This is Season 6, Episode 5 of FocusED, and it features our guest, Kate Koch; we discuss women in leadership positions, mentorship, balance at work…and so much more.

Kate Koch Brings a Tons of Experience to FocusED Listeners

Dr. Kate Koch is the Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources for Lemont-Bromberek SD113a.

She has served as an elementary principal, an assistant principal, and a middle school history teacher.

She is also the co-host of the Unsupervised Leadership Podcast and the author of Unsupervised Leadership: Celebrating and Elevating Fun, Fab, and Fierce Females.

FocusED Show Notes with Guest Kate Koch

“Unsupervised leadership” is about being in a space where you can lead authentically. In these cases, the leader can be themselves without fear of making mistakes.

Kate talks about women in leadership, specifically in education where the balance is off between the number of women in the profession versus the number of administrators who are men.

Kate has been getting feedback from listeners that her message about women in leadership is giving them the confidence to apply for jobs and ask for the highest salary possible.

Dr. Koch tells us a few stories about her experience with leadership roles and what she faced in interviews and other spaces as a female.

Kate talks about the differences between the way women lead and the way that men lead and the need for both perspectives. TJ brings up the Jane Goodall episode with Tim Ferriss where Goodall says that women should not try to lead like men because we need female leaders, not just more males.

She tells us about what “balance” means for her. Two strategies: turn it off and have an accountability partner.

Kate shares a story about how much time she was putting into her work and the feeling that she might need to walk away; we need to create conditions where people have balance or we will continue to lose educators.

Joe asks Kate who inspires her and she told us about her mentor, Kate Chambers, and her podcast co-host, Courtney Orzel. She calls out several other peers and mentors who guide and support her work.

Kate talked about listening to books, and her current favorite read is Anxious Generation.

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FocusED is your educational leadership podcast where our mission is to dissect a particular focus for teachers and school leaders so that you can learn to lead better and grow faster in your school or district. Let us know who you would like to hear from next.