EPISODE #316

Are you a Borrower or Builder?

You're listening to the School Leadership Reimagine podcast episode 316.

Hey builders, before we begin today's episode, I just wanna remind you that enrollment closes this Friday for the 100% Vision Sprint. So you still have time to register, but you need to move quickly. The 100% Vision Sprint is starting on Monday, June 16th.

And during the six week sprint, you're gonna do three things. You're gonna develop a vision that lights you up, that gets you excited, a 100% vision for success for your students. And you're gonna develop a vision story, something that you can use to share with your staff that will help them immediately begin to buy into your vision, take ownership of that vision and get into alignment with that vision and it'll last all year long.

And then finally, you're gonna develop a vision plan, a 100% vision plan. And on that plan, you're gonna know exactly how you're going to achieve that vision. So it's not just a hope or a dream or a wish, but you can actually see how it will happen. And it will blow you away. You need to move quickly. So if you're still planning on joining, go to buildershippuniversity.com, sign up, because you have until Friday, we get started on Monday.

Now on with the show. You're listening to the School Leadership Reimagined podcast episode 316. 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 a 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 I wanna ask you a question. Are you a builder or are you a borrower? Now, the reason I have to ask that question is because I meet a lot of people out in the wild who come up to me and say, hey Robin, I'm a builder. And I get so excited. I love it when people identify as builders. But the more we talk, the more I realize that they are kind of cherry picking the parts of buildership they like, treating buildership like a little buffet where I can pick this piece, but I'm gonna leave that piece or I'll do that piece later. And whenever you do that, whenever you kind of cherry pick strategies from buildership, it might help you feel like you're making progress. But if you are not all in, if you are not totally building, then all you're doing is patching.

All you're doing is plugging in a hole here or there. And I mean, that's great. That'll give you some results. But if you're not all in, then there are some dangers. And I wanna talk to you about that and give you a warning about that today so that if you are borrowing, then you can start to see how sometimes being a borrower can be a trap and you can start to do something different so that you can see real progress this year. So let's dive in. So here is the borrower trap. People listen to this podcast or they read books or they attend some of our masterclasses and they're like, you know, this buildership thing is really cool, right? They learn a few things and they implement them and they see immediate results. You know, all of our masterclasses are designed to produce real results right away. Like the moment you get off the masterclass, you can take the playbook, you can start implementing it immediately and you see results and people are doing that. And so that's sexy. It's exciting. People love that, right? But those are our buildership tactics, but that's not the whole story. And if you don't have the structure and the consistency and the alignment of the whole buildership process, then you get some quick wins and they feel great, but they don't lead to kind of long-term transformation. They create anecdotes.

They don't create that full success story, right? So if you're treating buildership like a buffet and eating what looks good and leaving the rest, then you often feel very productive. You feel like, oh, I'm moving, I'm a builder. And then the next time you hit a snag, you don't have the infrastructure in place. And then you start thinking, well, maybe buildership doesn't work because you're looking for quick fixes rather than going all in into buildership and seeing how it can make a difference. So there's a hidden cost to half building, right? When you half build, when you pull the pieces and you're not going all in and implementing the entire process, then a lot of times you think you're clear because, oh, I have an idea of what my vision will be, or I want every kid to do this, or I know that I believe in 100%. And you start solving pieces of your problem, but you never ever eliminate the problem.

So that's a difference between being a builder and being a leader, right? 

So when you are a leader, you solve pieces of problems, right? So I knock this off, I took care of that, I took care of that. But what builders do is we work to eliminate problems. The thing that is one of the most gratifying things for me when I'm in office hours in Buildership University and talking to builders is when I can see the progress.

A year ago, they were talking about this problems, all they could think about. A year later, I bring up, hey, how's that thing going over there? And they're like, huh, what? Oh, oh that? Oh, I haven't thought about that in months because they just eliminate the problem altogether. With leadership, you solve pieces of problems and it makes you feel good in the moment, but then the problem shows back up again. And when you are a borrower, you are coming in and you're grabbing a piece and it solves the problem, but without the full system in place, you don't eliminate the problem. So the problem shows back up again and then you're frustrated because you thought it was gone, but it's not gone because you were doing it in pieces, but you weren't doing the whole process. The whole process eliminates the problem.

So it never comes back again, right? The other thing that happens when you half build, when you just kind of borrow pieces of Buildership, but you don't go all in, is that you still have the inconsistency, right? Because part of what you're doing is Buildership and part of what you're doing is leadership. And oh, and there's this other piece over there that's still left over from the boss part. And so you're doing all those pieces, but they don't fit together. Remember, I've always told you, Buildership doesn't play nice with others. It doesn't, well, I should say it doesn't play well with others. Buildership's always nice. So you have this piece of Buildership here. You've got this piece of leadership here. You've got a little boss residue over there.

