“Accomplishing worthwhile things isn’t just a little harder than people think; it’s 10 or 20 times harder.” (Austin Kleon) I am working with several schools and districts that are setting the stage to implement changes in curriculum, programs, and/or instructional strategies in the coming school year. Most are planning professional learning opportunities over the summer. […]

In a SmartBrief post titled How to Build Workplace Passion, Naphtali Hoff identifies the importance of passion at work. “In today’s rapidly changing business environment, companies need passionate workers because such workers can drive extreme and sustained performance improvement beyond the one-time performance bump that follows a bonus or a workforce engagement initiative. Passionate workers […]

In a Fortune article describing the experiences of employees in the best 100 companies to work for, I read the following: These companies doubled down on what decades of research tells us actually matters—trust, respect, purpose, and community. The best companies go beyond perks to create aspirational workplaces. They foster a culture of inclusion, purpose, […]

Two articles from INC. caught my attention, (Why Great Bosses Rarely Give Negative Feedback, Backed by Science and Why Emotionally Intelligent Leaders Avoid the ‘Feedback Sandwich,’) as they connected with comments from some teacher leaders who were exploring coaching skills with me. Our conversation arose as we were exploring the impact of teachers receiving approval […]

In my backwards planning model, I build backwards from desired students’ outcomes to student learning production behaviors, to teacher behaviors, to collegial supports to leadership behaviors. In many ways, leaders model the desired behaviors and actions that are needed by teachers and students. School leaders are lead learners and lead teachers. Jal Mehta’s article Possible […]

An article by Joshua Freedman, Leading out of the storm: Taking Schools Forward (not ‘back to normal’) generated my pondering leading to this blog. He describes that when dealing with distrust, anxiety, and volatility our sense of safety is at stake. Leaders desiring to have followers feel safer may respond in either of these two […]