Accelerate Your Performance

In this episode of the Accelerate Your Performance podcast, Dr. Janet Pilcher invites Sergio Mendoza, Superintendent of Burton School District in Porterville, California, to discuss his retirement announcement and journey as a leader in education. Listen as Sergio discusses key tools, such as scorecards and PDSA cycles, that he has used to cultivate a culture that drives continuous growth.

Recommended Resources: Go All In to Improve, Make Complex Work Simple,

Read and study: Each episode of the podcast aligns with the tactics and principles of our host's book, Hardwiring Excellence in Education: The Nine Principles Framework. In conjunction with that book, you can join the mission to create great places to work, learn, and succeed by leading a book study with your leadership team for Hardwiring Excellence in Education. Our free, on-demand book study offers additional tools and resources created by Dr. Pilcher and our Studer Education leader coaches. Each chapter in the study also features exclusive interviews with influential education leaders sharing how they’re making a difference in their districts and beyond.

Order book here.

Sign up for book study here.

Dr. Janet Pilcher invites Dr. Casey Blochowiak, Director Coach, as a guest on this episode of the Accelerate Your Performance podcast. Casey shares tips on how you can create time and space to intentionally slow down, pause, and reflect on the past year and prepare for the next school year. Casey encourages leaders to not get stuck in a “should have” mindset and to instead focus on positive accomplishments and what is in their control to help improve their organization. Listen as Janet and Casey discuss the importance of living in the moment and how you can create intentionality in being present.

Read and study: Each episode of the podcast aligns with the tactics and principles of our host's book, Hardwiring Excellence in Education: The Nine Principles Framework. In conjunction with that book, you can join the mission to create great places to work, learn, and succeed by leading a book study with your leadership team for Hardwiring Excellence in Education. Our free, on-demand book study offers additional tools and resources created by Dr. Pilcher and our Studer Education leader coaches. Each chapter in the study also features exclusive interviews with influential education leaders sharing how they’re making a difference in their districts and beyond.

Order book here.

Sign up for book study here.

Dr. Janet Pilcher invites Dr. Sarah Miller, Senior Director of TeacherReady, as a guest on this episode of the Accelerate Your Performance podcast. Dr. Miller explains how we utilize a continuous improvement process to update and advance the TeacherReady program, an alternative path to teacher certification. Listen as they discuss current district partnerships, results seen from TeacherReady alumni, and how the TeacherReady program can be a tool for districts to recruit and retain successful teachers.

Recommended Resources: Increase Teacher Job Satisfaction and Retention, Rethink Teacher Preparation Programs

Read and study: Each episode of the podcast aligns with the tactics and principles of our host's book, Hardwiring Excellence in Education: The Nine Principles Framework. In conjunction with that book, you can join the mission to create great places to work, learn, and succeed by leading a book study with your leadership team for Hardwiring Excellence in Education. Our free, on-demand book study offers additional tools and resources created by Dr. Pilcher and our Studer Education leader coaches. Each chapter in the study also features exclusive interviews with influential education leaders sharing how they’re making a difference in their districts and beyond.

Order book here.

Sign up for book study here.

In this Accelerate Your Performance Podcast episode, Dr. Janet Pilcher discusses her soon-to-be-released book, Hardwiring Excellence in Education: The Nine Principles Framework. The book reflects our team's and partners' work across the country with the Nine Principles. Listen now as Janet explains the importance that the core values from the Nine Principles Framework (discussed in her book) have in fostering excellent leaders and how excellent leaders are needed to grow excellent organizations.

Recommended Resources: The Nine Principles for Organizational Excellence

Read and study: Each episode of the podcast aligns with the tactics and principles of our host's book, Hardwiring Excellence in Education: The Nine Principles Framework. In conjunction with that book, you can join the mission to create great places to work, learn, and succeed by leading a book study with your leadership team for Hardwiring Excellence in Education. Our free, on-demand book study offers additional tools and resources created by Dr. Pilcher and our Studer Education leader coaches. Each chapter in the study also features exclusive interviews with influential education leaders sharing how they’re making a difference in their districts and beyond.

Order book here.

Sign up for book study here.

In this Accelerate Your Performance podcast episode, Dr. Janet Pilcher invites Dr. Matt Hillmann, Superintendent of Northfield Public Schools, to discuss the progress and successes his district has had along their continuous improvement journey. Dr. Hillmann cultivates a culture of positivity and recognition through systems, his "what's next?" philosophy and a commitment to continuous forgiveness. Listen to the recently awarded Minnesota Superintendent of the Year as he shares an inspiring call to action for leaders in education.

