Hello Colleagues and welcome to another 5 for Friday episode of The Assistant Principal Podcast!

Today’s shout out goes to… Krista8967 who wrote in a recent review:

I absolutely love this podcast. Frederick Buskey gives helpful tips that you can put into action right away. This show has been a part of my weekly routine since my journey into educational leadership began.

Thank you for the kind words Krista, I am so glad the show is helpful.

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of October 16-20, 2023. 

I was so excited after recording Tuesday’s podcast with Michele Matoon that I rearranged my content for the week and decided to pull five tips from the daily email to reinforce some sound meeting practices. The fifth tip was not on our show and I can’t believe I didn’t mention it as it transformed the way I view meetings.

While there is significant overlap between today’s show and Tuesday’s, it might be a bit less overwhelming. I’ll prove Michele’s email address at the end of the show and include it in the show notes as she will send a meeting template to anyone who wants it. If you want better meetings, don’t reinvent the wheel, just email Michele!

Five biggest takeaways:

1. Have a clear, actionable goal, in an agenda, ahead of time.
2. Allot time to each item and use a timer to signal the end.
3. Write down who is responsible and what the deadline is.
4. Put FYIs at the bottom and do not read or spend time on them.
5. Calculate the cost of the meeting. 

The takeaway: Every minute of our day has a price. That price can and should be measured in money, but more importantly in time and attention. 

Of course, some meetings are necessary. IEP meetings are essential parts of identifying important strategies for working with a vulnerable group of students. However, the value of a meeting should never be measured on its own. It should always be measured against the alternative.

Was this meeting as important as developing a support plan for a student in crisis? Was this meeting as important as investing 30 minutes with an early career teacher, listening to their story, and helping him thing through how they want to grow? Was this meeting as important as developing an SOP to help front office staff effectively manage unexpected visitors?

In some cases, the answer will be yes and you should absolutely have the meeting. In other cases, it will be no, in which case maybe you should cancel of skip the meeting if at all possible.

I know things are pretty hierarchical in most districts, but I can’t help but wonder what might happen, if, coming into a meeting 30-minutes late, you announced, “Sorry I’m late, but I have a third-year teacher who is considering leaving the profession and I needed to do some critical problem-solving with her.” What would be the response to that? Again, that may not be an option in your district, but maybe it is but you don’t know it? Might be worth a conversation. 

There is a great visual in an article in the Huffington Post in which they monitored brain activity in people attending back-to-back meetings.  The increase in stress created by back-to-back meetings with no break is striking.

Again, I’m not saying all meetings are bad, but if it isn’t worth have an agenda with a clear goal and actionable outcome, what’s the point?

That is this week’s Five for Friday rendition of The Assistant Principal Podcast. 

Thank you for including me on your leadership journey. 

I look forward to seeing you again next Tuesday… 

Please remember to subscribe and rate this podcast. As I record this, we have 19 ratings and 6 reviews – we are inching forward! Remember increasing those numbers helps others find the show and I really appreciate hearing from you.

I’m Frederick Buskey and thank you again for joining me on this episode of the Assistant Principal Podcast. Cheers!

Michele’s Links:

Email:  [email protected] 

Website: www.nsrfharmony.org 

X (Twitter) @TheNSRF:  twitter.com/TheNSRF 

Instagram: @NSRFharmony:  https://instagram.com/nsrfharmony 

Facebook: Facebook.com/NationalSchoolReformFaculty 

Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/NSRF/  

Threads (logs in with FB):  threads.net/@nsrfharmony

Resources:

The NSRF’s website:  www.nsrfharmony.org  (has libraries of many protocols and activities)

Huffington Post article on stress: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/meetings-breaks-office-brain-study_l_638e4f82e4b06fdc9d907e03 

Frederick’s Links:

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/ 

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/strategicleadershipconsulting 

Daily Email subscribe: https://adept-experimenter-3588.ck.page/ff61713840