The Assistant Principal Podcast

Five for Friday Outline

Hello colleagues and welcome to the Assistant Principal Podcast. I’m your host Frederick Buskey. The goal of this podcast is to help improve the life and leadership of assistant principals. Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of December 31-January 6, 2022 and 2023. Happy New Year!

From December 26-January 6 are the twelve days of Christmas (in some traditions) and we are celebrating each day with a fun leadership lyric and brief lesson.

Two bonus emails this week!

Dedication to Mr. Land

Day 6

Subject: On the 6th day of Christmas, Frederick gave to me…

Six thoughts a straying,

Being strategic is about being intentional. Again, simple but difficult. Ignore those disparate thoughts – they are distractions. Be intentional, purposeful, and present.

Day 7

Subject: On the 7th day of Christmas, Frederick gave to me…

Seven souls a singing,

Leaders shouldn’t create the vision. Leaders create the space and provide the support to develop a shared vision that represents the aspirations of the people who power the organization. Like a choir director, the leader then helps bring those voices together to create a remarkable sound.

Day 8

Subject: On the 8th day of Christmas, Frederick gave to me…

Eight monkeys making,

Monkeys are the tasks that others try and “give” to you. Monkeys make work for you and, worse they make a distraction. Monkeys may be important to the monkey owner, but not to you. You don’t need to accept every “gift.” Acknowledge the monkey, but let it stay with its true owner.  

Day 9

Subject: On the 9th day of Christmas, Frederick gave to me…

Nine deeds demanding,

The one most essential thing! Demanding equals urgent, but urgent does not equal important! In this new year, I wish for you to be purposeful in all you do. People before deeds, and purpose before demands.

Day 10

Subject: On the 10th day of Christmas, Frederick gave to me…

Ten fingers typing,

Do not confuse productivity for progress or action for improvement. Strategic leaders do not focus on action, they focus on incremental progress. In doing so, they consistently make things better with fewer words.

Day 11

Subject: On the 11th day of Christmas, Frederick gave to me…

‘Leven people asking,

Being strategic means that we are intentional, and because we are intentional we ask before we act. Asking questions lets us identify problems so we avoid wasting time treating symptoms. When we include all stakeholders in questioning process, we usually have a better outcome.

Day 12

Subject: On the 12th day of Christmas, Frederick gave to me…

Twelve leaders laughing,

Oh, but we take ourselves so seriously! And yet, the trees don’t care, the fish don’t care, and the world moves on with or without you. Be passionate about what you do. Recognize the value you bring to others. But always remember to laugh, for what kind of a leader can we be if we cannot laugh?

Takeaway

We work hard and we have to be able to have fun and laugh at ourselves.

This wraps up this week’s Five for Friday rendition of The Assistant Principal Podcast. If you enjoyed today’s show, please subscribe and rate this podcast. Rating the podcast really does help other people to find it.

I’m always trying to improve the show, so if you have feedback please email me at [email protected]. If you’d like to find out more about what I’m doing to support assistant principals, you can head over to my website at frederickbuskey.com/theassistantprincipal.

I’m Frederick Buskey and I hope you’ll join me next time for the Assistant Principal Podcast. 

Coming 🤣

Five for Friday Outline

Hello colleagues and welcome to the Assistant Principal Podcast. I’m your host Frederick Buskey. The goal of this podcast is to help improve the life and leadership of assistant principals. Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of December 26-30. 

Imagine setting a leadership intention at the beginning of each day. That’s what many readers of the daily email do. For some, it has become a ritual: Pour a cup of coffee, open your email, read the Strategic Leader Daily, and set one intention to be aware of or execute for the day. The daily email is a powerful leadership practice so if you aren’t already a subscriber, I hope you’ll consider joining the list. It’s just one more way to include me on your leadership journey, and that would bring me joy. You can find a link on my homepage at https://www.frederickbuskey.com/ 

From December 26-January 6 are the twelve days of Christmas (in some traditions) and we are celebrating each day with a fun leadership lyric and brief lesson. Original lyrics are here

Day 1

Subject: On the 1st day of Christmas, Frederick gave to me…

A process for proximity,

The most special gift is presence (proximity), but giving it consistently requires intention. Reflect on the flow of your day and build in a time and habit (process) for being present with people.

