EPISODE #321

Hey builders, before we begin today's podcast, I have such exciting news. I can't wait to share it with you. We're doing it again. We are doing a staff alignment summer Boot Camp 2025 and it's absolutely free. So over the course of six days, we are going to show you how to get your entire staff aligned around your most important initiative in the 1st 90 days of the school year. So we're going to meet for six days, one hour a day, each day, and we're going to build your plan so that by the time you're done, you will have a plan for how you can get every single person on your staff fully aligned around your most important initiative. Now, if you signed up last year and you missed the boot camp, this is your chance. If you came to the boot camp last year, we have upgraded some things.

We, you know, we've changed some things. We've got new workbooks. You want to come because if you keep hearing this over and over again, it just reinforces it. It gets it's better every single year. So all you need to do is go to buildershipuniversity.com/bootcamp. That's Buildership university.com slash boot camp to sign up. And I can't wait to see you there. Now you need to hurry because we are starting in 10 days.

I think it's like 10 days from now. So make sure you go to buildershipuniversity.com/bootcamp and make sure you sign up. All right now on with the show. You're listening to the School Leadership Reimagine podcast to episode 321.

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 is 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, builders. 

Welcome to another episode of the School Leadership Imagined podcast. 

I'm your host, Robyn Jackson, and today I want to talk about something that I find myself talking about a lot lately and that staff alignment. And sometimes I keep thinking, do they really want to hear about staff alignment again? But when I talked to you, I've met several of you at some conferences. Those of you I've met at United. It was so great to see you and those of you, I saw it ASCD couple weeks ago.

You know, people keep saying the same thing, that they're the big challenge, the big worry for the beginning of the school year is how am I going to get my staff all on board from the very beginning? And so today I want to talk about that, but from a little bit of a different angle because I want to talk about the three biggest mistakes that I see people making at the beginning of the school year when they are trying to get their staff aligned in the beginning of the school year. Is, is one of those, I don't know those, those magical times, right? Everybody's so excited, everybody's coming back. You've got new staff, you've got new kids. The beginning of the school year feels like new year. It it, it's full of new opportunities. You've been working all summer trying to learn from the mistakes of last year and put something together because this year is going to be the year, right?

The you, you, you feel it. Every year we say the same thing. This year is going to be the year. And so we plan a beautiful back to school experience. You know, we get the food trucks for the pre service week and we do, you know, food truck rodeo. We, you know, treat everybody to lunch and it feels like a party. We get the theme for the year and we work on it. And then we decorate the halls with with our theme for the year.

We, we get costumes for people, you know, if our theme for the year is we are building something better, we buy everybody hard hats, right? And if our thing theme is every year is going to be, you know, we're this year, we're all superstars. And you know, you create the red carpet in the, in the front hallway. So when kids come back the first day of school, it's like they're walking the red carpet. So we spend all of our time doing those creative things. We've also spent the entire spring and summer thinking about our master schedule and going to conferences and reading books and, you know, discovering new ideas and new ways of doing it. So maybe this year you're saying this is the year we're going to get PLCS, right? Or this is the year that PBIS is going to work, or we have revamped our discipline and attendance policy and we're going to make sure more kids are in class.

Or we're rolling out to new curricula and, you know, we're going to really do something different. Maybe you're feeling a little bit anxious about this year because over the summer you looked at your test scores and they weren't great. Things went down. And so now you're looking at this year with this pressure on your back because you got to you, you feel like you're in a hole and you've got to dig yourself out of the hole. Maybe you're stressed out because, you know, school is a couple of days or weeks away and you don't have all of your staff yet. Maybe you feel like, you know, you look up and you think, where did the summer go? You know, 2 seconds ago I was saying goodbye to kids and now we're, we're getting ready to welcome them back again. And so you're stressed out right now and, and your staff is picking up on that and you still haven't ordered the sheet cake for pre service week and, and you still don't know what your theme is going to be.

And you're scrambling and you're on in Facebook groups trying to see what other people are doing so that maybe you can come up with an idea.

This is a weird time of the year. 

And one of the mistakes that I think happens this time of the year is that we put a lot of pressure on ourselves around pre service week and around those those first few weeks of back to school. And we judge our staff alignment based on those first couple of weeks. If everybody is excited, we think the staff is aligned. If you have hiccups and bumps throughout the week, then we think, oh, then our staff is so divided and we're just going to have a tough year. We mistake excitement for alignment, we mistake frustration for misalignment and whether you are what, whatever side of the spectrum you're on that we believe we, we look at the emotions of the beginning of the year and we use that to determine whether or not our staff is aligned. Staff alignment is not an emotional decision.