This episode addresses questions such as:

• How can I build buy-in among team members when it comes to implementing continuous improvement strategies?
• How do I build meetings where people are highly engaged in the work? 
• What are some ways to implement reward and recognition tactics in my district that boost positivity and fuel the culture? 

Recommended Resources: Build a Culture of Improvement, Listen Intently, Reward and Recognize, & Students are Treasures

In this episode of the Accelerate Your Performance podcast, Dr. Janet Pilcher invites Bradley Roberson, Superintendent of Oxford School District in Oxford, Mississippi, to share how he implements intentional systems with tactics such as rounding and scorecards to further continuous improvement in his district. Mr. Roberson has fostered a culture of continuous improvement through truth, trust, and discipline. Listen as he discusses how he built systems to be intentional in his district.

This episode addresses questions such as:

• How can student learning be intentional and not left to chance? 
• What steps can you take as a leader to embed rounding into your culture and cascade it through the district, schools, and grade levels?
• What are some elements you can include on scorecards to help foster student improvement?

Recommended Resources: Excellent Leaders are Intentional, Building Transparency and Trust, Rounding for Results, Building a Scorecard

In this Accelerate Your Performance podcast episode, Dr. Janet Pilcher invites Dr. Shawn Tennenbaum, Superintendent of San Benito High School District, and the district's Board President, John Corrigan, to discuss the great impact leader rounding has had on their district. This has allowed them to understand how constituents feel about developing a new school, engage in one-to-one conversations with employees to gather feedback, and allow board members to have productive dialogue with community members. Listen now as Dr. Tennenbaum and Mr. Corrigan discuss how they built rounding into their district's culture.


This episode addresses questions such as:

• What are some examples of who should round with whom in an organization?
• How can rounding improve communication between educational leaders and members of the community in a district? 
• What questions can help drive meaningful dialogue during rounding?

Recommended Resources: There is More Than One Way to Round, Rounding With The Board, Tailor Your Rounding Questions, & Building Transparency and Trust

In this Accelerate Your Performance podcast episode, Dr. Janet Pilcher invites Dr. Lupita Hightower, Superintendent of Tolleson Elementary School District, to share about her district's successes and learnings from their continuous improvement journey. Dr. Hightower was recently awarded Arizona Superintendent of the year. During the conversation, Dr. Hightower discusses leader engagement, building professional relationships, and supporting student performance. Listen as she discusses how she uses her engaging leadership skills and tactics to cultivate a community founded on the belief that students are treasures and assets to the district and community.

This episode addresses questions such as:

• How can I build a culture that believes in all students without exception? 
• What does it take to achieve a mutually supportive relationship with the school board? 
• What steps could you take to be strategic in how you go about supporting students to be able to be engaged and thrive?

Recommended Resources: Inspiring Young Futures, Preparing Students for Success From Kindergarten and Beyond, Build Strong Board Relationships, & Working With The School Board

In this episode of the Accelerate Your Performance podcast, Dr. Janet Pilcher invites Sergio Mendoza, Superintendent of Burton School District; David Shimer, Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services; and Julissa Leyva, Assistant Superintendent of Student Services, to discuss their improvement journey and the tactics they used to reach successful outcomes in their district. In this episode, Sergio and his team also share about their upcoming presentation at the 2023 Carnegie Summit, where they will discuss the speed at which they were able to implement continuous improvement strategies and how they got them to stick. Today, Julissa, Sergio, and David share their advice with other leaders who are considering committing to the work of continuous improvement.


This episode addresses questions such as:

• How can leaders maintain a "just keep going" attitude in the midst of challenges in the work of continuous improvement?
• What does it take to fearlessly commit to the work of improvement?
• What impact can strategic planning and scorecards have on your improvement journey? 

Recommended Resources: Effective Leaders are Consistent, Unrelenting Commitment to Improvement, Improvement & Innovation, & Continuous Improvement: Where Do You Start?

In this episode of the Accelerate Your Performance Podcast, Dr. Janet Pilcher invites back Terrie Morgan, Superintendent of Hardin County Schools, to discuss how she uses different leadership and strategic tactics to improve her district. Terrie discusses how tactics, such as scorecards, strategic planning, and surveys, have helped her district's improvement journey. Listen now to hear about her district's journey and consider how you might implement improvement tactics in your own district.


This episode addresses questions such as:

• How can scorecards drive improvement?
• What impact could strategic planning have on your organization?
• When is the right time for a school district to commit to the work of continuous improvement?

Recommended Resources: Great Leaders are Learning Leaders, Excellent Leaders are Intentional, Organizational Scorecard Examples, & Roll Out Survey Results With Employees