Day 2

Subject: On the 2nd day of Christmas, Frederick gave to me…
Two gentle shoves,

When we do everything ourselves, we deprive others the opportunity to grow as leaders. Sometimes we need to give people a gentle nudge to take on something that will stretch them. We just need to stay close to support them.

Day 3

Subject: On the 3rd day of Christmas, Frederick gave to me…

Three good friends,

Leadership can be lonely. Identify three people who are special: A mentor, a peer, and a future leader. Invest in those relationships. It is like Christmas past, present, and future, but without the ghosts and humbugs!

Day 4

Subject: On the 4th day of Christmas, Frederick gave to me…

Four magic words,

Strategic leadership is simple. Difficult, but simple. It comes down to four words: people, purpose, problems, and progress.

Day 5

Subject: On the 5th day of Christmas, Frederick gave to me…

Five-minute coaching,

You had to see that one coming, right? Five-minute coaching is golden. Five minutes, three questions, many outcomes. You can download my five-minute coaching guide here. [will need to create a link and use the pdf of Q2 issue 0]

This wraps up this week’s Five for Friday rendition of The Assistant Principal Podcast. If you enjoyed today’s show, please subscribe and rate this podcast. 

I’m always trying to improve the show, so if you have feedback please email me at [email protected]. 

I’m Frederick Buskey and I hope you’ll join me next time for the Assistant Principal Podcast. 

Show Notes, Episode 51: Who are you? With Craig Martin

About this show:
Last spring several of the assistant principals in our APEx group asked if we could work on how
APs can influence school culture without over-stepping their boundaries. One AP noted that
this could be especially problematic if you and your principal had very different styles. Back
then I approached this as a culture question, but today I’m looking at it differently. Today, I’m
thinking about this through two lenses. The first is authenticity: how do I do a job where
everyone is watching me all the time, and make sure that I am true to myself? The second lens
is sociological.
If we were in a room together and someone introduced me as “a leader” you would not be
surprised because I look the part. I’m a 6-2 white male in my late 50’s, I have a good speaking
voice and I know how to engage with people. And yes, I coached football. In other words, I
meet the societal expectations of what leaders look and sound like in our culture.
But what about everyone else? What does it mean to be a leader in schools when you don’t
look like me? How do you maintain your authenticity when the expectations of who can lead
and how they should lead are still relatively narrow and rigid?
Notable Quotes

Craig Martin
“To be authentic, in my opinion, means that you recognize in the spaces where you walk, you
breathe, you lead, that you allow the pulses of the young people who are moving about, the
teachers who are working with the young people, the custodians, the food service community,
the parents, the community partners, you allow those pulses help you center on what you feel
led to that important.”
“People want to know you’re human, they want to know you care”
“Being authentic is about, in my Opinion, being open to sharing parts of who you are in your
human experience that connect and resonate with others”
“Not all acts of vulnerability are created equal. There is a ladder within yourself that is unique
to you.”
“Sometimes the smallest moments are the actually the most meaningful for people when we
talk about vulnerability”
“Our kids know us”

