EPISODE #156

6 Early Warning Signs You May Be Giving Up on Your Vision

You're listening to School Leadership Reimagined episode number 156

How do builders like us make a dramatic difference in the lives of our students in spite of all the obstacles we face? How do you keep your vision for your school from being held hostage by resistant teachers, uncooperative parents, ridiculous district policies or lack of time, money or resources. If you're facing those challenges right now, here's where you'll find the answers, strategies, and actionable tips you need to overcome any obstacle you face. You don't have to wait to make a difference in the lives of the people you serve. You can turn your school into a success story right now with the people and resources you already have. Let's get started.

Hey, builders, welcome to another episode of the school leadership reimagined podcast. I'm your host, Robyn Jackson. And today we are going to talk about something that has been bothering me for a while. And it has to do with your vision.

You see a lot of people get really excited about their visions, conceptually, but then when it's time to actually go into their schools and start working to achieve their visions, over time because of pushback from teachers or because of, of changing district policies or because of, you know, circumstances life, suddenly, they stop believing in their vision quite so much. And this, to me is one of the most dangerous things you can do. So today, I want to give you six early warning signs that you're starting to give up on your vision, things that you may not even be aware of that are happening so that you can catch it early and reignite your excitement for your vision.

Now, before we do that, I just want to talk a little bit about builder's lab, because the deadline is coming. So the deadline to guarantee that you get your builders box for builders lab is June three. And so that's less than a month away. And right now we only have 10 seats left at builders lab. So things I told you this was going to sell out and it is going to sell out, which means that you need to get your ticket right now if you've been waiting, if you've been thinking about if you've been meaning to do it, now's the time to get your ticket.

And here's why you want to come to build your slab a lot of time people that people ask me, what is builders level? What do you get out of builders lab. So builders lab is for principals or assistant principals or district folk who are looking at their school or their district right now and it seems stuck things things seems stagnant. And you can't figure out why you're trying all these different things. You're you're trying different programs, you're you're you're buying different books, you're you're doing all this stuff, and you can't seem to move the needle. And when you come to builder's lab, we do something called micro slicing. And micro slicing is a it's a process that we created that helps you to look at your school at the school level and figure out what is the true root cause what's really behind your being stuck. And it also helps you to go into individual classrooms and try to figure out why is a teacher stuck? What does a teacher need to be focusing on what is the one thing that you need to do to get unstuck and start creating momentum towards your vision.

So if you feel like your, your, your school is just kind of stuck in a bad place and and you're trying to climb out of a hole. 

After the last couple of years, you're seeing all this learning loss. And if you don't know how to stop the bleeding, you should come to build your slab. But if you have a school that's doing decently pretty well, you're you're you're not you're not in a freefall of failure, but you're not growing at the rate you'd love to grow. That's why you would come to build your slab so you can figure out what is it that's going to unlock that explosive growth for your school. 

And maybe you're in a good school where, where things are going pretty well. But you're starting to see that your staff is getting satisfied with the status quo. So there's no more risk taking people, people aren't willing to try new things. And although you're a good school, you know, in your heart, you can be a great school, you need to come to build your slab because what we'll do over the course of three days is we will work wherever you are, and help you figure out what is the one most important thing you need to be doing right now. In order to unlock the potential of your school to get unstuck. And to create the kind of momentum you need to move towards your vision over the course of three days. We're not just going to figure out where you're stuck and how do you get unstuck. You're also going to develop a plan to get unstuck in the next 90 days. And that's what's so powerful about builder slab it's not just conceptual understanding you you walk away with the AHA is sure but you also walk With a tangible, concrete plan, you do this, you'll get unstuck. And then we don't just kind of send you off on your own.

