Tag: School Culture
Don’t Just Get Through This Challenging Time
You and I both know that lasting change happens when two factors are adjusted: Environment Habits In our current educational dilemma, the environment has changed, but many schools are seeking temporary habit changes. Instead of building temporary plans during the COVID challenges, think about leading the way into lasting change. Create organizational habits that outlast…
Change is a Product of Work
“Culture does not change because we desire to change it. Culture changes when the organization is transformed – the culture reflects the realities of people working together everyday.” Frances Hesselbein To better understand change, and its 5 stages, read Readiness for Change a Principal’s First Step in Change Leadership.
Actionable Ideas for Emotional Safety
Emotional safety and classroom culture go hand in hand. We often say these are important, but what are some actionable ideas to increase emotional safety? That’s the question I asked Elisabeth Bostwick. And her answers are insightful. Listen here.
Craft, Draft, Graft
Craft – skill in carrying out one’s work. Draft – selecting a group of people and leading them somewhere. Graft – a form of political corruption, being the unscrupulous use of a politician’s authority for personal gain. Each of these deals with shaping culture. Your school culture depends on you knowing the difference.
Defining Leadership Behaviors
How do school leaders create change in school culture? The first place to start is not social media or branding your school. Instead, a united leadership team begins with defining leadership behaviors. This is not an often-discussed topic, so let’s dig into it a bit. Three Types of Leadership Behaviors According to research (download the…
Two Sides of Appreciation
It seems as if there are two sides of appreciation: Respect Empathy A quick search in the dictionary and we find: Appreciation 1. recognition and enjoyment of the good qualities of someone or something.synonyms: valuing, respect, prizing, cherishing, treasuring, admiration, regard, esteem, high opinion2. a full understanding of a situation.“the bank’s lack of appreciation of…
It’s an Ugly Vacuum
In a previous decade, I purchased a low-end vacuum for my low-end college apartment. It was an ugly vacuum, and frankly, I’m not sure it really did anything. Vacuums are very interesting. The vacuum of space does strange things to how we perceive matter. Leadership vacuums are the same. The usually result in one of…
Burnout and Demoralization
Both are the product of organizational health. Or should I say, a lack of organizational health? How we view the two is important. Burnout is not the same as demoralization and vice versa. According to Merriam Webster, demoralize is: 1: to cause to turn aside or away from what is good or true or morally…
A Season of Gifts
When you value people, you celebrate their gifts. This is how you craft culture.
Leading with Heart
Leading with heart is about engagement. It’s about seeing your people through the eyes of empathy first – then through the eyes of culture, and finally through the eyes of impact.
Health Over Smarts, Path to Outlier Results
There are two overarching factors to a school’s success. Or should I say, two overarching factors solely within the control of school leadership: The smarts of the school The health of the school Addressing the health of a school is simpler than addressing the smarts, but it’s not easier. The smarts include complex data, instructional…
5 Morale Boosters for Right Now
This happens to be that time of year where back to school enthusiasm is long-gone, and teaching is deep in the trenches. This is good for learning momentum, but it takes its toll on energy. Student attendance might be dropping. Staff attendance might also be dropping. A principal friend of mine asked me this week, “I have…
Fragile Plateaus
Standards change. Teams change. Communities change. Accountability frameworks change. The danger of these changes is they expose blindspots. And blindspots are the reasons behind plateaus. A school can find something that “works” so to speak. It works given the specific milieu and factors of the campus at that point in time. It creates results to…
Collaboration, A Basic Need
Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) are more than mere lesson planning or book studies…they are a basic human need. In yesterday’s episode of the Mafost Mashup, I had the privilege to sit with Dr. Coryn Prince, school administrator and educational leader, whose recent doctoral research focused on features of successful PLCs. Topics included: PLCs as a…
Employee Factory vs. Culture of Collaboration
In the recent episode of the Mafost Mashup, I was fortunate to have Hal Bowman as a guest. He offered some valuable insights on creating cultures of collaboration. Here’s a snippet: “Man, I shouldn’t say this for all schools some schools are way outside of the box, but for a lot of schools who are still…