Assistant Principal Exceleration

https://www.frederickbuskey.com/apex-members-page.html
“In your ability as a leader, you have the ability to transcend what is most important. You have
the ability to send signals to people on ‘this is what i believe in, this is what i am about.’ and
people will find harbor with you, they will look to you for council and coaching and
development. they will want to take those walks because they want to be in spaces where they
feel safe, they feel affirmed, they feel seen, and they know they will be supported and loved.”
“Be okay with not being okay, but consistently love on yourself. and thats a thing I have to keep
doing. I have to keep reminding myself “I am loved, I am thriving, I am safe” but I need to keep
filling myself with those kinds of messages and affirmations”
Frederick
“Authenticity is not about you, it is about how you relate to all of these other people, and
authenticity involves serving, connecting, and supporting other people”
“Our authenticity should remind other people of the best parts of us and the best parts of
others”
Links:
Craig’s Twitter: @CraigCMartin12
Craig’s Website: https://www.craigcmartinleads.com
My email: [email protected]
The Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.html
Sign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialedition
Website: www.frederickbuskey.com
Blog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

Five for Friday Outline

Hello colleagues and welcome to the Assistant Principal Podcast. I’m your host Frederick Buskey. The goal of this podcast is to help improve the life and leadership of assistant principals. Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of December 19-23, 2022. 

Imagine setting a leadership intention at the beginning of each day. That’s what many readers of the daily email do. For some, it has become a ritual: Pour a cup of coffee, open your email, read the Strategic Leader Daily, and set one intention to be aware of or execute for the day. The daily email is a powerful leadership practice so if you aren’t already a subscriber, I hope you’ll consider joining the list. It’s just one more way to include me on your leadership journey, and that would bring me joy. You can find a link on my homepage at https://www.frederickbuskey.com/ 

Recap…

Monday: : Traditions have origins, and traditions change.

Three pictures:

• My mom’s Christmas tree
• Pam and I’s Christmas tree
• Mara’s (my daughter) Christmas tree

There are lots of similarities because things like Christmas trees are heavily influenced by traditions. Not just the traditions of the family members who preceded us, but also the traditions of our friends, neighbors, and the broader society.

There are also some differences between the trees. Traditions are not replicated, they are renewed, and in the process of renewal, some things change.

Education example??? Teacher break room? Cigarettes and negativity?

Today’s intention: Be aware of what you do during this season and why you do it.

Tuesday: Productive Failure

It doesn’t take courage to fail.

It does take courage to publicly acknowledge it, and to turn it into something different. 

Productive failure.

This is a re-release of episode 26 that aired way back in May 2022. This episode is one of my top three favorites, so I hope you listen and grow from it as much as I have. 

Today’s intention: Think about a recent failure, big or small. Is or was there a way to publicly dissect it and learn from it so that others would see how failure can be productive?

Wednesday Developing people requires a systems approach.

We generally hold athletic coaches in high regard. Unless they lose to their rivals like my Buckeyes did last month 😖

What do we expect from them?

Winning of course, but we expect coaches to excel at player development. The essential part of a coach’s job is to help players become better by improving their skills and physical attributes.

In fact, the better the athlete, the more important coaching becomes!!

So why does it seem like developing teachers, salespeople, medical technicians, or anyone else is optional?

I reflect on my experiences as a teacher. I earned National Board Certification and was regarded by (most) of my students and their families as an excellent teacher. But I know so much more now than I did back then and I can identify so many missed opportunities and small tweaks that would have helped me be so much better.

Why is intensive development optional, for leaders and for those they serve?

Today’s intention: Step back and think about your organization and the systems it has in place that support consistent development of your people. What’s working? What’s not? Are there any simple tweaks to make coaching or supporting growth a tiny bit easier?

Thursday origin of A-B

Talked about this two weeks ago because we actually made a switch!

In case you missed it:

At the end of the 2012-13 college football Season, The Ohio State University football team’s defense gave up 576 yards to Clemson University, losing 35-40 to the tigers in the Orange Bowl. This capped a season in which the defense ranked 48th overall and 110th in pass defense (out of 130 teams). Defenders were consistently out of place and slow to react. Following the season, new defensive coordinator Chris Ash began a defensive overhaul epitomized by the phrase: “4-6, A-B.” He asked for players to go from point A to point B with relentless effort for 4-6 seconds. 

