EPISODE #269

You're listening to School Leadership Reimagined, episode number 269.

Hey builders. Before we begin today's episode, I need to let you know how excited I am about the builder ship summer boot camp this year, we're talking about staff alignment. And I'm going to be showing you some things you've never heard me teach before. Because this year, the focus is really about how do you do the things we know will get your staff aligned and on the same page and invested in the work that you're doing from the very beginning. But how do you do it without wasting a whole bunch of time? How do you do it quickly? What is the shortest, fastest way to get staff alignment? So we're not going to talk about all the things you can do. We're going to look at all the things that are out there and show you what are the most important things to do. This is so good. I you know, I've been working on the workbook that you're going to get every single day and I'm telling you good. So make sure that you go to builder ship university.com/bootcamp and sign up again. That's builder ship university.com/boot camp, and make sure you sign up. We're getting started in just a couple of weeks. All right now on to the show. You're listening to the school leadership reimagined Podcast, episode 269. 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, Robin Jackson. And today we are continuing the summer of Success Series. Today we're going to talk about something that I'm really passionate about originally, I wasn't gonna include it in the summer Success Series. But too many people have been coming to me and telling me that they are really struggling with this thing. And so I want to talk about it today. And that's this today's success secret is you've got to fight for your vision, then let me tell you why I wanted to talk about this. There are a lot of people who have been spending time thinking about their 100% vision. They know what they want to do. They they believe in it. And then as soon as they share it with somebody else, that person begins to cast doubt on that vision, that person starts telling them all the ways that won't work. Or maybe they roll it out to their staff and their staff. It's like, Okay, I agree with in theory, but and then the staff, what's the vision to death, or maybe the staff started out really excited about that vision. But then when they saw the work that it was going to take to achieve their vision, people started fighting back, they started saying this is too much or you're moving too fast, all the things and so a lot of builders come back really disillusioned because they they have this vision, they know what's the right thing. They can't unsee that 100%. But everybody around them is attacking that vision. Nobody believes in that vision, but them. And it's hard to sustain that motivation over time, especially when you just get pushback from your teachers, or from your district bosses or from your colleagues. 

So today, I want to talk to you about how you can fight for your vision when you face opposition. And this This episode is really important and put it in your back pocket somewhere, save this episode because I promise you, when you share your 100% vision, somebody will push back, somebody will fight you just the other day colleague of mine, someone I really respected. He and I'd had a conversation about 100% vision and he was telling me about all the research about goal setting and how if you set a goal too high, you can actually demotivate people, and he wrote a whole, you know, kind of blog post about why 100% vision wasn't the right thing that you should push for something else. And so normally, you know, I might feel attacked by that. But it's but because I applied what I'm going to be sharing with you today. I was energized. I was like Oh, thank you because this is a great opportunity to talk about to look at your arguments and talk about why they fall flat. Because at the end of the day, it's this when you set 100% vision you're saying we're not going to stop until every kid is successful. Anything less than that is saying, I am okay with letting some kids down. So I hear all your theory, I hear all your other stuff. But I was able to fight for my vision persuasively and, and consistently and without stressing out because I did what I'm going to share with you today. So I'm telling you it works because I've done it. And I want you to use this to fight for your vision this year because your vision is important. Your 100% vision is valuable. But this is what we always say when we're bu bu folks, you know this, right? 

We are the weirdos in education, because nobody else is doing this. 

When you become a builder, you step out of the status quo. And anytime you step out of the status quo, there are people who are going to try to drag you down. So how do you fight like a builder? Let's talk about it. Okay, so the first way that people often attack, your vision is just a full on onslaught attack, and they attack in tos, your vision is too big, or your vision is too much too fast, or your vision is too hard. And so a lot of times that attack comes from your teachers. But if your teachers are vocal enough, then they start talking to your bosses and then your bosses say maybe you need to slow down, maybe you don't need to move your business so fast, maybe, maybe maybe. And they they they people begin to tell you that it's too much. And they want you to drop your vision because it's too much. Now, there's a lot of reasons why they do that. Right. So first of all, when you have a vision that big, and your bosses hear about it, it makes them look bad. Like, you know, I was talking to a builder the other day. And she was saying that in her district, you know, the plan was that they're going to hit 60% Student Success in six years. Are you kidding me? In six years, you could have hit 100% twice. But that's what they're doing. I was talking to another superintendent. And she was, you know, telling me her vision for the district was that they were going to improve student achievement across the board by get this 5%? And how long was it going to take them five years now?