After it's over, we follow up with you for the next 90 days offering you additional resources and support and the accountability, you need to make sure that you actually implement the plan that you created at builders lab so that you can get unstuck. So whether you are in a freefall of failure, and you're trying to stop, whether you are not doing as well as you know, you could be doing and you feel stuck on a particular matter. Or maybe you're stuck at good. And you want to get to great comm to build your lab and get unstuck, and to get your tickets, and remember that going quickly. So you're gonna have to move fast. But to get your tickets, you want to go to mind steps inc.com/builders-lab.

All right, let's talk about this thing that's really troubling me lately, because I talk to a lot of principals during the course of the week, not only am I talking to the principals inside of builder, ship university, but I'm also talking to principals online. And I'm also talking to principals in different school districts that I work in and do work in every single week. And I'm coaching a group of school principals. And I see the gamut. I see, you know, principals, Elementary, Middle High School, alternative schools, parochial schools, public schools. And yet, there's this common thread that I'm seeing among principals lately. And it's disturbing. And that is this.

There are principals who come into education who believe that every child deserves to thrive in school and, and they set out to build schools where every child can thrive. And over the course of several years, and some, frankly, bad experiences, these principals have started to lose sight of the vision that made them want to be principals in the first place. What's really disturbing is I'm seeing a similar trend among superintendents and cabinet staff members as well. We all came to education, we all assumed these roles, because we want it to make a difference. And now we're starting to doubt whether or not we actually can. Maybe you're feeling the same way too. I mean, we are coming out of two and a half years of a global pandemic that has up ended how schooling is done, we thought that this school year was going to be a little bit better because things were quote unquote, back to normal, except they weren't. You're now dealing with chronic absenteeism students who you just can't get to come to school, you're dealing with an increased number of behavior problems in school where you feels like sometimes you're spending your entire day just dealing with disciplinary issues. And then your teachers are burned out. They're stressed out. They they're overwhelmed. The there's a level of teacher apathy. We have record numbers of teachers leaving the business.

And you're you're starting to wonder, how is it? 

You know, I love this vision, you're talking about Rob, and I think it's great, but how am I actually going to achieve that vision right now. Maybe the vision is something I can do later on? Well, if you can delay your vision, then it's not your true vision. If you can put your vision on the shelf, then you don't have the right vision. Because if you have a vision that you are truly passionate about, nothing should stop you. And even though I preach that I'm starting to see people who are starting to give up. And many of them don't even realize that they're giving up yet they they don't see it.

I see it because I've been doing this for a while I know the early warning signs, but they don't. And because they don't they, they think that they're still doing the right work. Because after all, I do have this vision and when I can I am working on this vision. But they don't realize that there are the subtle compromises that they're making on a day to day basis, that are that are whittling away at that vision, and turning that vision into something that's important. And so, because I know these early warning signs, I thought today I would share them with you so that you could think through your own feelings, attitudes, you know, perceptions of things, and see whether or not you're seeing any of this in you. And then at the end of the show, I'll talk to you about what you can do about it.

Okay, so this externally warning signs kind of track with something that we actually teach in builders Lab, which is really about the victim loop and the accountability loop. And I'm not going to go into the whole thing now that's it's we do a whole session on it and build a slab to help you figure out how to help teachers who are stuck get unstuck and to deal with will issues that you know issues around well rather than the issues around skill teachers who who The problem isn't that they're not effective. The problem is that they have the right the wrong attitude, they fall into the victim loop. But when I was thinking about these early warning signs and trying to kind of put them into something that would be digestible for this, this podcast episode, I realized that the early warning signs track well with the six spaces inside of the victim loop. And those those six victim loop behaviors are ignoring things, denying things, blaming other people rationalizing, resisting and hiding.

Now let's talk about what that looks like for you. Where if you so that you can determine whether or not you're in the victim loop, whether or not you have started to give up on your vision, whether or not you have allowed all of this negativity that's in education and around education right now. Blunt your passion for what you believe is really possible and necessary in education. And that is that all students deserve to thrive in school. So the first one is that you, you'll notice that you have started ignoring some things like, you'll notice that there are problems that are coming up, there are threats to your vision, you recognize those threats, but you say things like I can't deal with that right now, I'll have to deal with that later.