The focus is on moving from one point to the next point in the sequence by closing the shortest distance in the shortest time. 

Working A-B helps us stay focused and make immediate improvements. And if the situation doesn’t improve, maybe because we misdiagnosed the problem, we haven’t wasted a huge amount of time or effort.

Friday We choose whether or not a day is special.

The days – each one – are what we make of them.

Christmas is special, if you celebrate it, because you make it so.

You can make today special, tomorrow special, the day after, and the day after that.

What makes a day special?

You do.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays.

Takeaway

Its about what we make of things:

• Embrace or revolve our traditions
• We can turn failure into success
• Choose to prioritize coaching others
• Focus on A-B
• Make each day special

Here’s our holiday schedule in The Assistant Principal universe:

• The next two weeks of emails will feature a strategic leader’s rendition of the 12 days of Christmas. Expect one email each day from Dec 26-Jan 6 with one lyric from the carol and 1-3 short sentences providing the leadership lesson.
• Both those weeks Five for Friday will feature me singing and recapping those lyrics, so you may want to turn down the volume.
• On the 27th we will re-air episode 51 of The Assistant Principal Podcast with Craig Martin. This may be the single most inspirational episode we have ever had, and that is saying something given all the wonderful guests we have had.
• On the 3rd of January we will be back to a normal routine as I dive into The Journey, and how we move from urgent to strategic leadership.

This wraps up this week’s Five for Friday rendition of The Assistant Principal Podcast. If you enjoyed today’s show, please subscribe and rate this podcast. Rating the podcast really does help other people to find it.

I’m always trying to improve the show, so if you have feedback please email me at [email protected]. If you’d like to find out more about what I’m doing to support assistant principals, you can head over to my website at frederickbuskey.com/theassistantprincipal.

I’m Frederick Buskey and I hope you’ll join me next time for the Assistant Principal Podcast. 

Show Notes, Episode 26: Courage with Mary Hemphill

About this show:
Are you living your leadership journey courageously? Before Dr. Mary Hemphill became the
Director of Academic Standards for the North Carolina Department of education she was a
passionate and innovative principal. Before that, she was an assistant principal with the
courage to stand up for her convictions. The assistant principalship is loaded with values
conflicts. How do you stay true to your values amidst complex power dynamics and competing
interests? Mary helps us figure it all out in this week’s episode.
Notable Quotes

Dr. Mary Hemphill
“Being blessed enough to serve low-socioeconomic communities, affluent communities, rural
communities, and urban communities has been amazing”
“I am absolutely celebrating the evolution of education, and not the revolution, because, you
know, at the end of a revolution, you lose people... so I am absolutely celebrating evolution
right now and that fact that there are some fantastic educational leaders who are ready to lead
the charge”
“Whenever you put a good person in a bad system, the system will always win”
“When you are an Assistant Principal and particularly when you become a Principal, you have to
decide before you sign your contract, you have to decide before you interview, what hill you do
you want to die on, what do you want to fight for, because when you are in a the moment with
a parent, or a board member, or a superintendent, that is not the time to make those
decisions”
“Every great educator knows that moment when they just have to ask yourself ‘am in a position
to just adopt a child?’ today is the day I need to make that decision”
“My values for me were that I will always be a voice for the voiceless, which means I will not
allow another human being to be taken advantage of if there is access and resources that I can
bring in to help that human being”
“Those are the tough days that you don’t have a methods course on, and you don’t have an
evaluative course on, and you really have to dig inside yourself and say ‘what matters right
now, in this situation, with this little person’”