You see, if your staff alignment is depending on emotions, then your job is to keep everybody happy, because if you don't keep everybody happy, they're not aligned. But if staff alignment is built on what it should be built on, which is a solid intellectual agreement around what matters most and a commitment to pursue that no matter how we feel, then you don't have to worry about pre service week. You don't have to worry about whether or not people are mad because you went to Kroger and got a chocolate cake and they wanted vanilla. You don't have to worry about the fact that the the the food truck showed up late and now everybody's hungry. You don't have to worry about any of that because the emotions don't impact the alignment. You know, excitement or the lack of excitement is very surface level, right? Alignment is what people do when nobody's watching. Alignment is what I choose to do when I'm tired, when I'm hungry, when I'm frustrated, when stuff didn't go the way that it that I wanted it to go.

When when I'm battling it out with a colleague down the hall or I disagree not battling out, but I disagree with a colleague down the hall. Do I choose to still move in the same direction or do I make the choice to, you know, take my ball and go home because I'm not playing anymore because I don't like what so and so said to me. That's where alignment counts. And too many of us are determining or gauging staff alignment based on how people are feeling at the particular moment. True staff alignment works regardless of how people are feeling. So if your alignment plan depends on you know, how emotions, then you are probably putting a lot of stress on yourself to be inspirational, especially, you know, I want to talk to my new principles here. Somebody you if you're new to the school or new to the the role, you're you're feeling all this pressure. I got to go in on day one and you know, people are going to be judging me about how I show up on day one.

Yes, I agree, You know that there used to be this commercial. You never get a second chance to make a first impression, but most of us are putting too much pressure on ourselves to make that first impression that we are in many ways undermining our ability to get our staff aligned because we're so we're starting out by trying to make everybody happy by trying to appease everybody by trying to, to, to, to, you know, it's this, this pick me energy that we're bringing into the situation. When you, when you start to realize that staff alignment is not emotional, then it takes the pressure off of you to be the motivator in chief, the inspirer in chief.

That's not what's going to create staff alignment. 

You'll get a temporary bump, but by the end of September, folks will be right back to where they were, maybe even sooner because you didn't create alignment, you created excitement, you created you, maybe you rode some back to school energy. So if you don't have true alignment, what happens during pre service week will not last. It won't last. It's ephemeral because it's built on excitement and energy, but not on true alignment, not on true commitment.

So, you know, if one of the reasons why I spend so much time talking about staff alignment is because so many people, that's what you really want, but you're chasing all this other stuff hoping you're going to get it. And that stuff is great. It feels good. Book the food truck, order the sheet cake, get a good one, plan the theme, decorate the halls. That's fun. But that's an enhancement of alignment. It is not true alignment. And that should take a lot of pressure off of you because you don't have to put all of your hopes and dreams on pre service week.

Alignment is going to last far beyond pre service week, which means that you can relax, have a good time, let people spend more time in classrooms and, and, and stop thinking that you have to say everything that there is that is important to say during pre service week because you'll never get your teachers again. It doesn't work that way. When you have to alignment that means that during pre service week you're not shoving all of this information down teachers throats because that's your only shot. Instead, you can you can give them the most important information and know that the conversation will keep going and people will be meaningfully engaged in that conversation preservice week after pre service week in October, in November, in February throughout the year. So that's that's mistake number one. OK, so mistake number 2 is that a lot of you feel like in order to create staff alignment, you have to be charismatic. You have to, you know, we all saw the teacher movies, right where you know, there's that, that that speech at the beginning of the school year that that everybody that you, the principal makes to the staff and it rallies the staff to this year we are going to do something different and everybody's excited. And so, so a lot of you right now are kind of worried about the beginning of the school year because you're not that person.

You don't, you know, you, you don't have that, that you're not super, you know, charismatic in that way. There's, they're not sending a movie crew out to, to, to film you. Others of you who maybe do have that charisma, that ability to get up front and do the great speeches. You're so focused on the speech and the charisma that you think that that's what's going to carry your staff through. Let me tell you something. Whether you do the beautiful shiny speech or you don't, whether you are charismatic or kind of quiet, whether you have this outgoing personality that makes people want to follow you or you have more of a steady personality that maybe don't stand out in the crowd. But you, you know, you're just steady and, and persistent. Doesn't matter.

Nobody cares because those speeches wear off. 