And then you wonder why things feel so inconsistent, why you're hitting all these bumps, why you have these good days and then these not so great days, why you have this great big win. And then right after the win, you have this frustration that's still there. And it's because when you go half in, you create more inconsistency. You think you're solving things or taking it slow or whatever, but what you're doing is really creating a lot more inconsistency. And then that leads to burnout because you're doing all this work and you see glimpses of results, but the results don't match the amount of work. Now, I always say, I was talking to a group of principals the other day and they were saying, we like this idea about Buildership, but it looks like it's hard.

And I said, the work that we do as administrators is hard. 

There's nothing that's gonna make it easy. If it's easy, then maybe you're not doing it right, but choose your heart, right? So the heart that you're experiencing now is that you are constantly putting out fires. It feels like a giant game of whack-a-mole. You are constantly dealing with personality conflicts. You're constantly chasing, checking and correcting people. You're constantly having no time to do the things that you wanna do. You are constantly trying things and they don't work and then you have to try something else. And that's hard.

And that's a version of hard, right? With builders, the hard looks different because with builders, a lot of the hard is frankly unlearning the leadership nonsense you were taught so that you can truly be a builder. That's hard. Being a builder, part of the hard of being a builder is putting systems in place, right? Because builders realize that when you have the right systems in place, your systems do the work. So you gotta take time to put the systems in place. And a lot of people are like, oh, I'm so busy. I don't have time to put the systems in place. But the reason you're busy is because you don't have the systems. The builders who put systems in place do that hard work up front. You have to really think.

You have to be thoughtful when you put these systems in place. And that's hard. But once you do that, then a lot of your work gets easy and more consistent. It's hard being a builder because a lot of times you're the only one and people look at you like you're a weirdo and they don't get what you are doing. They wanna keep pulling you back into leadership. And it's hard to be the only one at first. But you go through that hard and you put results up and then all of a sudden everybody wants to know what you're doing. How did you do that? How can I learn how to do that? And you go from being the weirdo to being the one that everybody else is jealous of because you're putting up these results and you make it look easy. So choose your heart.

Do you wanna just consistently work hard and not see results? That is a version of hard. You can choose that. Do you wanna invest the effort upfront so that things get easier later? It's another version of hard. You just gotta choose. But when you dabble, you don't ever make the choice. You get attracted to the, oh yeah, I wanna eliminate problems, but I do the dabbling and borrowing and half building that gives me some immediate relief but it doesn't eliminate the problem altogether. Just solves it for now and kicks the can down the road, right? Choose your heart. I want to stop working so hard. So I continue to work hard, hoping that if I just get through this period, maybe things won't be so hard.

Spoiler, it never happens. 

Or I can resist the urge to go into that busy work and work really hard and put things off that I really should be doing until later. And stop, do the things that I really should be doing so I don't have to do the other stuff anymore. Choose your heart, right? So when you borrow, it doesn't take away the burnout. It just masks it. It just gives you this false hope that, oh, I'll implement this. That looks really cool and maybe things will get better. You'll get a win. I mean, the Buildership tools are, in my opinion, amazing. They're designed to give you a win. So you'll get a short-term win. But if you don't have the whole system in place, then after a while, something else is gonna pop up and you're just gonna feel like I'm working really hard and it's just not getting any better.

The only way for it to get better is for you to put the entire process in place because they work together. I love it when people start seeing how the system works together. We have the Buildership model. We show you how all the parts work together and it sounds good in theory. But when people start experiencing it, when they start seeing, oh, this architecture works with this architecture, oh, they come together, then they start to see how it is all interconnected. And when you have the whole system in place and everything is working, then it's just, I mean, it's just your school is running like this well-oiled machine and you can take a step back and marvel at how well things are going.

It scares some people because they're like, wait, I should be stressed out right now. It's like, this is the time of year where I'm normally stressed out. Why am I not stressed out? And we have to just assure them, you're not stressed out because you have the system in place. The system is doing the work that it's designed to do. So you don't have to stress out. So you don't have to jump in and fix anything. And that's what I love about the whole process. And that's what you don't get when you just borrow and dabble in buildership and you half build and you don't call in. The last thing that happens is that when you half build, you really lose a lot of traction and momentum because you're kind of always starting and stopping.

