Change Starts Here

Because of his experience in Japan, and his continued education in learning Japanese in college, McIntyre was offered a sales position with an international trade publisher at their Japan operation. And the more he traveled and experienced different cultures; the more McIntyre wanted to learn.

Although McIntyre built himself a strong resume in international business, some project work with FranklinCovey led to his next chapter. In 2001, FranklinCovey asked McIntyre to run their operation—guess where? Japan. While there, McIntyre found a company looking to take and teach FranklinCovey’s seven habits to a group of Japanese students. Before long, over 10,000 Japanese children were learning the seven habits in various after-school study centers.

Now, having caught his second passion bug, education, McIntyre returned to the states in 2011 for a new assignment: international education. And a dream job was born.

The challenges in international education are many. There are cultural challenges and resources challenges. “Every country has a unique educational system,” McIntyre said. “Every country we go to, the ministry of education, they control things or do things differently. The other factor we have to deal with is politics.” Different countries’ politics can create barriers to education.

And while McIntyre can’t control the politics, he said there is a silver lining. “These principles that we teach are universal. It doesn’t matter where you’re from. It doesn’t matter who you are, what you believe, what color you are, or what country you’re in; these principles apply, and they work.”

Smiling nearly the entire podcast, Covey clearly loves what he calls his purpose, which is to increase trust and inspiration in the world today. Writing his first book 16 years ago, he found his inspiration because of the absence of these qualities and a lack of reliable content on the subject.

With the only constant being change, it’s clear a disruption is needed since the paradigm of how we view leadership is still coming from the industrial age era. So, what’s the number one barrier to becoming a trust and inspire leader? Believing oneself is already one. Instead of living down to distrust, modeling the behaviors that embody trust and inspiration is the first step in becoming a true leader.

Clearly, trusting everyone is not wise. However, discontinuing the current cycle of distrust in our society is the first step to transforming the leadership style. Covey explained, “It’s a blending of heart with head … to try to find a sweet spot using good judgement of where to trust and how much to trust.”

With so many distractions in the digital world, how does one inspire? Traditionally and still seen today, motivation and rewards are given, which is extrinsic and will leave people craving more. Instead, Covey recommended leaders connect with people and purpose and create a sense of caring and belonging. The payoff? Inspired employees are noted to be 56% more productive than engaged ones.

Bottom line, Covey reminded listeners to “model, trust and inspire” to spark the change you wish to see.

Needing refreshing, passionate and practical advice on how to become a better leader? Tune in and check out Covey’s book “Inspire and Trust” when it comes out April 5.

Okay. Full disclosure: Odham was away on vacation this week, but he wanted to give folks a chance to catch up on some great moments and amazing content from some genuinely inspiring educators and thought leaders. Whether this is the first exposure to these guests or a second time around, these agents of change are worth spending a few minutes with, and these hand-selected clips are some of Odham’s favorites from the past year. Enjoy!

Dr. Cardenas has spent the past 13 years leading Janson Elementary. For eight of those years, the school enjoyed the status of being a Lighthouse school. And in 2022, they received the Legacy designation. The discussion opened with a look into what makes Janson different.

“I think the most important thing that really helped our school was having a very clear purpose and vision,” said Dr. Cardenas. He went on to explain that the staff is dedicated to changing lives and helping kids which is evident throughout the school.

“With Leader in Me, students learn to become self-aware, interdependent, take initiative, plan ahead, set and track goals, do their homework, prioritize their time, be considerate of others, communicate effectively, resolve conflicts, find creative solutions, value differences, live a balanced life, and contribute to society. The model has been implemented in thousands of schools in more than 55 countries.”

The uniqueness of this model resonates throughout the school. Students of every age engage in age-appropriate learnings that are designed to help them learn how to be great citizens within society. “Forget the academics, I’m just talking about life principles and being a great model citizen. That’s one thing that everyone will experience when they walk on our campus,” Dr. Cardenas said.

Listen in to learn more about Janson’s journey to becoming a world-class educational environment that helps students, families, and community members thrive.

A culture of belonging includes diversity, the presence of differences in an environment, and inclusion, or making all community members feel included. Belonging is an outcome of those; it is a sense of acceptance, support, and inclusion in community. “When students and staff and families feel like they can bring their authentic selves, 100 percent who they are to that community, that truly turbo charges their contributions and results,” DiGioia-Weinfeld explained.

Schools can measure how the community—including families, students, and staff members—feels about certain topics to identify blind spots. “When we measure an ask, we have a chance to check in if our assumptions are actually a reality for our stakeholders,” DiDioia-Weinfeld said.

DiGioia-Weinfeld also suggests teachers write out student names and see if each one has a strong relationship with a teacher. “One of the biggest places to start is recognizing the difference between a positive relationship and an authentic relationship,” she stated. Positive relationships are beneficial but can be surface level, whereas authentic ones involve cultural backgrounds and more deeply knowing the person. “We tend to skip the relationship piece and just get right down to business. But it’s about modelling the relationships with teachers,” she said.

For more information on creating a culture of belonging, subscribe to Change Starts Here.

Hild found her education influenced by her parents, both educators. “My dad was a U.S. history teacher, and he really instilled values of learning,” Hild said. And through her experiences and travels early in life, she recognized the importance of empowering people and giving them a platform to make a difference.

Hild believes that people don’t always recognize their talents, so it is essential to recognize those abilities in others and then empower them to use their gifts to make a difference. “That’s to me what my position is,” Hild said. “I get to do that every day as a job. We’ve created a culture here of coaching and empowering people to unleash potential.”