You see the problems, but you procrastinate working towards a solution, because you're overwhelmed right now. 

Because, you know, this is the time of the year when all of your evaluations are due. And all of the paperwork is done. And you're you're also hiring and you're also recruiting and so I know that I need to work on my vision, I know that I've gotten away from it. And I'll get back to it this summer. But right now I just need to put my head down and do this. The problem with that kind of thinking, even though on the surface it seems perfectly reasonable is that when you procrastinate working on your vision, what you are doing is you're suddenly putting your vision setting it aside. And your vision, your mission and your core values should be driving everything that you do. If they are set assignable, I just made that up. But if they are set assignable, that it means that they're not driving your work. They're not central to the work that you do. There, you're treating them like an add on every single day. And everything you do, should be driven by and sifted through your vision. So if you are saying I'll deal with my vision later, your vision is an integral to your work yet. If you if you can say I'll focus on my vision this summer, but right now I have to get through these other things, it means that the other things you're doing aren't being driven by your vision, which means that you're wasting your time. Because if it's not, if your vision isn't driving, even the mundane paperwork that you're completing, if your vision isn't driving your evaluation, if your vision isn't driving the recruiting and hiring process, or the end of the year closure processes that you're dealing with right now, then your vision isn't central to your work, which means your vision is useless. The whole point of having a vision is that the vision then drives the work. You've heard me say before, when you're a leader, you've 25 3050 Different things that you're doing.

When you're a builder, you only do one thing, every single day. And everything you do should be moving your school closer and closer to that vision in a way that aligns with your mission and honors your core values. So if you're setting that work aside, then what you what it tells me is that that vision doesn't mean what it should mean to you yet. So think for yourself, are you procrastinating? Are you putting things aside? Are you ignoring your vision right now? Because you've got these other things that are happening? Do you see threats and problems to your vision that you're ignoring right now, and I'll deal with that later on. Rather than doing everything you can to protect your vision, this will bite you in the behind later on. If you if you put your vision aside, because people are watching you. You see if you've shared your vision with your staff, people were skeptical. And there were a lot of people said, this is just the latest thing that he or she is into, it'll pass. And every time you set your vision a shot aside, you are affirming their doubts, you're showing them that this vision like everything else you've ever done, is going to go away, I just wait it out. I don't have to actually get on board with the vision because it can be set aside and if it can be set aside by you, the owner of the vision, then it certainly can be set aside by me. The other piece about ignoring is that sometimes you don't ignore your vision, but you ignore good advice. This is all happening right now. Like I do a lot of coaching and I've been doing a lot of coaching lately of principals and we will sit down and we'll micro slice and get to the root cause of their challenge. They'll agree they'll see it and then I'll start giving them with is about Okay, so here's what you can do about it.

And the advice I'm giving isn't coming from me, I'm using the builder ship model to give them advice based on where you are, this is what the builder Ship Model says you're going to do remember that series I did on the school hierarchy of needs. All I'm doing is saying, Here's where you are in the school hierarchy of needs. And so this is where you need to focus on right now. And people are saying, Yeah, but, you know, I read this thing over here, I did this other thing over there. And they're ignoring the good advice that builder ship is giving them, if you find yourself ignoring that advice, then that's a sign that you're not fully invested in your vision, because the vision and you're not, and it also tells me that you're not fully invested yet. And being a builder, it's okay. But recognize that and if you really want to be a builder, recommit to being a builder, because being a builder means that you can't just straddle the line. You can't be a boss some days and a leader some days and a builder some other days. That's what people tell me. Oh, that sounds like robbing, you know, I'm a builder. But sometimes you just have to be a boss. No, sometimes I just need to be a leader. No, these are absolute lanes, you can't just keep changing lanes, that's that that bet is confusing to people. And you're not fully committed to one line, pick a lane, if you're going to be a builder, be a builder. And so if you find that you're ignoring your vision, or you're ignoring the problems that threaten your vision, or you're ignoring your advice, in good advice about how to pursue your vision, those are signs that you might not be as fully committed to your vision as you should be.