Those those grand gestures, those those things you do to get people fired up, we're off because again, they're about emotion. I love emotions. Great. You know, I was a former English teacher. I believe in ethos, logos and pathos. I think you need all of them. But so many of us are over relying on the pathos part and not on the other parts.

When we're so busy over relying on emotions, trying to get people fired up because and it's and it's a make or break situation. We feel like if we don't get them fired up at the beginning of the school year, that chance is gone. Well, that's not what creates true alignment, right? You could spend hours crafting the perfect message. And I, I think you should, I mean, I think you should be intentional and thoughtful about the message you send. But if your message is designed to get people fired up versus really designed to get people reinvested and your 100% vision working on the wrong thing. Hey builders, real quick before we get on with the rest of the episode, I want to talk to you about the 100% collective. If you are interested in becoming a builder and developing that 100% mindset, then the 100% Collective is for you.

Not only do we have monthly master classes, live master classes where I show you how to take some work that you are already doing, but do it like a builder. Do it in a way that is more effective, more efficient, in a way that takes the work and stops it from being drudgery and makes it actually something that feels meaningful, that moves you forward. We also have done for you tool boxes with all the tools you need to be able to implement. And we have step by step playbooks that layout the entire process for you so you don't even think about it. You just take the playbook and you can implement it right away in your schools. And we have a supportive community. So this is a safe place where you can bring your challenges and there are other people, other builders just like you who are encouraging you, who are applauding you when you win, and who are giving you their experiences as well so that you can learn from each other. If you are tired of just kind of going through and doing the work the way you've always been doing it, and you're ready to stop being a leader and to start building something amazing, the 100% Collective is where you need to be.

Join us at buildershipuniversity.com/community. Now back with the program. Your message is is is a more about trying to set the tone through energy and and charisma and clever PD things that you're doing versus setting the tone by re anchoring in your mission and your core values. You're wasting your time now. Hopefully this is providing some relief for you because it takes the pressure off. You are not the one who's holding everything together. And I think a lot of us, we feel like that, that, you know, that we feel like if if we don't hold it all together, then then it won't be together.

That's the number one sign that you don't have staff alignment.

You know, I was talking to a building office hours the other day and she was talking about how she was she'd met with her her building leadership team over the summer and they were working on, you know, tackling some really big problems, challenges that they're facing in their school. And because she has done the work to create true staff alignment, she said, I was sitting in the meeting and she said I felt downright lazy because I didn't have to drive it. They broke off into groups. Each group focused on tackling a specific challenge. And they came up with a plan and they're going to execute the plan. And she said, I just sat there and I was, you know, I was supporting and providing, you know, input when needed, But they were doing the work that is staff alignment. So if you're feeling pressure right now that that you have to be the one that's going to hold it together, that's going to bring it home, that's going to get everybody expired and motivated. And so you're working on your speech and you or your lamenting the fact that you're not particularly you're not the movie star version of what a principal should be or you're feeling like I've tried to get them rallied in the past.

And there's always that those people in the back who make fun of me or who, you know, shoot me down or, you know, I try to bring the, you know, all the things that you've tried to do in the past that have failed. And all of that's weighing on you and putting pressure on you. You just need to stop because the, the very fact that you are feeling that pressure tells you that you don't have staff alignment. Now, the people who do have staff alignment, they're relaxing. Yes, they may still do a speech, but the speech is not the thing on which everything depends. They're doing a speech that reminds people about the vision that they committed to, and they're doing a speech that that continues to share where they're where you're heading together. The speech is not designed to rally people. It's designed to remind them maybe they are still doing, you know, some things at the beginning of the year to to, to, to, to, to to help people remember the, the mission and the core values.

But they're not trying to reignite people's excitement. They're not trying to motivate people. People come back already motivated when you have true staff alignment. Now here's the third mistake. The third mistake is that we because we put so much pressure on that pre service week in particular as our one shot to get our staff aligned, then we blame external forces for what's really an internal drift. So we say things like, you know, I would have had better alignment if the district hadn't snagged one of my PD days. Or I would have had better alignment if the district hadn't thrown this curveball at us at the last minute. Or would have had better alignment if the district had just let me hire or fire that other teacher so I can hire this great teacher.

