Principal Matters: The School Leader's Podcast with William D. Parker

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Principal Matters: The School Leader's Podcast with William D. Parker episodes

January 25, 2017 PMP 051: The Shocking Truth About Your Decision-Making
When I was going to graduate school for my Master’s Degree in Education Leadership, I decided to conduct my own informal research. Over a number of weeks, I talked to current and retired principals about what they considered to be the lessons they had learned from their years in school leadership. I remember one man […]
The post PMP 051: The Shocking Truth About Your Decision-Making appeared first on Principal Matters.
20 min
January 25, 2017 PMP 051: The Shocking Truth About Your Decision-Making
When I was going to graduate school for my Master’s Degree in Education Leadership, I decided to conduct my own informal research.
Over a number of weeks, I talked to current and retired principals about what they considered to be the lessons they had learned from their years in school leadership.
I remember one man in particular who was a retired teacher and administrator who had moved into higher education. We stood in the hallway one night after one my classes, and I asked him the question:
“What do you consider the greatest lesson you learned from your years as a principal?”
He looked down for a moment, and then looked back up at me and said. “I think I had to learn that I wasn’t always right. In fact, looking back now, I think I’d be lucky if I made the right decision 25% of the time.”
I was shocked. How could someone who seemed so articulate, competent, and confident say such a thing?
He smiled and explained. “Before you become the principal, you think you have all the answers. But once you take the position, you begin to realize how many things you don’t know…and sometimes you will call it wrong.”
“The sooner you accept that fact,” he went on, “The easier it will be to not be too hard on yourself when you make mistakes.”
I still remember walking away from that conversation in a daze.
Looking back at the conversation now years later, I realize that some of my biggest fears centered on a fear of failure: disappointing others, making the wrong call, or being out-of-control of a situation. I wanted to be someone who inspired confidence in others, and the idea of making the wrong calls terrified me.
How Would You Handle This Situation?
I remember my first few weeks as an assistant principal when a teacher brought a student to me. She was upset because he had been playing around in her classroom, and he had thought it would be funny to make dozens of photo-copies of his face on a copier she kept there. This incident turned into a long meeting with his dad, the teacher, and me. We decided he would report for two weeks to her classroom each morning to help her organize materials, etc. as a way to give back for the nuisance and waste.
Although the outcome was positive, I would have handled it differently today:

1. This was a veteran teacher, and I might have encouraged her to first contact the parent herself.

2. Perhaps we would have talked about what appropriate consequences she could leverage, and she could have easily managed it without me organizing a meeting.

3. This would have saved time for the school and the parent, and the student would still have had a reasonable consequence.