Alright, the second one is denial. Now, we have heard about denial. But here, in this case, denial is really about denying that a problem exists. So denying that you're not as fully committed to your vision, even though there are signs out there that show us that you are or and this is where I think this is more relevant for for your vision, you admit that you have a problem, but you deny the consequences.

So here's how this works. Okay, you know that, yeah, I've let go of my vision. I'm not working on my vision as much as I had been in the past. But I'll be able to catch up quickly, I'll be able to catch up this summer. I'll get back to it. As soon as I get through this. And, and it won't be so bad. And Robyn, you're you're kind of being an alarmist saying that this could, you know, this is the most critical time and, you know, people are watching me because they know I'm overwhelmed. And so there'll be forgiving, and I'll get them back on board in a moment. You're denying the really devastating consequences of ignoring your vision or letting your vision slide will have on your ability to move things forward. And this is the one I see all the time where people think I'm being just overly dramatic, you know, because I'm all sold out to build a ship. They think, oh, well, you know, because she's sold out. She's just, you know, of course, she's going to feel like the consequences are devastating. But I've seen that. I've seen people who, who set aside their vision for a moment. And then when they go to try to pick it back up again. People no longer believe in their vision. And they have to work twice as hard to generate half as much passion and enthusiasm about their vision.

You know why? Because they've already told people what their vision is worth. And it's hard for people to commit to something, if it can be set aside. It's hard for people to trust you, when you say, here's where we're going, Oh, as soon as I take care of this over here, oh, no, no, seriously, here's where we're going, Oh, but this other thing showed up. And they deny the consequences. I was working with a superintendent recently. And he had committed, you know, fully or so I thought to a plan around around helping teachers, helping principals in the principal's in this district, give teachers better feedback. But then he ran afoul of the the principal's union, the teachers union. And people were saying he was pushing too hard. And he needed to back off because everybody was overwhelmed. And when he got that feedback, it was devastating to him. Because he really believed that teacher feedback and the approach that he was taking to to improve teacher feedback would make a difference in the quality of instruction for students. He was frustrated that this the union's had had made an end run around him and we're trying to push back now. He was frustrated that they were attacking one of the programs that he was implementing. And so what he decided to do was just say, You know what, forget it. And he gave up. I kept telling him, You can't give up. We can figure this out. We will find a way to honor what the union's asking but still maintain momentum on what you're doing with teacher feedback. Builders have hundreds of ways of of achieving the same results, this one doesn't work, we'll go back, we'll figure out another way. But we're going to keep moving forward. And then he just goes to me stop calling, stop answering my calls. And guess what's happening to not only his agenda, but also to the instructional quality of his district, and to his own credibility. Because he's just given up and just, you know, let it go. The agenda around teacher feedback has, he's just shown them how to stay stuck. He, if they don't want to move forward, and he's trying to pull the district forward and build something and invite people to that district, people realize that if they just wait them out, they can get their way and never have to move. Second thing it's done is it's, it's it's made people, people who are truly invested in this process, stop trusting him. People who were the early adopters who believed in his vision from the very beginning, now feel like it's no point believing in something great, and we're all stuck. And so even his true believers are now cynics. And it's hurt his credibility going forward. Because whatever program he brings into the district, he's already shown people how to kill it. Why would anybody trust him? Because they know how vulnerable he is. They know that he will easily crumble with the slightest sign of pushback. How will we ever be able to get anything off the ground going forward?

I tell you the story, and maybe it feels a little bit more dramatic. But there's subtle things like that happening right now. You came out with this big vision at the beginning of the school year, we're going to move forward. And yes, things happen. And yes, we get distracted. But if you can leave this end of the school year, and you don't read double down on your vision, you send people into the summer, thinking, Well, that was the last year. And evidently that's no longer the case. And I wonder what's going to be next year. Rather than sending people to the summer thinking, this vision isn't going away. I need to get on board, we can do something we we've had a tough year, but we survived it and the vision survived it, which means that I can I can count on this vision. So when you're in denial, you start denying, maybe not that you have a problem, you may not even deny that yeah, I've let my vision slip a little bit.