So, you get going, you get a real win, then you slide back into leadership. 

Then you get going again, you get a real win and then you slide back into leadership. And you never get any momentum going. And I see that a lot with people who really believe in buildership and are committed to it. You get pulled back into leadership if you're not careful, right? So the idea is that if you put the whole process in place and you stay consistent, the more you do it, the less you get dragged back into leadership. But if you dabble here, then get distracted and go back here, then dabble here, then get distracted and go back here, you never ever build the traction that you need to create the momentum that you want so that you can actually see results, right? So here's my plea with you today, right? And this is what builders do differently. Builders commit to the full system. They don't just kind of grab a piece here and grab a piece there. They really recognize that buildership is a whole different way of doing things. It's not something that you append to the leadership stuff that you're doing. It's not a bolt-on or add-on. It's something entirely different.

And so they commit to the full system even when doing so feels counterintuitive. Even when everybody around you is talking about all this leadership stuff that they do and it sounds kind of interesting, but you know that you're just gonna get dragged back into the treadmill that you've been on for years. Builders resist that and they keep their focus on buildership. Hey builders, real quick, before we get on with the rest of the episode, I wanna 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 masterclasses, live masterclasses 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 it's 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 toolboxes with all the tools you need to be able to implement. And we have step-by-step playbooks that lay out the entire process for you. So you don't have to 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 slash community. Now, back with the program. Builders know that they don't have all the answers and that it's not gonna be perfect. 

They recognize that buildership requires work.

We're working hard anyway. They don't have the answers anyway. So they're not stressed out about that because they know that the more that they do this work, the more that the work starts to work for them. And so they trust the process. I say this to builders all the time, trust the process. And when you do trust the process, you see the results. You know, I was talking to somebody in office hours a couple of weeks ago, and she said something that I just love. In fact, I stopped and I wrote it down. You know, she's been a builder for a while and she's all in.

Dr. Trina, if you are listening, I'm talking about you. She is all in and is really committed to it. She's not a dabbler, she is all in. And what she's found after doing this for a while is that she says that when things come up, and you know, in the past, I would be the one pushing, I would be the one doing the fighting. But now I let my vision do the fighting for me. I let my mission and my core values do the fighting for me. So when she has parents that are coming in and they're creating chaos in the school, she doesn't have to fight her vision, her mission, her core values do the fighting for her. When she's trying to make a decision, she doesn't have to agonize. She's got a one plan.

What is my vision? What does my one plan say? When she is trying to create momentum, she doesn't have to manufacture motivation. She goes back to her vision story. When you put the systems in place and you trust the process, what happens is those systems do the work for you. The systems do the fighting for you. And so you don't have to do it and fight and figure it out on your own. Buildership creates this, it's almost like a safety net for you that allows you the space to not only do the work that you came here to do, but enjoy the rewards of that work. You know, leadership often though, the work of leadership often disguises the rewards of being an educator, right? Think about back when you were a teacher and how you would reach a kid and the kid had that light bulb moment. You would just be glowing for weeks off of that. Or you had a breakthrough with a kid who was heading in the wrong direction. You got him in the right direction. Or you helped a kid or made a difference in a kid's life. That feeling, that's what keeps us going. That's what makes us continue to do this work. And then you become an administrator. 

And all of a sudden those moments are so few and far between sometimes.

You know, you don't get that direct access to kids the way you used to get. And so a lot of times the impact that you have on kids is done through other adults. And sometimes you don't see that direct impact. You're the one that's getting yelled at the most. I was talking to a group of assistant principals last week. And one of the things that they were talking about was just how lonely it is in the job.

And if you are a principal, it's even lonelier because you're the only one in the building. And you're kind of squeezed in the middle, right? The teachers are pushing on one side, the parents and families are pushing on another side, the district is pushing on another side. It creates this very huge loneliness vacuum that where you are the only one and everywhere you turn, people are pushing. And sometimes you just think, I wish I was back in the classroom. It's so much easier. I didn't have to deal with all of this. Leadership disguises the rewards. It hides the rewards. It obfuscates the rewards.

You can't, a lot of times you're so busy leading that you don't have the space or the room or the bandwidth to enjoy the feeling of being able to make a difference. You can't even find it. That's what I love about being a builder because the rewards are built into the process, right? When you have that 100% vision, then as you move forward and as you start working towards that vision, stuff starts happening, the work changes. You're not just getting through the day, you're building 100% student success. That feels different. When you have that vision story and you start sharing that vision story with your staff and keep repeating that vision story, you start to see them change.