It makes my skin crawl, right? Because we have superintendents who are in buildings up university right now who have 100% vision, and their plan is to get it in three to five years. So when you talk about increasing by 5%, especially when your scores are abysmal. Anyway, it's gonna take you five years to get another 5%. Please, please. So anyway, a lot of times when people who have those visions, hear your 100% vision, your 100% vision threatens them, because it exposes their vision is what they are garbage. And so rather than saying, You know what I should do 100% vision, a lot of times they will double down, that's about them, not you. So you'll get attacked for that. Now, with your teachers, they will often feel threatened by that 100% vision because they have PTSD from No Child Left Behind, and other initiatives that have happened over the years that have just whipped teachers upside the head with their test scores. And so for them, it's a different issue. So with your superiors, they're telling you, you know, your vision is too big, too much too fast. A lot of times they're doing that because if threatens their status quo, but with your teachers, a lot of times they're doing it because they're worried about what that's going to mean for them. So you need a different approach, when your vision is under attack from those above, because it's too big, too much, whatever, you need to challenge their thinking. 

Okay, so what vision what, which, which percentage of kids would be acceptable for you? And then might say, well, it's not that it's just that you're moving to the you know, you're you're, it's too much right now. And you're saying, Okay, again, what percentage would work for you? So okay, we you should focus on a 5%. All right, I'll make a deal with you. If I get more than 5%. If you give me a year, and I get more than 5% Doing my way, well, you get off my back. And then if they agree to that, then you go and you pursue your 100% vision. And when you pursue your 100% vision, you're gonna get more than 5%. That's what happens with everybody in BU, every, you know, people in be you who are pursuing their 100% vision, they are seeing huge gains. So yeah, you can do that. Okay, for the people below you who are not below you, I shouldn't say that teachers aren't below you, your colleagues, your teacher colleagues, you have to spend time reassuring them about the process. And what a lot of builders and B you have done is said you know what we're gonna go 100%. But let's figure out what the first thing is, which is why it's really important for you to have a plan. So those can be you bet your one plan, because if you can show people how we're going to go about doing it and help them just focus on the first piece of your one plan that feels more doable to people. And then as they achieve success, what always happens is they hit that first big win and then they then they're all in they want the 100% and they Go for it. But you've got to keep doing the piece step by step and you step it out for people so they can see it. 

Remember, we talked about this all the time? 

You know, a lot of times when you say 100%, it's like walking up to somebody and asking them to marry you after having never met them before. That's a lot for some people. Okay, great. Well, then if they say some people say yes, but a lot of people are going to be like, I don't know you. I can't marry you. I just met you. And if you don't have a backup option, then you're devastated. Right? But if you if you say, Okay, I get it. You don't want to marry me, but how about lunch? And, and if you can get them to agree to lunch, you charm them over lunch? And then you say, Okay, great. At the end of lunch, will you marry me? Some people will say, this is a great lunch. Yeah, let's go ahead and get married. Either. People are gonna say, this is a great lunch, but I still need more time we'd like Okay, great. How about dinner? How about a picnic in the park? How about a movie, and you keep dating people until they agree to marry you. That's how you get to your 100%. Same way. We want 100% People like, I can't do 100%. All right, great. How about the first step? Would you be willing to take the first step? Okay, I could do that. And then they take that and they get a victory? That was great, wasn't it? Now how about the next step? And you can you can date people to your 100% vision, okay. Now, sometimes the attacks are not as as direct. Sometimes people hit you with questions. So they're not saying they don't agree with your vision, but they are attacking your vision by trying to raise doubts about your vision? I don't I you know, it sounds good. I mean, who would argue with 100%? But what about all of the kids in special ed? What about the the kids who aren't coming to school? And you can say and normally what we would normally do is those questions would devastate us. 

But when you're a builder, what you can say is, those are great questions. Those are the problems that we're going to have to solve in order to get to 100%. But that's the interesting work. So let's figure that out. All right. I don't ever ever question somebody's question. I mean, it's a legitimate question. I treat it like a legitimate question. But instead, I questioned their conclusion. You see, a lot of times people say we have these things, these obstacles, therefore we can't listen, I don't argue with people about the obstacles. The obstacles are what they are. You're absolutely right. But I do argue with you about those conclusions about the conclusion. Because just because we have these obstacles doesn't mean that we can't, this obstacles are the problems we get to solve. And they're way more interesting problems than the ones we're solving right now. Because we're not solving anything. We're just dealing with the problems. You're right. We can't get there with the school we have right now. You're right. Those are legitimate questions. Let's find the answers together. 