But when you're when you start denying the real impact of of doing that for long, that denial is gonna cost you later on. 

Third thing that that's a sign that you may be giving up on your vision is blame. You blame the students, you know, like, I can't focus on my vision until I get the discipline in place behaviors out of control. I've seen a lot of people do that they give up on their vision because they're so overwhelmed by the discipline. And they say well gotta get things under control first, because like before, I can focus on my discipline, when armed with the right vision, that vision will show you how to get discipline under control. That vision will show you how to keep everybody moving and get the students refocused. You can't set it aside. People will blame the teachers, you know, I just told your story. He blames the teachers for killing the principals and the teachers for killing his his agenda, the superintendent I just talked about, they they blame the parents or they blame the district, this one I see a lot I you know, it will happen, you are doing something so extraordinary. The districts are not built for what you are creating. Districts are built to maintain the status quo. They're comfortable with the status quo. And you're stepping outside of the status quo. And anytime you do something like that, you become a target the district and maybe not an overt target, but you are stepping outside of what the district is doing to keep you and every other school in that district under a certain amount of control. And when you do that, you will face some controversy, there will be some programs that you want to put in that the district is just going to kill so what keep building that is a part of what it means to be a builder. But there are a lot of people who blame the district, I would have done more but the district, if the district if your vision is so vulnerable, that a district can kill it with a single policy, your vision wasn't very good to begin with. You have to believe so much in your vision that isn't vulnerable to attacks by other people. And if you find yourself starting to, to kind of carry that, whether it's the teacher resistance to your vision, and a lot of people television stories for the first time, and sometimes it's magic.

I mean, we've had principals who say it is just like telling them this story is just transformed their culture the first time other people television stories, and they start getting well what about this? What about that because their culture is so wounded, that their culture isn't that the culture is going to take more time before it starts accepting another vision. And what will determine whether or not that culture accepts the vision is how consistent you are about that. Vision. But a lot of people get that first little bit of pushback. And they say, Oh, see, it didn't work, and they let it go. That tells me that your vision, you didn't fully believe in your vision and you weren't fully committed to your vision. If somebody were to tell you that the sky is no, that's a bad because the sky, it's all kinds of colors when the sun said, if somebody were to come and tell you something that you absolutely knew it was not true, there's nothing that they could say, there's no amount of pushback they could give you that would convince you otherwise, if you absolutely know something is true. If you absolutely believe that all of your students, 100% of your students deserve to be successful in the way that you've outlined in your vision, then no pushback will take you off your square, you know, one of the things that we do and build a ship university, because as a builder, you are kind of out there by yourself.

And it can you're getting all this messaging around you is that we have something called office hours and those office hours you come and it's live and we kind of hang out. And it's a place for you to come and be around other builders. Yeah. And one of our recent Office Hours someone came in, and I was just saying, I just I'm really frustrated, because I shared my vision and I got a little pushback. And we encouraged her to go back out and keep sharing it because that's what builders do. You don't let it go. It helped her realize that she wasn't crazy for for, for believing in her vision, the way that other people were trying to make her feel she wasn't being naive, I'm realistic, that's what she should be doing. And we were able to encourage her so she could go back out if and continue to repeat that vision until people started believing it too. When you blame people for killing your vision, what you're really admitting is that your vision wasn't strong enough, you weren't passionate enough about your vision. 

Because when you're truly passionate about it, nobody can kill it. 