Assistant Principal Exceleration

https://www.frederickbuskey.com/apex-members-page.html
“For me, this wasn’t about a choice of whether or not to write that child up, for me, this was a
culture choice. I was not brought into that school to be a disciplinarian, I was not brought in to
do busses, and I was not brought in to do books. I was brought in to help with the culture, and
the only way to turn the culture around is when the adults are emulating and modeling for
students the type of behavior we want to see, from amazing local and global citizens.”
“If I show you disrespect, then I get upset with you for showing me the skill that you have
imparted onto me, that is coercive power there”
“Is sacrificing this one conversation with this one adult going to save 80 children and the rest of
the staff? Because if that is the case, then I am willing to go to bat for that, because I have my
data in order, I have good exemplars, but I also have a solution that is going to help the school
overall”
“Checklists will never grow teachers; it is conversations that grow teachers. And the other piece
of that is really understanding and trying to figure out how to leverage those conversations in a
way that removes excuses, because angry, hurt educators are always going to try to find and
excuse for why they are the way they are”
“We talk with leaders a lot of times about how to literally sit in the silence or sit in the space
where the student ‘doesn’t know’. That requires you to not live and take up residence in your
office. Because when that child says ‘I don’t know’ that is your greatest opportunity to say ‘let
me tell you something, I want to celebrate you” ... So, it’s not that I don’t know, maybe you
haven’t been celebrated in this area.”
“When we model productive failure, we reposition adults and we reposition students to see
their reality in terms of the ways they contribute to the community. That is what students are
seeking. They’re seeking their place, they’re seeking their tribe, they’re seeking their group,
they’re seeking those people who are like-minded to them, and adults are the same way.”
“Being courageous means asking the questions in a productive way”
“They are modeling what they are seeing, and if they are seeing it at home, that is one thing,
but the only things we can control are what is happening in terms of the interactions in this
building, so let’s make sure we shore that up before we say it is a student issue”
“You have to put in the protocol if you are going to protect peoples’ time and you have to show
them what that looks like and sounds like so that they can respond accordingly.”

Assistant Principal Exceleration

https://www.frederickbuskey.com/apex-members-page.html
I never had a parent who argued with ‘the principal or the teacher is where the children are and
working on making things better for children’. I have never had a parent buck me on that, but
you have to set up those protocols to protect that time”
Frederick
“The assistant principalship is loaded with values conflicts. How do you stay true to your values
amidst complex power dynamics and competing interests?”
“The worst thing as a new AP, as an aspiring AP, is to jump into a situation that is toxic. Because
its hard already and it isn’t the busy stuff, it is your spirit and the values that are going to suffer”
“You can’t coach 3, let alone 30 teachers at a time and there is a lot of stuff that you have to let
go of. You can’t get to that right now. But you have to identify the one [teacher], and I do think,
so many times, the one is the one is the one that is hurting kids and the one is where it is just
an intolerable situation, not just for the kids, but for that person. Because if I am a teacher and I
am disrespecting kids every day, then I am hating my job”
Paraphrase of five key points about a teacher who is struggling and maybe even harming kids:
1. When a teacher is hammering kids, it is a sign that they are hurt, angry, or afraid. A
hammer won’t help them. Understanding this reframes how we support struggling
teachers.
2. Asking struggling teachers to observe a teacher that is doing those things well bypasses
the struggling teacher’s ability to blame kids.
3. Covering a class so that teacher can go observe immediately puts us in the role of
supporting that teacher, not attacking them.
4. Having the teacher go observe and bring back positive ideas gives the teacher agency.
This is especially powerful for teachers who may have had their agency stripped away.
5. Having a teacher bring back positive ideas from an observation is great accountability.
There is no escape from that conversation.
“We have a moral obligation, not just to take care of those kids, but to take care of those
teachers”
“Every great principal that I have ever had a conversation with has said things that indicated
their sense of urgency for instructional time. The best principals are really laser focused on
instructional time”
“Are you as an Assistant Principal communicating consistently with kids, with parents, and with
your teachers, that urgency and the critical importance of every minute of instructional time”
Links:

Assistant Principal Exceleration

https://www.frederickbuskey.com/apex-members-page.html
Mary’s website: https://www.bealimitlessleader.com/about

The One Minute Meeting: https://www.amazon.com/One-Minute-Meeting-Creating-Student-
Stakeholders/dp/1516545559

Mary’s email: [email protected]
My email: [email protected]
The...

