Just because the goal to raise student achievement is clear in your head, does not mean it’s clear to your team.

Here are three questions your instructional leadership team and teachers must know the answer to.

Download a copy of my book and read chapter two, Quality of Student Work for more resources

https://www.leaders-building-leaders.com/10Indicators

Don’t BE SELFISH as a leader….

Lead your team through this easy accountability strategy and raise their performance and build a more cohesive team.

Worried about keeping your top talent?

Desire to build on the talent you have?

This research article was shared with me from a mentor on why organization’s are losing their top talent.

In this quick lesson I share multiple solutions for any leader to begin building their High Performance Culture.

Click Here to Download the Article

Raising Your Awareness,

Dr. Tom

I believe that problems shape our leadership soul.

Solving them is what we are paid for as school leaders.

However, if you desire to solve the root cause of the problem, you need to implement this strategy first.

You have less than four seconds to make a first impression.

Utilize these four questions and listening strategy to find common ground with those you serve!

You’ll see great results and deeper relationships as a result.

Looking to accelerate your communication? Looking to feel more confident with your communication? 
Aim to communicate with clarity so your team executed at the highest level? 

I encourage you to join our Master Communication Course. Sixteen (16) lessons on the practices and principles of effective communication. 

Click Here to learn more.

I believe what is appreciated appreciates. And in turn, was is depreciated, depreciates. 

Here is what I mean. 

One of the services my company provides is facilitating climate surveys and exit interviews for  schools.

I was reading through the notes from one school and saw this response from a departing teacher.   

“When I turned in my resignation letter no one from the administrative team came to talk to me. I felt devalued as an employee.”  

It made me think about my practices as a school leader. 

How do I treat people? Do they feel appreciated around me? Or depreciated? 

I know that I have definitely avoided many rooms and halls of staff who turned in their resignation or who have been told they are not coming back.  

I am definitely guilty of not engaging some staff. 

I come up with excuses in my head. They don't want to talk to me. I am just glad they came today...terrible right?

But then I started to notice...

I have learned that if you aim to be an influential leader you have to give up the right to complain down. 

Think about it, no one wants to be led by a complainer. 

You simply cannot lead and whine at the same time. 

For example, as a principal, you cannot complain in front of employees about other employees. You’ve not only modeled poor leadership but you’ve also made it alright for your employees to do the same. 

As a teacher, you cannot complain about other teachers to parents in front of your students. You’ve now decreased your peer’s credibility and in the meantime, lost some yourself. 

As a parent you cannot complain about your school, your principal, your child’s teacher in front of your child. This has now given your child the right to do the same. To not follow rules or respect teachers or classmates.

When I was a special education teacher I had a GIANT EGO. I thought I knew it all. Mainly because I was very...

I believe that compromise is not about listening and learning from others, it’s about giving in on what you truly desire. 

It’s skipping the run because it’s too cold. It’s having one more cookie because they are amazing. It’s sleeping in when you need an early start to get that report finished. 

It’s also letting parents pick up their kids late daily without penalty. It’s not saying something when an employee comes in late. It’s picking up the slack for others who don’t finish the job on time. 

It’s not being prepared for the team meeting. It’s creating double standards for employees and separate standards for administration. It’s making a commitment without following through. It’s failing to address obvious problems. It’s sending surveys but not using the information to create change. It’s talking about, gossiping about employees. It’s accepting inferior performance and...

As a leader, do you aim to be loved or are you going lead?

As someone who always considered himself a relationtional leader this is a challenging question.

When I first started as a middle school principal I found myself seeking more affirmation then information.

I would set a vision and then ask everyone their opinion.

If their vision did not agree I would make a compromise for them, not hold them to the image I was seeking to create.

I knew that a leader’s personal stock increases when people buy into the relation.

However, to create significant change, I did not the importance of shifting from pleasing people to challenging people.

Change the leadership question from are we all ok to are we all committed?

Commitment is the line for challenging people.

When you don’t have alignment in the commitments of your people, everyone in the organization can feel it.

It creates disconnect of the people from the purpose.

When you have alignment, and everyone is on the same...

I believe that it’s not experience that grows the leader, it’s a combination of two key principles and action.

A leader’s growth will come from two things:
1. Evaluating your experience
2. Taking action based on your evaluation

Every week I end with these questions three:
What went well?
What went wrong?
What role did I have in these problems and success.

Then I write out the action steps I will take this week to move my experiences into evaluative improvement.

Try this for the next 30 days and I guarantee you will see a significant difference in your emotional and physical health while getting better results.

Raising your awareness,

Dr. Tom

P.S. Did you grab the quarterly School Leader Checklist, a tool from ourPrincipal Leadership Academy, I sent out the other day? If you are looking for an easy to use tool that will help you as a school leader become more productive by empowering the leaders around you click the link below to grab your copy.