Episode 164 – Why you may want to throw away your School Improvement Plan

EPISODE 164Why you may want to throw away your School Improvement PlanBiggest Takeaways You Don’t Want to Miss:Most school improvement plans are little more than a work of fiction. They don’t represent the reality of our work and they present goals that are either too low or not meaningful enough to make a real difference […]

Episode 163: How Builders Achieve Their Vision in 3 Years or Less

EPISODE 163How Builders Achieve Their Vision in 3 Years or LessBiggest Takeaways You Don’t Want to Miss:If you only focus on tactics, you will perpetually chase shiny objects and never achieve real traction towards your goals.Strategy is not enough. If your strategy is not contextualized in a larger vision, mission, and core values, you’ll stay […]

Episode 162: Are these 3 fears keeping you from achieving your vision for your school this year?

EPISODE 162Are these 3 fears keeping you from achieving your vision for your school this year?Biggest Takeaways You Don’t Want to Miss:If you don’t believe in your vision for your school, no one else will either.There are 3 big fears that keep us from setting ambitious visions for our schools. Unless you overcome these fears, […]

Episode 161: Summer Rewind: Episode 84 Success is Boring

EPISODE 161Summer Rewind: Success is BoringBiggest Takeaways You Don’t Want to Miss:It may seem as if the road to success is all about the latest and greatest new innovation, but as it turns out, success is much more boring.True success is really about doing the boring stuff consistently and pervasively.Instead of chasing the latest shiny […]

Episode 160 – Summer Rewind: TOLO?

EPISODE 160Summer Rewind: TOLO?Biggest Takeaways You Don’t Want to Miss:If we really saw our work through the lens of TOLO, there’s a lot of things we’re putting off right now, that we would immediately start doing — and there’s even more that we would STOP doing.Instead of TOLO, many of us are living that TANY […]

Episode 159 – Our Annual Summer Reading List

EPISODE 159Our Annual Summer Reading ListBiggest Takeaways You Don’t Want to Miss:When you are a Builder, you stay open to new ideas and use them to expand your own thinking and make what you are building better.Builders understand that in order to create what Timothy R. Clark calls “psychological safety” they need to ensure that […]

Episode 158 – How to deal with your Haters

EPISODE 158How to deal with your HatersBiggest Takeaways You Don’t Want to Miss:When you are a Builder, you become a target because what you are building challenges some people’s status quo and makes their excuses about why it can’t be done irrelevant. As tempting as it is to fight back when someone attacks you, it’s important […]

Episode 157 – Are you focusing on the “means” more than the “ends?”

EPISODE 157Are you focusing on the “means” more than the “ends?”Biggest Takeaways You Don’t Want to Miss:Sometimes we spend so much time and energy trying to solve a specific problem that we lose sight of our bigger vision and goals. Leaders chase solutions to the symptoms of their biggest challenges. Builders take time to understand the […]

Episode 156 – 6 Early Warning Signs You May Be Giving Up on Your Vision

EPISODE 1566 Early Warning Signs You May Be Giving Up on Your VisionBiggest Takeaways You Don’t Want to Miss:Being a Builder is often lonely at first. You must be ready to step away from everyone else, move forward, and start building first. The more you keep building, the more others will join you. But if […]

Episode 155 – 5 Questions You Should Be Asking Before You Close the School Year

EPISODE 1555 Questions You Should Be Asking Before You Close the School YearBiggest Takeaways You Don’t Want to Miss:Leaders focus on getting through the end of the year. Builders use the end of the year as an opportunity for serious reflection that helps them learn from the school year and use those insights to build […]