Five for Friday Outline

Hello colleagues and welcome to the Assistant Principal Podcast. I’m your host Frederick Buskey. The goal of this podcast is to help improve the life and leadership of assistant principals. Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of December 12-16, 2022. 

Imagine setting a leadership intention at the beginning of each day. That’s what many readers of the daily email do. For some, it has become a ritual: Pour a cup of coffee, open your email, read the Strategic Leader Daily, and set one intention to be aware of or execute for the day. The daily email is a powerful leadership practice so if you aren’t already a subscriber, I hope you’ll consider joining the list. It’s just one more way to include me on your leadership journey, and that would bring me joy. You can find a link on my homepage at https://www.frederickbuskey.com/ 

Recap…

Monday: If you can’t do the whole project, just do the A-B step.

This week I was banished.

Writing my book has been the quadrant 2 (important, not urgent) task that I have been putting off for two (three? 🤔) years.

So, colleague, consider:

• What important quadrant 2 project have you been putting off for far too long?
• Is there someone who can help keep you accountable?
• Is there an A-B step (not the whole manuscript) that you can find a few hours to focus on?
• Is there a safe place you can go where nobody can interrupt you?

Tuesday Listening to others describe their journeys from urgent to strategic leadership is a good investment of your time.

Maria shares lots of practical advice, but what stands out most is that she has consistently invested in and prioritized her own growth! 

Being a strategic leader is simple, but it is also hard.

If you can’t invest in yourself, you can’t be a strategic leader.

Today’s intention: Reflect on your journey. Are you stuck in the black hole of urgency? Are you a strategic leader? Or are you somewhere in between?

Wednesday Accountability partners

I am passionate about writing a book. The entire thing is outlined. I had 1/3 of it written two years ago. I want to write this book. I have already sold 400 copies!

And yet, it keeps getting pushed aside.

I can’t explain it.

What I can explain is that accountability works. I’m in a cabin writing because I have the best accountability partner in the world! Thank you, Dr. Pam Buskey!

I have two challenges for you to today. Choose one.

Option A: Think about someone who needs support and offer to be their accountability partner.

Option B: Identify an A-B step of a priority that keeps getting pushed off. Identify someone who can help hold you accountable. Ask them and set a follow up time to meet with them. If you want to do this but have nobody, you can choose me, and I will be your accountability partner. Seriously, I will. If more than one of you tags me, we can meet as a group. It just will have to be after New Year’s. I am serious though. Email me.

Today’s intention: Choose option A or B and execute!

Thursday three stages to becoming a strategic leader

I hope you had a chance to listen to Maria Werner talk about her leadership journey on Tuesday’s podcast (link).

She described three stages, and between each stage was a mindset shift.

Stage one is being caught in the blackhole of urgency.

Then there is a mindset shift.

Stage two is becoming strategically reactive, which helps you find precious minutes to begin investing.

Then there is a shift.

Stage three is being strategic and routinely focusing on quadrants 1 and 2, which allows you to develop the people that power your organization.

Which of these stages are you in?

Or are you in the midst of a shift?

Today’s intention: Be mindful of your actions today. Are you spending time or investing it? What stops you from being in quadrant 2? Do you see a path forward?

Friday Share your goals to add public accountability.

I worked with a principal who wanted to implement 5-minute coaching (link).

She told her staff that her goal was to improve her ability to support them by doing 5-minute coaching each morning.

Over the course of a week, her staff began inviting her and asking her to do a session with them!

One way to have accountability for your goals is to have an accountability partner.

There is another way is to make our goals public.

Takeaway

Accountability comes in multiple forms:

• Self
• Mentors, coaches, peers
• The public we serve

If you are struggling to finish something important, identify the level of accountability you need and take the A-B step of talking with someone.