And so we think that our staff alignment depends on external forces. It's another sign that you don't really have alignment because if the district's policy can shake your staff, get people unmotivated, get people distracted, you didn't ever have true alignment to begin with. When you have an aligned staff, then whatever the district throws at you, you tackle it together. So I have seen Staffs who you know, same district, same district policy. The district policy hits school A and they don't have alignment and the whole pre service week falls apart. People are complaining and they're mad principals worried about bringing the district thing to them. Then it's, we know we can still do this and I know the district's taking your time here, but what I'll do is I'll cut my time so that you can have more time in class. And we start doing all of this appeasement right to to try to, we feel like we have to be the buffer between our staff and the district.

That's what happens when you don't have true alignment. 

It all falls on you and your climate is susceptible to whatever the district throws at you. When you have true alignment, school be the district. Same policy comes down and the principal says, here's what's happening. Here's our vision, mission and core values. How do we make this work for us? And the entire staff feels responsible for figuring it out. Totally different.

So pre service week isn't shot, the principal isn't running around trying to appease people, you know. Hey listen, I know we took you, we promise you 4 hours in your classroom and you only got 30 minutes. But here's a cupcake. No, it doesn't work like that. Instead, when you have true alignment, you find ways to work with what the district throws at you and keep building your vision. So here's the challenge for you. If you are thinking about pre service week right now and you're starting to stress out a little bit because a, you know, you're you're just you're you're you're worried and and putting the pressure on yourself that you've got to create this magical experience or else alignment. Just a shot.

I want you to stop. That's too much pressure right now and you've got more important work to do than to to be a de facto party planner. But you might like it. Like if there's some people get it, they get the doily gene and so they plan these amazing preservice weeks. But if that's not you, that's OK because staff alignment doesn't depend on, you know, whether or not the brownies were right or the OR the you got the pinatas that you needed or you had the perfect icebreaker activity, which by the way, most people hate anyway and would just rather you just get to the business so they can get in their classrooms. That's another podcast. OK, So you don't need that pressure on yourself, and you certainly don't need to feel like you're the one that has to manufacture staff alignment from thin air by making sure you have the right inspirational speech or the right motivational activities. Yeah, take that pressure off of you.

And you can't control what's going to happen with the district. So stop worrying about whether or not that's going to throw everything off. If you instead what you should be doing is thinking about how do I build real alignment from day one so that when people come back, I don't have to manufacture their enthusiasm, they bring it with them. I don't have to generate their motivation. They come already motivated. I don't have to worry about what's going to happen at the district because whatever it is, we will figure it out together. That's what true staff alignment gets you.

So I want to ask you, are you making any of these mistakes right now?

And if you are and you say, yeah, I, I can see myself, I, I am doing that, then you need to come join me for the staff alignment boot camp. We're going to show you how to do things differently this year. We're going to show you how you can get people on board and building an amazing back to school experience for people and and keep it going when pre service week or pre service two days, which is what most of us are getting these days. Whatever that pre service time is, when that's over, this stuff lasts. In fact, I'm going to show you how to build a staff alignment plan that gets your entire staff fully aligned around 1 initiative that you want to get through this year in the 1st 90 days. And so I want to invite you to join us absolutely free. This is something one of my favorite things to do because it allows people to, you know, it allows me a chance to go deep with you. We're going to spread it over six days with a break in between so that you have time to process and apply these things.

So we are getting started on I think it's July 27th, Sunday, whatever that Sunday is in July and we're going to go 6 days through one hour a day for six days. You can spare one hour a day right to that because it's not sit and get. You're doing work every single day. We're working on another piece of this puzzle so that by the time you're done, you will know exactly how to get your staff aligned in the 1st 90 days of school year. Which means that you can start out strong and get people, you know, drive the general, the excitement, enthusiasm from the beginning of the school year, but build a foundation underneath it so that it lasts long after the school year begins. Go to buildershipuniversity.com/bootcamp. That's Buildership university.com slash boot camp. Grab your free spot.

You know, we're we have a limit, right? And last year we had over 1000 people join us for this boot camp. So you do not want to miss out. So again, Buildership university.com/bootcamp, now next time we come together, I'm going to, you know, kind of finish this arc about the staff alignment. And I want to talk to you about what does it really mean 90 days? Why 90 days? Why can't I have staff alignment day one? Is it really possible to have 100% staff alignment in the next 90 days?

Going to tackle that 90 day part of it. And I'm going to show you exactly how we're going to do it. And so join me then in the meantime, this week, I want you to take the pressure off yourself and stop trying to rely on excitement and energy and motivation or thinking that you have to produce it in order to create true staff alignment. Instead, be more intentional about how you plan pre service this year and start doing things that are going to build true staff alignment like a builder. I'll talk to you next time.