The culture shifts, the work tilts, the alignment gets created and you begin to experience those rewards. When you develop that one plan, I was talking to another builder in office hours and Ashley was saying how she, for the first time, could see how her school could get to 100% by looking at that one plan. She sat down, she looked at it and she was like, oh, I get it, I see it now. And then you can't unsee it. You stop looking at all the problems and the roadblocks and you start to see how you can make that difference. That's what happens when you go all into buildership. But if you just dabble and borrow from here and there, you never get the whole picture. You never get to see the whole process. 

You never get to experience those lasting wins.

The best you get is, you know, a success anecdote. Like, oh, I tried this and it worked and it was great. You get a win, but you don't get the victory. And that's what you're cheating yourself of when you don't go all in. So here's the thing. I just want to re-invite you to go all in. Stop dabbling, stop borrowing a piece here and borrowing a piece there and hoping that it's gonna fix your leadership. It's not. You need to get rid of the leadership altogether and become a builder.

So you've already said yes to 100%. What would happen if you actually said yes and committed to building that 100%? You've already acknowledged that, yeah, I want 100%. I don't like doing this work and half serving kids and these 5% incremental gains. I really do want all my kids to be successful. You've already said that, but what if instead of just saying that and then being continually frustrated because you're not there yet, what if you really went all in and you actually built a school where 100% was possible? You can keep borrowing. Listen, I'm not gonna stop sharing things that will work and helping you get wins because it's important and it's important for you and it's important for the kids.

So you can keep borrowing if you want. Just know that when you do, you are cheating yourself and your kids of something greater. So my simple request to you this week is this. How about you stop borrowing? How about you really do become a builder, not just a name only, but a builder, a builder who commits to the whole process, somebody who is all in, right? Give me a borrower and it'll wear you out. It'll create more frustration. It'll give you a few more wins than you're getting now, sure, but at the end of the day, you're still gonna be frustrated.

You can become a builder. Really commit to it. Go all in.

And so I'm talking to several groups of people here. I'm talking to the people who have been kind of lurking. You listen to the podcast, you read, maybe you signed up for the Monday Morning MindSteps and you like the stories and you're getting inspired.

Maybe you've tried to create 100% vision and you wrote something that's very similar to the one you already had. And maybe you've tried a couple of the strategies and gotten a couple of wins. Stop, there's so much more waiting for you. You just have to go all in. But I also wanna talk to the people who were all in and got distracted. You started out and you said, yeah, I'm a builder all the way in.

You may have even signed up for Buildership University. Maybe you're in the 100% Collective. You were on the calls. You are putting the stuff in. You wrote your vision. You worked on your vision story. You got to your one plan and said, I'll do that later. And then somewhere along the way, you stopped. Maybe you did your one plan, but then when you got to the feedback architecture, you were like, whoa, this is something. I'll do it later. And you stopped. Or maybe you got all your architectures in place, but you didn't start getting your team. You stopped somewhere along the process. You were all in. And then you got distracted.

I wanna invite you back. We're still here waiting for you. And those victories that you were creating by building all the pieces of the process, they're still waiting for you too. Come back, jump all in. Because if you do, I promise you, if you put this process in place and you finish what you started, you will start to experience the victories that you were hoping you would experience. The problems that you're dealing with right now, they're cropping up because you haven't finished. Come back and finish and we can eliminate those problems altogether. The frustrations that you're feeling right now, they're there because you haven't finished and there's no shame in it. Come on back. We'll help you get finished. Wherever you are in the process, if you are at the beginning and you haven't quite started yet, I'm inviting you to start. Just start. Let's build this. And if you are somewhere in the midst of the process and you've lost your way, then I'm inviting you back and letting you know that we're here to support you. Wherever you are, I'm begging you, don't be a borrower.

Stop dabbling. Stop half building and go all in. 

There are so many victories waiting for you if you do.You don't have to continue to settle for what you're settling for. You can actually start eliminating problems. You can actually start stacking one victory after another. And this work can actually feel different, better, empowering. I feel it. If you finally go all in, 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 wanna invite you to join us at Buildership 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 buildershipuniversity.com and get started writing your school success story today.

Hey, real quick before you go, if you enjoyed today's episode and you know someone who would really benefit from what you heard here today, maybe they're struggling with a thing that we talked about in today's episode, would you take a moment and share this episode with them? You see, not only will it help us get the word about buildership out to more people, but you're going to look like a rock star because you're going to give people something they can really use to help them get unstuck and be better at building their schools. Plus, it would mean the world to me. Thanks so much and I'll see you next time.

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