“When we model productive failure, we reposition adults and we reposition students to see their reality in terms of the ways they contribute to the community. That is what students are seeking. They’re seeking their place, they’re seeking their tribe, they’re seeking their group, they’re seeking those people who are like-minded to them, and adults are the same way.”

So says the incomparable Dr. Mary Hemphill on next week’s episode of The Assistant Principal Podcast. 

This is a re-release of episode 26 that aired way back in May 2022. This episode is one of my top three favorites, so I hope you listen and grow from it as much as I have. 

This wraps up this week’s Five for Friday rendition of The Assistant Principal Podcast. 

If you enjoyed today’s show, please subscribe and rate this podcast. Rating the podcast really does help other people to find it.

I’m always trying to improve the show, so if you have feedback please email me at [email protected]. 

I’m Frederick Buskey and I hope you’ll join me next time for the Assistant Principal Podcast. 

Show Notes, Episode 83: The APs Journey with Maria Werner

About this show:

Are you stuck in the gravitational pull of the black hole of urgency? Or maybe, you are figuring out some ways to escape that force and move towards being a more strategic leader. Or, perhaps, you have already figured it out. Depending on where you are in the journey, today's show will offer you a chance to see a path forward or to reflect on how far you have come. Or maybe both! We will do this by reliving our guest’s journey from a new AP to a third-year veteran.

Notable Quotes

Maria:

This idea around the cycle of moving out of an urgent leader and into a strategic one.

But I'll have a much greater awareness of why I was brought into the role I was brought into. And how important it is that I stick to my role and utilize my role to still meet the needs of my teachers. But in a way that I'm doing to my greatest potential too.

I think that it's also easy to fall into that urgency when you are in the stage of learning the school. I was in a new school building with a very different demographic from the school that I came from in the class teaching and understanding the culture that was there and the areas of strength, areas of opportunities for growth. Because I wasn't aware of those things yet

Frederick:

It's almost like you landing in the forest and and you just keep running into tree after tree after tree and and you start to make that transition of oh, here's a map that shows me where I'm where I'm at and where I need to go. So it's being able to see the whole forest as opposed to just being caught in every tree.

Being strategically reactive is the way to get things under control and then you can move to being proactive.

Links:
Maria’s email: [email protected]
Maria’s website: https://sites.google.com/greenvilleschools.us/mwerner/about-mrs-werner

My email: [email protected] 

The Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.html 

Sign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialedition 

Website: www.frederickbuskey.com

Blog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

Assistant Principal Podcast Content Episode Outline

Show title and release date: What’s your problem? December 6, 2022

Show Description:

What do (a) too many discipline referrals, (b) a poor teacher, and (c) an overflowing car line have in common? The answer is not that they are all problems. In fact, they are all symptoms. And they are all things that plenty of people will have stock answers for. Put them in ISS, put them on an action plan, redo your parking lot. 
And if we are stuck in urgent mode, we might be tempted to jump at these stock answers because acting is better than doing nothing and because it seems like the answers will fix the issue. Unfortunately, the answers only address the symptom, and, in each case (discipline, teaching, car lines) if we don’t invest in identifying the problem, our actions may be wasted.

Show Intro

Hello colleagues and welcome to the Assistant Principal Podcast. I’m your host Frederick Buskey. The goal of this podcast is to help improve the life and leadership of assistant principals. This is a content-focused episode. The content will stand on its own, but we take deeper dives into podcast topics in our micro-journal, Quadrant2. Members of our APEx Community can expect to get support on implementing the ideas we are looking at and adapting them to your unique context. You can learn more about APEx and Quadrant2 at frederickbuskey.com/theassistantprincipal.

Celebrations:

Being out in schools with teachers, instructional coaches, principals and, of course, assistant principals.