One way to become an innovative leader is to seek out people outside one’s circle and learn from them. Learning from each other is the best way to gain new perspectives and find new approaches. “And don’t be shy; ask questions,” Hild said. “Find results that you admire, and then ask questions and partner.”

Another important key to becoming an innovative leader is continual learning. Hild fosters multiple programs in her district to keep ideas flowing and teachers learning new methods. “We have built this system of coaches who help invest in our teachers so they can understand ways to personalize proficiency scales and a pacing guide and using technology, and also developing the social, emotional, leadership skills of our youth,” Hild said.

Farouk Dey teaches life design for a living which he said is the opposite of career planning. “It’s trying to create a culture where we no longer ask people, ‘what do you want to do with your life,’” said Dey. “We’re essentially asking them, ‘what are you curious about?’ and getting them to act on that curiosity.”

There can be a natural tendency to adjust their narrative based on presented opportunities in one's career. But Dey believes that people will end up defaulting back to their passions sooner or later and that career step forward could be a step backward.

"It comes back to the bottom line of what life design is about, which is getting lucky in these things, but you create luck by committing to the work that you do and then positioning yourself that you're in the right place at the right time."

Through the years and the multitude of conversations Dey conducted with people in their mid-careers, he realized people are given the wrong advice at the beginning of their journeys. "We're trying to predict what they will be in the future. We're giving them all these types of assessments to try to get them to understand who they are. But they're barely learning these types of things. It's not a matter of predicting the future or predicting where we will be, but it's a matter of acting on our curiosity."

Garcia’s journey began unconventionally. Raised by a single grandmother who didn’t drive, Garcia grew up in an environment of love. Garcia’s Grandmother’s kindness shaped her and instilled a passion for doing great things , and making a difference in the lives of others. “I am who I am in my professional life because of that experience,” Garcia said.

A little more on the conventional side, Garcia’s path towards education, like so many others, drew itself from great experiences with teachers she had growing up. One third-grade teacher was a significant influence. So much so that one day, Garcia walked eight miles to school after missing her bus so she could attend this teacher’s class. “You wanted to show up every day because you knew you were going to be loved when you got into his class, and that’s what I think was my starting point; to be that person for somebody.”

Garcia spent the first part of her professional life as a K-12 bi-lingual educator, but now she focuses on giving other teachers the tools they need to empower and inspire. Two critical ingredients Garcia believes make all the difference for educators is relationship-building and creating an environment of trust within the school building. “It’s a process that takes time, and that’s intentional, that we make transparent, and we vocalize,” Garcia said.

A wise old Jedi once said, ‘size matters not,’ and Covey takes that advice to heart. At 5'8" and 165-pounds, Covey’s size does not instantly scream NFL wide receiver, where the average size of most professional WR’s tip the scales at over six feet and 200-pounds.

“I realized early on people were going to view my height and my size pretty much one of two ways: It was going to be the detriment, the weakness in my game,” Covey said. “Some teams told me, ‘We’re going to have to bulk you up if you decide to come to play here.' Or ‘you’re going to have to put on some weight, some muscle.’ And I always steered away from those schools because I’ve always viewed my size as an advantage.” At the University of Utah, they saw the talent of Covey and his size as an advantage, not a detriment.

Covey may be young, but he comes across wiser than his years. He credited much of that to the mentorship of family (his father and grandfather were two key influences) and teachers throughout his life. And while he’s also experienced adversity both physically and personally in recent years, all that’s come Covey’s way served as learnings; he channels to make himself a stronger leader.

Covey and his team faced the unexpected passing of two teammates in 2021. Moving forward was difficult, but when one player’s mom addressed the team, it became a healing moment. “You felt guilty enjoying yourself at football,” Covey said. “You felt guilty smiling. You felt guilty moving forward and stuff. And you want to honor them, so she kind of just gave us that permission. She was like, ‘He would want you to smile.’ And that permission led Covey and his teammates to a bond unlike any of his previous teams’ bonds.

While Covey’s future is unwritten, a story is coming together, and it looks to be a tale worth telling.

Odham is clearly a fan of Reyes whom he refers to as Danny throughout the episode. Highlighting everything from his exceptional teaching skills that engaged 5th-grade students in solving community problems to creating a safe place with high expectations that improved overall student performance. This podcast is for any educator, school administrator, school employee, or anyone for that matter who is interested in learning from a truly humble leader who is the definition of service leadership.

Reyes’ was given the opportunity to introduce himself by discussing who he is and why he loves what he does. His answer gives a glimpse into the unique perspective guests will enjoy throughout the interview.

As the “son of two immigrant parents from Mexico who came to be more do more become more and that's something that is sort of a fixture that continues to burn strong in me,” noted Reyes. He is also the father of three whom he clearly adores and enjoys learning from. And, a rare thing these days, Reyes is married to his high school sweetheart who is also a teacher.

In fact, Reyes lives and breathes education noting that “serving others, growing forward, and providing is really self-fulfilling for me. It really lives out my passion and mission and I love to see my efforts impacting other’s lives for the better.”

Stayed tuned throughout the interview to learn from an amazing leader who transformed one of Chicago’s least performing schools to one of its best performing schools. Other topics on the agenda include how a shooting outside his house changed the course of his life; what made him an effective teacher; how his work focuses on creating that safe and fun space to learn with high expectations that supports increased student performance; and much more.