we ended up going aheadand we're doing a pilot right
now we're doing a trial on it.
And then I went ahead and did aone-hour training with my staff
to where, hey, here's magicschool way.
I want you guys to give this ashot.
(09:02):
I want to see if this reallysaves you time.
Is this something that you guysfind valuable?
And I'll be honest with you thestaff you know the response I
got from them was very positive.
Like, hey, I can see how thiscould help me be better at what
I do with this.
I can see how this saves time.
And so right now we're in themiddle of that pilot and I'll
(09:23):
probably share more as we gohere.
But at the same time I found aprofessional development
opportunity for my staff thatthey found value in, and I had a
lot of teachers tell me hey, Ireally like this, this is what
I'm doing with it, this is great.
Where has this been?
I mean, those are the commentsI'm getting from them just doing
(09:45):
this pilot.
So that is what will happen.
If you find professionaldevelopment that is meaningful,
is your staff's going to findvalue into it?
And I always have to think as aleader what's the value of this
training?
And sometimes there's trainingthat you just got to do and it's
understandable, but at the sametime, it's a valuable training.
But if you're just filling uptime for them to do all these
(10:09):
trainings and it's not valuableto them, you just wasted their
time where they could be doingsomething more valuable with
their time, and it could besomething as simple as getting
in their classroom and workingon their lesson plans and
creating better strategies forthem to go out and teach and
learn or just to go out and toutilize within their classroom.
(10:32):
So I always try to make sure onthat professional development
piece and I wanted to give youguys an example of what that
might look like when it comes tomaking sure that it's
professional development thatwill actually encourage growth
and it will encourage them tofind the value in that
professional development Becausethat's how, as a leader, you
can help your staff learn andgrow is by having meaningful
(10:54):
professional developments.
The next thing that you can doto encourage growth is to
recognize your staff doingawesome and amazing things.
I like to recognize like rightnow we're in the middle of the
implementation of our attendancepolicy and, man, we're getting
some really good results.
But guess what?
It wouldn't work without thework of the leadership team, my
(11:15):
assistant principals and ourattendance coordinator.
They do a lot of the leadershipteam, my assistant principals
and our attendance coordinator.
They do a lot of the hard workbehind it when it comes to
figuring out which kids aremissing, how do they intervene
with systems and supports.
We also have a communityliaison.
That's a part of that team thatreally does an awesome job, and
I try to make sure I recognizethose people in front of other
(11:38):
staff.
Like we had a professionaldevelopment, I said, hey guys, I
would like to take the time torecognize these people for the
awesome things they did, and soI recognize the attendance
coordinator, our assistantprincipals, our community
liaison for the things they do,because I want people to know
(12:06):
that you know what they don'tget to see the hard work that
goes into some of that.
They need to be recognized oncein a while, as well as
recognizing teachers for whenthey do great things, because
really it takes a collaborativeeffort, this thing, and let's
you know, let's give them a biground of applause because that
wasn't easy and we reallyappreciate the efforts.
And so when you're able torecognize the efforts of other
(12:28):
people, that is huge to do andyou can celebrate that
internally.
You can celebrate it by doing asocial media post.
I know we have a team of peoplethat will actually put social
media posts out there for youknow, secretary Day, for
Counselor Week, for SchoolResource Week.
You know they do a great job ofrecognizing the people that do
(12:53):
the great things within theschool that you don't think
about, and so that's reallyanother huge thing you would
like to do is recognize peoplewhen you could do that, because
that's going to encourage themto continue to go and do the
work that is really hard to doat times.
The next thing I would like totalk about is hey, in this job
you got to have fun, right, youcan't be afraid to have fun.
(13:16):
I want to make sure people knowthat.
Hey, yes, I am the buildingleader, I'm the principal here,
but at the same time I am aperson.
There are some things I like todo.
I like to have fun, I like tojoke around, but that also keeps
that culture of just everybodyknows that we're in it together.
We're going to have fun in theprocess, and so I like to crack
(13:37):
jokes.
I like to do things.
I like to set up times during,times where staff can get
together, get to socialize andget to see each other outside of
their departments once in awhile.
So there's those things, and sowe try to do those things to
where we're trying to build justthat collaboration but build
that community as well, just notas just teachers and educators,
(14:01):
but as people in general thatcan come together and socialize
and have fun together, and so wetry to do those things as well.
There's times where I will rentout a place.
We had some pizza and we justcome together and we just hung
out after a work day or after aprofessional development time.
(14:23):
I've done that a few times, butthat's just an idea that you
could do to try to just havesome fun and do some things that
are just a little bit differentoutside of work.
The next piece here that we wantto talk about that helps build
that collaboration of continuousimprovement is to have
collaboration right.
There are things that we do,that we collaborate on, that
(14:45):
work together.
Our school improvement team isanother team that I give shout
outs to because they do a reallygood job of bringing issues in
and finding solutions to that.
Bringing issues in and findingsolutions to that, and so with
them, they are a hugecollaboration tool or piece that
helps our building findsolutions to the issues we're
(15:06):
having Now.
Outside of that, we also are aPLC school.
We have dedicated time whereour staff will meet once a week
and there's similar responseteams where they're talking
about students.
They're talking about studentlearning.
They're talking about hey,these students are doing this
target, these students have itdone.
For hey, I see you over here.
(15:28):
Your students are doing reallywell at this target.