Hey, it's Robin here real quick, I just want to interrupt this episode for just a second. Because if you are enjoying what you're hearing, then would you mind sharing this episode with somebody else. So all you need to do is just go to your phone, if you're listening to on your phone, or your podcast player, and then click the three dots next to this episode. And it will give you the option to share the episode that if you do that, three things are going to happen first, the person that you shared with is going to think you're a hero, especially if they're struggling with what we're talking about right now. They're going to love you. Secondly, you're going to feel good, because you're going to get the word out about builder ship and start building this builder ship nation. And third, you will get my eternal gratitude. Because I really want to get this out to the world. And you'd be helping me out, you'd be doing me a huge favor. So please share this episode with someone right now who's who's dealing with this same issue, someone you think would really benefit. And now back to the show. Now, some people will attack you out. Right? Some people will raise questions. Some people will say all that's great. Yeah, we should do that. But first, we need to do this. And their tactic is delay, delay delay. 

And what that does, is it slow slowly suffocates your vision. 

So when people are saying delay and say, well, we need to do this first before we can pursue our vision. The question you want to ask them is if we're pursuing 100% Does doing that get us to Andrew percent? Should we be doing that at all? Because when we're pursuing 100% It's not business as usual. Everything has to change. This is first, that thing that you want to do first, we gotta get discipline under control before we pursue 100% That's not separate from 100% is discipline keeping us from 100%. Okay, then let's look at that and figure out how do we solve it so that we can get to 100% they're not separate. A lot of people think that the builder should work is over here. And the other work that we do the school is over. Hear? No, they want to pursue 100% vision and choose to do that all the work is around 100%. So you're not doing this over here and getting this out the way so that you can you pursue 100%. And if that's something that is still a factor in light of your 100%, you deal with it as a part of it. So don't let people peel off your vision and set it to the side, your vision is forefront, and everything else that you think we need to do. If it's not in the way of 100%, then it's no longer a priority. You can't bring in your old priorities and to the 100% work. 100% is the priority. And that's what you to help everybody understand, no, we're not taking care of that over there first, this is where we're headed. And that thing that you want to take care of is either no longer relevant, or it is taken on a new relevance in light of our 100% vision. Now, people will attack it outright tell us too much, people will question it, right to try to raise doubts and shake your confidence. People will delay it so that they can eventually suffocate it. And then the last thing people will do is they'll just ignore it to starve it all together, you start talking about 100%. And they just let you go. And they don't ever join you in the process. And so this one is the hardest one, because it's the most insidious. They're like, okay, great. Oh, she's talking about 100%. Again, well, you know, and then they go back and do their own thing. And a lot of that can be dealt with, by just presenting your vision in the right way. So a lot of people take the vision piece, and they're like, Okay, I've come up with it. I want 100%, blah, blah, blah, and they have this vision. And then they just announce it to the staff the way they announce. We're going to use a new social studies curriculum or from now on, we're only going to use two ply toilet paper in the main office bathroom, it they pronounce it the same way they pronounce everything else. And so people treat it the same way that they treat everything else. When you are a builder. 

Remember, bosses say go, leader say let's go builders say comm which means that when you are when you have that 100% vision, and you want people on board, you have to actively invite them to join you. And if they join you and building, they can't ignore it. So if people are ignoring your vision, then it's really about how you invited them. And all you need to do is you need to go back and invite them. Now, those of you and be you. That's your vision story. And your riches story is not something you say just one time and get everybody excited. And then they go back to their work. Your vision, a story is something you are repeating constantly. And if you've been a builder for a while, and you shared your built vision story, and it's been a couple of months, well, then you need to repeat it. That's how you protect your vision. You're constantly updating your vision story, you're constantly repeating your vision story, to help people see how the vision is pertinent to them, you create a vision that people can ignore, and then you put it everywhere, it's all over the environment so that people can't ignore it. So again, you are being attacked directly, or your vision is being questioned, or whether your vision is just being delayed, or whether people are actively ignoring your vision. All of those are attacks on your vision. And as you are getting ready for the next school year, you need to be ready and prepared for all of these attacks because they are coming. 