Number four, rationalization. When you start making excuses, even good excuses, for for, for, for not moving forward and your vision. And you may say things like, well, you know, we just came out of a pandemic, I didn't get as much done on my vision as I could, because you know, we were just trying to get back to school or, you know, my school, we didn't do what we set out to do. But we're still better off than most of the schools in my district. Or, you know, look, this year wasn't a great year, but it was still, you know, we've had some worse years than this. And you start rationalizing the stalling of your vision, even with good excuses. It's a sign that you stopped believing in the power of your vision, that you're admitting that there are some circumstances under which your vision is no longer relevant or viable. No, this is the one that I fall victim to the most. I'm a good rationalizer. But I'm realizing that when I make excuses, even good excuses, I'm letting myself off the hook. And I'm lessening the power of my vision.

Do you know many schools I've encountered who have a mantra of every student every day, no matter what, I'm not even sure I know what that means, literally. But I get the feeling behind it. The idea that we're going to do our best no matter what for kids. If you have that no matter what attitude, there is no excuse. There is no excuse what build your students we say, You know what, I've slacked off here, I admit that, let's put some more systems in place to make sure I don't slack off again, let's obviously, I was able to take my eye off the vision so that I need to put some systems in place to keep my eyes firmly on the vision.

One of the things we do in the build up university is that around when you get to level two, and level three, those are really about you know, level one is about establishing your vision, mission and core values. Then when you get to level two and level three, it's about putting systems in place to keep your focus on those vision, mission and core values. Because we know that things happen in school, and it's easy to let go and you can come up with a legitimate excuse for doing so. We put systems in place to remove the excuses so that you don't make them. You don't rationalize your way out of your vision, you stay focused on your vision. So if you find yourself rationalizing, making excuses, even legitimate excuses, then it's a sign that you are losing hold of your vision and you need to reignite your passion to more.

The next one is resistance. And this one probably drives me the craziest is that when I'm coaching people, and they don't want to talk about the vision or they want to talk about, they want to talk about, they want to show me all the stuff they're doing. And yeah, it's great. You're very busy, but it's not moving the needle All if they don't actually want to, like, kind of kind of deal with the data and the facts and, and, and and what's really happening instead they resist that. So a lot of times you'll find yourself, you know, you'll stop asking questions and you only want to have all the answers. That's a sign that you're resisting, you know, that you have, you're losing sight of your vision, and you know, you need help, but something is keeping you from getting that help.

And, you know, maybe you say, Well, you know, maybe I'll just kind of, you know, look at some of these free forums, because I can't afford the help right now. Or, you know, I've tried programs in the past. And so, you know, they haven't worked for me, and you start, you know, you need help, you know, that, that that you've gotten off track. But instead of asking the questions that you need to really be asking, or instead of getting the help, and support that you really need, you just keep pushing through and plowing through, and you're resisting that, that that pull towards your vision. And what will happen is, you keep doing that, and you're gonna slowly but surely veer off course. That's resistance. And if you find right now that you're feeling a little resistance, even to this episode, check yourself ask yourself, have I am I losing my grip, my hold on to my vision, the last one is hiding. And this is probably the most common one that I've seen, right.

So what people do when they know that they're drifting away from their vision, is they keep doing the work that feels most comfortable to them. The work that makes them feel like they're being productive. But that work is not actually moving the needle towards moving closer to your vision. And so you're just doing a whole bunch of busy work, and you're really, really busy. And it makes you feel like you're working. But you're not, it's called hiding in plain sight, you look productive, but you're not making progress. And you know, you're not making progress. And then the other part of hiding is that you start holding information so close to your chest, that nobody can tell whether or not you're making progress, you don't look at the data, you you don't look at the reality of where your school is right now. Instead, you look at all this work you've done, which may or may not be helpful.

