The Assistant Principal Podcast

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of March 13-17, 2023. 

Are the keys to being a great teacher the same as the keys to being a great principal? And are
those keys the same for being a great assistant principal? We will unlock the answers to those
questions today, with a very special guest.

This week I took a break from the daily emails. Mara did a great job filling in, but rather than try and tell her story today, I thought I’d share a bit about what waterfalls can teach us about school change.
 

I often think about leadership, and the prevalence of water in the Smoky’s almost guarantees that it will feature prominently in my thoughts, so here are some things we can learn about school change from understanding waterfalls:

1.     Waterfalls don’t start out as waterfalls, they start in many places and slowly collect together. 

a.     Change should come from the individuals furthest upstream – the teachers

b.     Allow people to come to the change in their own time

2.     Water takes the path of least resistance – meaning that the waterfall occurs because there are barriers blocking water in some places and low points making it easier for water to flow in others. 

a.     Make it easier for people to adopt the change by providing support and removing obstacles

b.     Make it more difficult to avoid the change by adding barriers

3.     The power of the waterfall is dependent on the flow of water, when water is diverted or in short supply, the waterfall slows.

a.     Taking your attention away – diverting – will slow the change

4.     Leader is like the land, contouring and shaping, but not controlling. The water does the work, the land just creates the conditions

Change is a strange feature of organizations:

·       Schools rarely stay the same but also resist many efforts at change

·       Everyone can and needs to grow, but many change initiatives take the attention away from individual improvement, thereby making each teacher’s development more challenging

·       Change should be driven from the bottom and adopted by the entire organization only when it has demonstrated success, yet we often go the opposite way, driving mandatory changes from the top and abandoning them only after they fail.

·       Change is a natural process and leaders need to shape change, but they can’t control it. The waterfall I build in my backyard can never rival the majesty of those in nature, so know the difference between what you are trying to build and what is naturally building itself. And remember, people want to get better, they want to grow – that is the natural course of things. Think about how to work with that rather than trying to control or usurp it.

Do you work too many hours? Do you feel like there is never enough time? Do you ever miss
your family and friends? Today, my guest, Danny Bauer and myself will explore some keys to a
mindshift that will help you rethink how you approach your work and, more importantly, your
own health.

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of February 27-March 3, 2023.

Leadership is a journey and although I talk about it being a journey of five stages, we never truly arrive, and this is a great thing! A never-ending leadership journey is good news because it means we are never done growing, and we can always be getting better. Every day I have an opportunity to do better, to be better, and so do you – how cool is that!?!

Register for the webinar: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/the-journey.html 

The Assistant Principal Podcast Homepage for episodes and resources: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.html

For about three weeks we had a tight focus on mentoring. I hope you embraced the three core messages:

1. Spend more time with and show more appreciation for your mentor
2. If you don’t have a mentor, find one
3. Be intentional about mentoring others

Beginning this week we pivoted to our next big theme: traveling the five stages from being an urgent leader to a strategic one.

This week’s big idea: You can’t move forward by staying where you are.

 Part two of our incredible interview with Dr. Jan Osborn. This week we learn more life lessons and hear more good stories from Jan!

One of the beauties of life is that over time we collect special ideas from cherished people. Through deep connections with friends, colleagues, and mentors, we become better people. Some of us even become referred to as wise. Wisdom is not something mysterious. Wisdom does not come from contemplating life on a mountaintop. Real wisdom comes from a unique combination of thievery and sharing. Wise people are like Robin Hood – they steal ideas from people who are rich in great ideas, and then they share those riches with others. Today we are talking with Dr. Jan Osborn – the person in my life who I have stolen the most from, and who has taught me to give it away.

In my junior year of college Dr. Bob Kelly said to me, “I predict that someday you will earn your doctorate.” His statement planted the seed of an idea that had not been there before. In 1994 I enrolled in a Special Education course at the University of Findlay. That course was taught by Dr. Jan Osborn, who not only pushed me to get that doctorate, but supported me every step of the way, and continues to mentor me to this day. Dr. Jacque Jacobs hired me at Western Carolina University and helped me grow into a servant leader by being one herself, and by intentionally nurturing the best I had to offer others. And Dr. Rob Knoeppel took me under his wing when I was my most broken and damaged, and taught me that it is okay to not be our best, that it is okay to take the space to heal. These four people were mentors to me and to countless others. Today we will dig into what it means to be a mentor and how you dear colleague, can grow your ability to mentor others.