But instead of letting those attacks threaten you make make you doubt yourself instead of letting those attacks frustrate you and devastate you, when you have a vision that is meaningful. And when you have a vision about what you are truly passionate, you will find ways to protect your vision. You'll have a boss who comes into your office and says What's this, I hear about 100% vision and you'll excitedly share the vision and then I'll look at you. And they'll think they'll look at you like you're just you've got you've grown two horns. Okay, great. That's fine. I'll tell you what you don't believe in my vision yet. Give me a year. And let me show you. And at the end of the year, when you're at the top of your district, and just about every category, your boss is going to be asking you what did you do? And you're gonna say I had 100% vision. And even if they still don't believe in it, they will they will let you go because you're you're showing the results. You know, if you have a staff that is nervous about your vision, or what initially they were like, yeah, yeah, rah rah. But as they as you're asking them to do the work, they're starting to just ah, then what you may have to do is you may have to baby step them. If you have people who raise questions about your vision, then you don't get defensive. You You can you can agree with their concerns without agreeing with their conclusion. And you can offer them a different conclusion. If you have people who are delaying you help them you make them Vision the priority and everything else goes on underneath it. You don't assume that just because there's this thing over here that that's what's keeping you from the vision. Once you start pursuing 100% vision, everything goes under your vision. And if you do that, then you won't delay because everything, you will turn everything into something that creates momentum for your vision. And then if people are ignoring it, you go back to that vision story, you start sharing that vision story, again, you start updating the vision story for where people are at that particular moment. And then you build that vision story with your staff. 

That's how you fight for your vision this year. 

Because a lot of you have let other people dictate to you how you're going to pursue your 100% vision. It's your vision. And your job as a builder is to invite people to come with you not let people take you off of your square and drag you back down where they are. That's what it means to be a builder. And so don't I mean, I get it, you get devastated. I mean, those are gonna be you, you come to office hours will build you back up. But you know what I'm gonna say to you in office hours, your vision is important. You protect your vision, you don't let anybody keep you from your vision. I didn't say this work was going to be easy. There are times when it's hard. You know why it's hard because you're dealing with people. And not everybody is going to see the vision the way that you see it. But nothing in this world that has ever been accomplished. That's great. And world changing has happened without struggle. And if you if people people are testing you people want to know, do you really believe in their vision. And if they can knock you off your square every single time they raise a question or every single time they express a doubt, or every single time they they offer you another alternative, or I'd say you know something else, you have to get done, and you get distracted by that. Or every time they just kind of ignore it and wait for it to go away and it starts to go away. You are telling them that your vision really isn't that important. You have to teach people that your vision is important. And it happens because you fight for it. Nothing that's important that has ever happened in this world has happened without a fight. So my question for you today is, is your vision worth fighting for. And if it is, if 100% Student Success is something that you are willing to fight for that fight. And so I'll get off my soapbox now. 

But my challenge to you this week is to start showing up Gird your loins because the school year is coming and with that are going to be attacks on your vision. But just because somebody attacks your vision doesn't mean your vision isn't valid. And the more that you fight to protect your vision, the more you teach people that it's important. And the more you teach people that's important, the more intrigued and instruct interested, they become a being a part of it. Because people don't want to be a part of something that isn't that's going to go away in a year or two. And that's been their experience. So I don't blame them. You have to show them this is different. You're not doing leadership anymore. You're a builder now. And as a builder, things look different, though, this week, and then the next couple of months, I want you to be passionate about fighting for your vision. And if you need to put this episode somewhere and save it so you can listen to it every morning before you go to work, do that. But make sure that you fight for your vision, 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 than you need to join bill to ship University. Just go to build a ship university.com and get started writing your school success story today. Hey, it's Robin here and I want to thank you for listening to today's episode. If you have a question about today's episode, you just want to keep conversation going. Did you know that we had a school leadership reimagined Facebook group, all you need to do is go to Facebook, join the school leadership, reimagined Facebook group. Now there are going to be a couple of questions that we asked at the beginning because we want to protect this group and make sure that we don't have any trolls come in, and that it really is for people who are principals, assistant principals, district administrators. So make sure you answer those questions so you won't get in but then we can keep the conversation going. Plus, we do a lot of great bonus content. I'm in there every single weekday. So if you have a question or comment about the episode, let's continue the conversation. Join us at the school leadership reimagined Facebook group, and they'll talk to you next time.