I remember I was coaching and principal once and we were in a coaching session, he spent the first half of the coaching session telling me all the things he's done. And then I asked a question I said, Of all the things that you've done, what if any of them have actually gotten you closer to your vision? Silence. See, these are great. These are beautiful things you've done. He had spreadsheets and progress. But Is any of this going to move you to your vision? And you may be asking yourself the same question right now. I've done a lot of work this year, how much of it actually moved me towards my vision? If he answers, not much, it's a sign that maybe you've let go of your vision a little bit, maybe you've lost a little bit of your energy and passion around your vision. And that's a shame, because you've worked really hard, but you don't have much to show for it at the end. Now, this has been pretty depressing. I've told you kind of all these dark scenarios.

So let me give you the bright spot. 

The good news is it's not too late. These are early warning signs or signals to you that you really need to get recommitted to your vision. And so there are a couple of things you can do about it. One is to go back to the vision, your mission and your core values. Remember, your vision is what you are building. Your mission is why it's so important and the core values is what's wrong. What must we all play in order to make this happen? Go back to that. Have a conversation with your staff talk about how you as a school may have drifted away from the vision but you don't want to go into the summer without re anchoring in that vision.

You'll find that build a ship is a marathon and not a sprint. And there are going to be times when you do lose track of your vision. I do it. But what because I know these early warning signs when I've recognized them, I go back to it. I start going back and looking at the work and how I'm spending my time and making sure that I am prioritizing the vision. And when I do I see an immediate lift not just in my spirits but a lift in my results. You can do the same thing. Maybe you want a little bit more support and community around that. And if that's the case, then you want to join our next cohort for builder ship university because the first thing we do once you get into that cohort is we get you reconnected to your vision. And then we start putting systems in place to keep you connected to your vision and help you to see progress towards your vision all along. Here's the thing. When you become a builder, you're stepping away from everybody else, you're doing something different. And because you're a builder, you're not trying to drag people along with you or cajole people to come with you, you step away first, which means there's going to be a time when it's just you, you're the only one building. And sometimes when it's just you, it's easy to feel distracted. There are people who are telling you right now that it can't be done, there are people members of your own staff who are telling you that it won't be done, it can't be done, our kids can handle if that's too much pressure on me. And you can't absorb any of that. Recognize it. Because that gives you a clue that, that these are the things that they're worried about that you're going to have to address. But keep building because sometimes the only thing that's going to convince people is when you start building, and when they see it happen.

If you lose sight of your vision, you never do the thing that builders do. It's not just about creating a vision, it's also about building that vision getting started when nobody else is with you. And although that can feel lonely, you don't have to be alone, because there are other builders all over the world, who are also doing the same thing. And if you get in the community with them, we'll build you up. Well, well, we'll assure you you're not crazy, we will, we will give you the support that you need, so that you can keep building. And what will happen is that when you keep building, other people will see it and other people will be attracted to it and other people will come aboard and they will start building with you. I never said this work is easy. It isn't but you're already working hard anyway, why not work hard and actually see some results from it.

So if you feel like you're losing your grip on your vision, if you see some of these early warning signs happening in your life, take some time now. recommit to your vision, and then take action. Do something right now towards your vision. Just as a reminder, what two builders do they build? If you stopped building? The answer is get started building again. Every small act of building creates momentum. Create the force that starts attracting other people to what you're building. All is not lost. If you see these warning signs a day, just get reconnected. And then keep building like a builder. I'll talk to you next time. 

Hey, if you're ready to get started being a builder right away, then I want to invite you to join us at builder ship University. It's our exclusive online community for builders just like you where you'll be able to get the exact training that you need to turn your school into a success story right now with the people and resources you already have. Inside you'll find our best online courses, live trainings with me tons of resources, templates and exemplars and monthly live office hours with me where you can ask me anything and get my help on whatever challenge you're facing right now. If you're tired of hitting obstacle after obstacle and you're sick of tiny little incremental gains each year, if you're ready to make a dramatic difference in your school right now, then you need to join buildership University. Just go to buildership university.com and get started writing your school success story today.

Thank you for listening to the School Leadership Reimagined podcast for show notes and free downloads visit https://schoolleadershipreimagined.com/

School Leadership Reimagined is brought to you by Mindsteps Inc, where we build master teachers.