The days apart are starting to all look alike. All this social distancing is making the days stick together. Monday is hard to distinguish from Sunday....
Continue reading...School Leadership
Management Before Leadership
Cults have leaders. Gangs have leaders. Dictatorships have leaders. Leaders wield influence, power, or other forms of socio-psychological leverage to achieve objectives. To be clear, leadership...
Continue reading...The Filter: Any Engine Can Run On Fuel, For a Little While
Any engine can run on fuel for a little while, but there’s one small component that makes or breaks an engine. The filter. When sailing an...
Continue reading...School Improvement Plan or Compliance Plan?
Or is it a school improvement plan? Look, a one-page essay is hard for many students to write. A one-page poem is hard for most adults...
Continue reading...Educational Leadership, At What Cost?
A quick Google search revealed the following: 1,030,000,000 results for Educational Management 454,000,000 results for Educational Leadership That might be shocking considering the trend in the...
Continue reading...Capacity
The dictionary defines it: The maximum amount that something can obtain. The amount that something can produce. Both leadership and management have one thing in common....
Continue reading...Sophisticated Problems
The pathway of school leads to sophistication. It’s what schools do. They create sophisticated thought. For example, it’s not enough just to use the practical register...
Continue reading...Example is Better than Precept
In last week’s episode on Empowering Your School, one tactic I offered was Lead by Doing. This tactic can also work for crafting changes in school...
Continue reading...School Health, Culture, and Climate
Climate is the temperature of the school. It’s how people interact with the culture. Culture is the combination of routines, rituals, habits, and beliefs of the...
Continue reading...Leadership Learning Communities (Interview, Danny Sunshine Bauer)
I sat down for an interview with Danny “Sunshine” Bauer of Better Leaders Better Schools recently to talk about Leadership Learning Communities. Here are a few...
Continue reading...No Peaks, Cycle of Summits
There are no peaks, only one summit after another. It’s a cycle of summit to summit, from win to win, and mountain to mountain. Peaks are...
Continue reading...Leadership: The Fulcrum in School Culture
School culture is the engine of your school’s success, but it’s not an engine that’s bolted to a frame. Largely, because school culture is not an...
Continue reading...The River That Shapes
The power of a river can chisel the toughest granite and smooth the most jagged limestone. The river is what shapes the Grand Canyon. Over time,...
Continue reading...Net Zero, Negative, and Positive Messages
Imagine being told you’re going to have a salad bar for teacher appreciation week, and you plan accordingly and don’t pack a lunch. You’re thankful for...
Continue reading...Is Your School a Luxury Brand?
No, you don’t have leather chairs, live music, or premium lighting in your school, but that’s not what makes a luxury brand. A luxury brand is...
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