4. I would laughed about it afterwards.
But I didn’t have those insights then. I didn’t know that teachers must be empowered to manage and resolve classroom incidents within their own control. I didn’t know how important it is to protect time by not allowing “urgent” moments to take hours away from other important priorities where my presence and input were more essential. I didn’t have the perspective of being a parent of teenagers myself yet. And I didn’t know how to enjoy the hilarious things kids do sometimes.
That is just a small example of the thousands of hourly and daily decisions I’ve helped manage since then. But my point is that hindsight allows us perspective on how we grow in decision-making.
The Wisdom of Hindsight
Making good decisions is an important role for each us. A 2008 Harvard Business research report, How Can Decision Making Be Improved? by Katherine L. Milkman, Dolly Chugh and Max H. Bazerman, explains how errors in decisions can be costly. And decision making is often based on both intuition and outside input.
20 min
January 18, 2017 PMP 050: The 5 Marks of a Learning Culture
After living in Oklahoma for more than twenty years, I’ve become keenly aware that our state’s economy is intricately related to oil and gas.In addition to our rich Native American heritage, almost every major city or town in our state has its roots in the oil fields and exploration that brought workers who in turn […]
The post PMP 050: The 5 Marks of a Learning Culture appeared first on Principal Matters.
21 min
January 18, 2017 PMP 050: The 5 Marks of a Learning Culture
After living in Oklahoma for more than twenty years, I’ve become keenly aware that our state’s economy is intricately related to oil and gas.
In addition to our rich Native American heritage, almost every major city or town in our state has its roots in the oil fields and exploration that brought workers who in turn brought their families and built communities.
A lot has changed over the decades, but for those who work the rigs and fields today, they can tell you that drilling and production can still be very dangerous work. When managing parts and machines under tremendous pressure, one mistake can be fatal.
Recently I was listening to The New Norm, an episode of Invisibilia, a podcast on the invisible forces, emotions, or psychological influences that affect the way we think or behave.
This episode focused on a story from 1997 when Shell Oil had commissioned Ursa, the largest offshore drilling rig in history. One man, Rick Fox, was assigned the task of assembling and training a crew who would manage a floating multi-story complex the size of two football fields. His biggest fears? He worried a lot about the inevitable injuries or deaths that could take place in metropolis of such high-pressure engineering—where a misread gauge or a wrong turn could be unimaginably catastrophic.
Surprisingly, Fox found his answer through a leadership consultant, a French-speaking woman, Claire Nuer, whose family had survived the Holocaust. She had dedicated her adult life to counseling, meditation, and leadership. She convinced him that he and his crew of tough-minded men needed to hire her consultants so that they could learn to face their fears, talk honestly, and work cooperatively if they wanted to create a working culture that was safer and more productive.
Later Robin Ely, a Harvard business school professor, and Debra Meyerson, a professor at Stanford researched the outcomes of this counseling/leadership approach and found amazing results: The crew of this massive oil rig saw 84% decline in accidents compared to other Shell operations. And their productivity was greater as well.
What caused this crew to have such amazing results? Robin Ely attributes the entire mindset to what she called a “learning culture”—a place where people trust one another, speak openly about concerns, and are able to admit when they misunderstand or make mistakes.
Prior to this new “learning culture,” the crew members who were interviewed admitted they were once expected to never show emotion, never ask for help, and never admit if they misunderstood. After learning stronger ways to communicate, they admitted their working environment had become a job each one enjoyed, not just a place to make money.
5 Marks of a Learning Culture
It is always exciting when research confirms what good teachers have known for years:
A learning culture is the most effective environment for problem solving, critical thinking, and productivity.
As you think about your own school or work environment, are you seeing a “learning culture” mindset happening around you?
Here are five indicators to look for:
1. Learning cultures include relationships of trust.
No amount of strategy, planning, or communicating works without trust. And trust is built through relationships over time. Especially in school environments, teachers, students, and parents must believe you and your team members are people of integrity before they will believe or invest in ideas for growth or change. In the case of the men and women of Rick Fox’s crew, they had to truly believe each person had the other’s best interest in mind. In school settings, it is no different.
21 min
January 11, 2017 PMP 049: Why Self-Control Matters–5 Benefits for Leaders
A couple of months ago, I enjoyed some special time away with my son, Jack. He had turned 11, and when his older sisters reached that age, my wife took each of them away for a special weekend. Now it was my turn with Jack, and we had fun weekend in historic Eureka Springs, Arkansas. […]
The post PMP 049: Why Self-Control Matters–5 Benefits for Leaders appeared first on Principal Matters.
19 min
January 11, 2017 PMP 049: Why Self-Control Matters–5 Benefits for Leaders
A couple of months ago, I enjoyed some special time away with my son, Jack.
He had turned 11, and when his older sisters reached that age, my wife took each of them away for a special weekend. Now it was my turn with Jack, and we had fun weekend in historic Eureka Springs, Arkansas. In addition to just having fun together, one of the purposes of these one-on-one conversations is focused time to talk about life, priorities, and choices.
In a world that offers our children a menu of options everyday, I wanted Jack to understand that his choices must be based on something greater than what is convenient or fun in-the-moment. We talked about why it is important to learn patience and self-control…how the benefits of self-denial outweigh the temptations of self-gratification.
When I talked to Jack about how self-denial plays out in the life of a boy his age, I shared an illustration I have heard both from Tim Elmore and Seth Godin in presentations: The “Marshmallow Test.”