The Big Idea

Strategic leadership four principles: problems

Saw this conversation:

• MS Discipline struggles
• The office is a revolving door of behaviors. Some are major… others are minor issues that staff struggle to address on their own. I’m looking for help to increase student positive behavior and staff capacity with dealing with tricky students. 
• Myriad of suggestions (114 comments):
• provided our staff with a list of teacher managed behaviors as compared to office manages behaviors
• Identify teachers who are effective at handling behaviors. Reach out to them to see if they are interested in conducting Pd. 
•  invite those who are effective into a think tank where you all discuss what makes them effective and devise a long range plan to shift the culture.
• We had grade level behavior coordinators
• Staff needs to be empowered. 
• Form a group of staff to start to look at referral data and develop a plan of action together.
  • 
    

All good ideas, but people are offering suggestions without knowing what the problem is.

Too many referrals is a symptom. What’s the problem?

Why we treat symptoms

• Urgent zone
• Urgent Algorithm: pain point, history, quickly or bigly (examples: PBIS, staff development, hammer the kids)
• Pain is a symptom, not the problem

How to stop treating symptoms

• Ask why. Stop and ask why. Ask yourself, ask others.
  • Why is this a problem (maybe it isn’t)
  • Why is this happening?
  • Why is this happening now?
  • Why is the student acting this way?
  • Why is the teacher acting this way?
  • Why are YOU behaving this way?
• Stop reacting and become intentional

How to uncover problems

• Three processes:
  • Informal: Run through options in my head (minor or simple; )
  • Semi-formal: Run through options with someone else/write down the options
  • Formal: Strategic action cycle, stakeholders, focused attention (complex and critical): Strategic action cycle
• Informal: minor things (why is third lunch moving through the food line more slowly than the other lunches?
• Semi-formal: Increase in student absences
• Formal: We are swamped with discipline

Prep

1. Collect and examine your data
2. Think about the 6 dimensions and issues of misalignment
3. Remember that M=V/E
4. May be more than one problem!
5. Stakeholders

Why

1. Sunburst [head, paper, poster]: why, why, why (don’t sensor)
2. Interrogate each why [why, I wonder, yes but, aha]
3. Integrate [connections, themes, areas of promise, loops]

Simple: why

Complex: Sunburst, interrogate, integrate

Discipline: (each one may have a different why) 100 referrals

• A student (10)
• A particular group of students (15)
• A teacher (25)
• A group of teachers
• A hallway and lack of oversight during transition (10)
• Too many students in the bathroom (15)
• Others… (25)

SAC: apply leverage: 0>1, A-B, MVP, M=V/E

I’m not sure how this will play on a podcast – would love to get some feedback from you – too deep, more like this – please help me make this show better.

Do think it is better with visual, so Q2 subscribers will get pieces to support the process as well as a link to a video where I break down an example. APEx members we can do this together in a group coaching session. To subscribe to Q2, go to https://www.frederickbuskey.com/quadrant2. To join APEx go to https://www.frederickbuskey.com/apexlaunchlive.html, or if you would like a special offer, email me and ask about joining APEx as a founding member.

Show Outro

That wraps up today’s episode. We’ll be back next week with Maria Werner. Maria is a third-year assistant principal and APEx member and we are going to unpack her journey from being stuck in the black hole of urgency during her first year, to being strategically reactive her second year, to being a strategic leader this year. Maria is full of passion and so authentic, you won’t want to miss this episode! 

If you enjoyed today’s show, please subscribe and rate this podcast.

You can ask questions, make requests and give us feedback at [email protected]. 

Remember to head to my website to subscribe to Q2 if you haven’t already and you’ll get some great resources to help you shift from treating symptoms to uncovering problems. You can find a subscription link at https://www.frederickbuskey.com/quadrant2.html 

And if you are interested in joining APEx, email me at [email protected] and ask about becoming a founding member, which comes with some great perks, like a one-on-one call with me.

That wraps up today’s show! I’m Frederick Buskey and I hope you’ll join me next time for the Assistant Principal Podcast.