Hey, would you like to have anintervention session with these
students and help them, becausemaybe I am missing something,
maybe I am not explaining it theway you are.
Maybe they'll get value out ofthat.
So the teachers will actuallycoordinate which students will
go to an intervention piece,which teacher are going to lead
(15:49):
those sessions, and so thattakes a lot of collaboration to
do.
And that is something that we doweekly, every week, to where
we're trying to stay on top of,be proactive in the student
learning, so we understand or weknow where they're at and we're
utilizing data to drive thatcollaboration and to drive those
expectations and to drive thelearning of the students.
(16:12):
And so at that time it mightfeel like some experimentation
as well, to where, hey, we'regoing to try some things,
especially with our attendancepolicy.
This was something that weworked hard together and we
implemented, but as a leader, Iwas nervous.
I was like I don't know howthis is going to go.
But since it was acollaborative effort and it's
(16:33):
implemented and we have allthese systems and things in
place, we have people that havetheir roles in it, it's really
great to see the effectivenessof that collaboration come into
fruition.
And so even this might startsomething as like we don't know
how it's going to go, but if youcollaborate with your people,
you're going to be successfulbecause you've built that buy-in
(16:56):
with that collaboration process.
And then the next thing we'regoing to talk about is
reflection.
There's times where we got tosit back, reflect on the work
we've done as leaders and gowhat did I learn from this?
What can I take from this?
So if I see this again, I canimplement something even better.
(17:17):
Or, hey, what did I learn fromthis failure or this mistake?
Because, as a leader, I'm goingto mess up, I'm going to make
mistakes, but I have to be ableto reflect and show my staff
that I can reflect and learnfrom my mistakes as well.
And what that does is it modelsthat, hey, as a leader, I'm
going to reflect on my stuff.
As a teacher, you reflect onthe things you can learn and
(17:40):
grow on.
And that's kind of the wholepiece where I talk with teachers
about hey, what can you do toget better?
What can I help you, supportyou with to get better?
So, if they're being reflectiveand they're learning from hey,
this went really well and Ireally like this.
Or hey, this didn't go so well,so maybe there's something I
need to think about to do better.
(18:00):
And so when you have theprincipal or the building
leaders reflecting and gettingbetter, you have your teachers
and your staff reflecting to getbetter.
That's just going to trickledown to your students to be more
reflective and to learn fromtheir mistakes.
And so that's where buildingthat collaborative piece for
continuous improvement tricklesdown from the top all the way
(18:21):
down to the bottom.
Because if everybody isreflecting and trying to get
better and, like we say, we'realways looking to be 1% better
every day, that is the essenceof building that continuous
improvement in your building isto have that understanding and
being able to reflect and dothose things.
Finally, you got to have greatcommunication, and those
(18:45):
communications need to betransparent.
As a leader, you need to dowhat you say you're going to do.
If you say this is what's goingto happen when this happens,
you better do it, because withthat, the teachers need to know,
or the staff needs to know,that hey, he is going to, he
(19:09):
means what he says.
And it comes down to not froman authoritarian standpoint but
from a collaborative standpointis, when you collaborate
together and you communicatewhat that is and you have
clarity, you're going to havethat buy-in, you're going to
have that growth mindset, you'regoing to have that continuous
improvement throughcollaboration.
That is going to be valuableand it's going to permeate
(19:29):
throughout your building, wherepeople feel empowered to be the
best versions of themselves whenthey are doing the job, and so
being able to have concisecommunications and clarity of
what those things are isimportant.
Then, as a building principal,my job is to hold people
accountable when those thingsaren't going the way they need
(19:51):
to go.
Or another thing is a big thingis the support teachers when
they're struggling, and tosupport staff members when
they're going through, goingthrough tough things or things
are struggling with.
How can I support them, becauseI always want to come through.
How can I help you not do this?
I'm not going to tell you whatto do.
You're you're an adult, likeI'm an adult, and I want to
(20:13):
support you through the thingsthat you're learning and growing
on.
And my final thought is creatinga collaborative culture of
continuous improvement does nothappen overnight.
It takes work, it takes time todo, and before you can really
build that collaborative culture, you have to build trust of
(20:33):
people within your building.
You got to be able tounderstand how they work, how
they tick, buildingrelationships with them, not
just on a professional level,but get to know them as people
and they get to know you as aperson because they need to
understand your heart as aleader.
You're here to help.
You're here to support becauseyou want everybody to work
(20:54):
together for the common goal ofhelping students learn and
helping them become the bestversions of themselves and as
leaders.
If we're helping, if we aredoing the things to make
ourselves the best version ofourselves and our teachers and
our staffs are doing the samework where they're being the
best versions of themselves, ourstudents will become the best
versions of themselves andthey'll have a great experience
(21:17):
within their educational journey.
With that said, guys, I reallyappreciate you guys tuning in
for this episode on how to gofrom good to great, building
that collaboration of continuousimprovement, and I hope you
guys get something out of this.
If you did, I'd love to hearfrom you guys.
Please follow the podcast,reach out, email me Everything
(21:41):
is in the bottom of the shownotes that you can reach out and
connect with me on thesedifferent topics.
And so, with that said, hey,this has been a fun journey.
So far, I have actually onlygot one episode left of the
Coach Em Up Leadership Series.
I really hope that you guyshave enjoyed the Coach Em Up
Leadership Series and you findvalue in it.
(22:02):
And to end on that note, I hopeyou guys are always looking to
be 1% better.
Bye.
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