This was an experiment conducted decades ago by Walter Mischel in a series of moments with children measuring the effects of delaying self-gratification; one he also shares in his book.
You can see an example in this video.
In Mischel’s research children were secretly video-taped sitting alone in a room with a marshmallow on the table. An adult would promise a child that he or she could earn another marshmallow if the child could resist eating the first one until the adult returned minutes later. Over and over again, these children struggled with the task of not eating what was right in front of their noses.
Some of them were much more successful than others at delaying gratification. Others just gave in and devoured the tempting sweet.
Decades later, researchers followed the children who exercised the most self-control, and they found the following: “…children who were able to wait longer for the preferred rewards tended to have better life outcomes, as measured by SAT scores, educational attainment, body mass index (BMI), and other life measures” (Source).
The Power of Human Flexibility
Although Walter Mischel’s Marshmallow Test is often cited as pivotal research confirming how self-denial is a great predictor of future success or productivity, his research also points to something even more complex.
In a June 2016 episode of Invisibila entitled The Personality Myth, Mischel was interviewed about the larger implications of his research: namely, he explained a lesson often missed by people studying his research. When looking at children who were asked to delay gratification when presented with marshmallows or Oreos, Mischel says the outcomes also point to the power of human flexibility.
He explained that when children in his research were given Oreos and then given permission to imagine them as “not really there” but only pictures of the real treats, they were able to delay gratification more through this practice.
What are the implications of “human flexibility”? Here’s his point: All of us have the ability to re-frame situations or incidents so that we see them from different perspectives. In fact, as Mischel explains, no human should consider himself or herself a captive to his or her biology or experiences.
In other words, each of us has an amazing capacity for re-focusing, re-framing,
19 min
January 04, 2017 PMP 048: Looking at 2017–Let’s Stay Connected!
One of my first superintendents had been an elementary teacher. Sometimes she would begin our leadership meetings by bringing a shopping bag full of hands-on materials (paper, scissors, glue, popsicle sticks) as demonstrations for a lesson or an idea she wanted us to understand. No matter what your age, you never outgrow the need for […]
The post PMP 048: Looking at 2017–Let’s Stay Connected! appeared first on Principal Matters.
14 min
January 04, 2017 PMP 048: Looking at 2017–Let’s Stay Connected!
One of my first superintendents had been an elementary teacher.
Sometimes she would begin our leadership meetings by bringing a shopping bag full of hands-on materials (paper, scissors, glue, popsicle sticks) as demonstrations for a lesson or an idea she wanted us to understand.
No matter what your age, you never outgrow the need for self-improvement. And I don’t know about you, but I know I would not grow in my own leadership if I wasn’t interacting, questioning, exploring, and sharing with others.
As we wrap up 2016, I wanted to share some ways I have been “keeping my bag full of ideas” by connecting with other leaders this past year as well as some ways we might connect together in 2017.
4 Year Blogging Anniversary
This year marks the end of four years since I started blogging. Sharing free weekly content has been a big commitment, but one that has been very rewarding and seems to be enriching others.
My audience is not enormous, but they are wonderful educators and leaders across the nation and world! Here are some numbers that I wanted to share to show how many times readers have visited Principal Matters for content since its launch in 2013:

Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Total

2013

20
893
1,187
1,461
806
875
918
1,010
785
1,571
1,717
11,243

2014
1,324
1,362
1,332
1,518
1,065
1,365
1,360
969
941
1,838
982
797
14,853

2015
885
852
1,220
1,266
1,649
1,949
1,846
1,926
1,904
1,857
2,093
1,550
18,997

2016
1,551
1,676
2,142
2,832
2,643
3,052
2,730
4,385
3,068
2,941
2,218
1,985
31,223

76,378

Connected Principals
I also want to give a big shout out to George Couros who has also hosted my content on his website at ConnectedPrincipals.com. My most popular post there has been 30 Questions for Principal Interviews which to date has been read 110,131 times. Obviously, his audience includes millions so thank you George for letting me be a small part of sharing with others across the world!
Podcasting
This past year was my first time to begin podcasting. I shared 47 episodes, including two bonus tracks. The monthly totals for 2016 reached 24,708 downloads. If you’re a listener, thanks for being a part of one-year of Principal Matters Podcast! Here’s the breakdown starting most recently and going back to December 2015:

2016-12
December
2016
3,106

2016-11
November
2016
2,890

2016-10
October
2016
2,098

2016-09
September
2016
2,563

2016-08
August
2016
3,227

2016-07
July
2016
2,514

2016-06
June
2016
2,392

2016-05
May
2016
2,194

2016-04
April
2016
1,471

2016-03
March
2016
972

2016-02
February
2016
660

2016-01
January
2016
497

2015-12
December
2015
14 min
December 28, 2016 PMP Bonus 02: “Bee Stings” And Thoughts on Life & Death
This week’s post is more personal than school leadership related. Recently, my wife’s father, David L. Fulbright, passed away. He was a former teacher, minister, and counselor. He was also a great story-teller and Papa. As the family sat by his bedside in his remaining hours, I had some quiet moments that brought back memories […]
The post PMP Bonus 02: “Bee Stings” And Thoughts on Life & Death appeared first on Principal Matters.
14 min
December 21, 2016 PMP 047: Interview with Adam Beauchamp, Oklahoma Digital Principal
This is a dual-post including a podcast interview with Principal Adam Beauchamp who shares the digital tools his school is using for enhancing communication. I’m also including a companion blog post below of an additional Q & A exchange between Adam and me. I am thrilled to share his insights! If you’re interested in interviews […]
The post PMP 047: Interview with Adam Beauchamp, Oklahoma Digital Principal appeared first on Principal Matters.
27 min