The Assistant Principal Podcast

Famous leadership theorist and author John Maxwell said, “leadership s influence, nothing less, nothing more.”

Is that it? Is that really all leadership is? 

When I say “People before Purpose” what do I actually mean? When I say the silver bullet -the one truly magical solution – is to build relationships, what does that look like? Today we will unpack two relationship forms. Congenial relationships are based on personal connections, while collegial relationships are based on professional connections. We will dig deeper into each of these and into how to lead when teachers are in crisis.

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of April 10-14, 2023.

Saying that great leaders are great listeners has almost become cliché. Listening is one of those
things that sounds simple, but which can be challenging to execute – especially when all the
craziness is happening. Part of the challenge is that listening requires presence – full presence.
I’m going to ask you for something special today. Today, as you listen to this podcast, don’t just
listen. Really listen. What’s the difference? You are about to find out!

If I can’t do everything, doesn’t that mean that I choose what does get done – and what doesn’t? And if I’m choosing, do my choices reflect my values? These three ideas make up my three epiphanies:

• I can’t do everything
• Therefore, I choose what gets done
• And my choices do – or should – reflect my values

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of April 3-7, 2023. 

You’ve heard me talk about the flywheel. It is the process of providing professional development,
following it up with targeted observations, and using observation data to drive the next round of
professional development. As with so many things, while the concept is simple, execution is
difficult. The flywheel will look different in different schools, and today’s guest shares with us a
highly developed and coherent version of the flywheel. I guarantee that you will leave today’s
conversation with a couple big ideas lodged in your head! Ideas that I hope you will decide to act
on.

I had a lot of fun writing this week’s emails. Last week I met and worked with some incredible people, and it just made the whole week special. I hope that positivity radiates through this week’s messages. Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of March 27-31, 2023.

You’ve heard me talk about the flywheel. It is the process of providing professional development,
following it up with targeted observations, and using observation data to drive the next round of
professional development. As with so many things, while the concept is simple, execution is
difficult. The flywheel will look different in different schools, and today’s guest shares with us a
highly developed and coherent version of the flywheel. I guarantee that you will leave today’s
conversation with a couple big ideas lodged in your head! Ideas that I hope you will decide to act
on.

Simple fences, small wins, and three tips for interviewing. But wait, there’s more!
Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of March 20-24, 2023. 

So many teachers to coach but so little time! A simple coaching cycle might consist of a Five minute pre-conference, 30-minute observation, 10-minute post conference, and 30 minutes of professional development. Most APs don’t have 75 minutes to invest in a single coaching cycle. But what if there was a form of coaching that would allow you to do 15 coaching sessions in the same amount of time as a traditional coaching cycle. You could support 15 teachers instead of one, or work with three teachers five different times! In a world that moves so quickly, seventy five-minute coaching may not make sense, but 5-minute coaching most certainly does!