One Thing Series: Telling Your Story with Joe Sanfelippo — #onethingseries

One Thing Series: Telling Your Story with Joe Sanfelippo — #onethingseries

 

 “People won’t change the way they talk about schools until we change the way we talk about schools.

Dr. Joe Sanfelippo is the Superintendent of the Fall Creek School District in Fall Creek, WI. The Fall Creek School District was named an Innovative District in 2016 and 2017 by the International Center for Leadership in Education. Joe holds a BA in Elementary and Early Childhood Education from St. Norbert College, a masters in Educational Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, a masters in Educational Leadership, and a PhD in Leadership, Learning, and Service from Cardinal Stritch University.   

Joe co-authored The Power of Branding-Telling Your School’s Story, Principal Professional Development: Leading Learning in a Digital Age, and Hacking Leadership: 10 Ways Great Leaders Inspire Learning That Teachers, Students and Parents Love. He was selected as 1 of 117 Future Ready Superintendents in 2014 and 1 of 50 Superintendents as a Personalized Learning Leader in 2016 by the US Department of Education. He attended summits at the White House for both distinctions. Education Dive named Joe 1 of 5 K-12 administrators to watch in 2018 and their National Superintendent of the Year in 2019. He has been a featured speaker in multiple states in the areas of Advancing the Use of Social Media for School Leaders, Telling Your School Story, Creating a Culture of Yes, and Personalized Professional Growth for Staff.  

TheSchoolHouse302 · One Thing Series: Telling Your Story with Joe Sanfelippo -- #onethingseries

 

Key Thoughts from the Interview:

  • “In the absence of knowledge, people make it up.” Joe provides incredible insight on the power of branding and why schools need to embrace telling their story. Learn how Joe creates connections and forces engagement. We’ll forgive him for his comments regarding the Philadelphia Eagles.
  • A powerhouse of inspiration, Joe mentions that Inky Johnson is a person he can listen to every day. If you don’t know Inky’s story, don’t let another minute go by! Within the world of education, Joe also mentions that he “leans into” Jimmy Casas and Tom Murray and we couldn’t agree more.  
  • Interestingly, Joe discussed the one thing that we should be doing every day is listening more. He powerfully describes how he often gets caught up in the “next thing” and can overlook the moment. You have to hear what he also says about doing something a little scary.
  • Listen to what he says about reading. It’s awesome and totally about immersion and engagement.  
  • With whom do you surround yourself? Are you around individuals who push you to another level? Joe describes how to grow, find out just how simple it is if you are actually willing.
  • Joe’s final response on what he used to believe is a great example of doing what makes a difference versus doing things you think make a difference. 

Joe’s interview is a practical how-to interview. His suggestions on telling your story are simple yet profound. The story he tells of the young man bagging groceries is what it is all about. 

Please follow, like, and comment. Use #onethingseries and #SH302 so that we can find you. For more great leadership content, follow dereka206.sg-host.com

Joe & T.J.

 

Tell Your School’s Story — #TheThreeMinuteChallenge

Tell Your School’s Story — #TheThreeMinuteChallenge

Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships. ~ Michael Jordan

A fun pastime among sports enthusiasts is to debate the best sports teams of all time, regardless of the sport itself. Undoubtedly, this is a challenging, arguably futile, exercise with fierce loyalties and subjective opinions, which inevitably cloud good judgment. Regardless, there are some heavy hitters that always make the list and that can’t be ignored. As Phillies fans, it is hard to admit, but the ‘98 Yankees definitely stand out. From the batter’s box to the pitching mound, they dominated the playing field. We’ve already mentioned the Chicago Bulls in last week’s post, so we’ll give a shout out to our friends from the north and recognize the incredible run that the Edmonton Oilers had in the 80s. 

The question that looms when these arguments arise is about the essence of what it means to achieve unmistakable greatness. Granted, great teams win, but putting together a winning team is far more complex than just assembling talent. Players need to not only be the very best in their particular position, but also must complement the team as a whole. 

Schools aren’t vying for NBA championships, and certainly won’t get the same accolades, but building a “Hall of Fame” team in your school is not much different from any other sport or big brand. Every teacher and staff member must excel in their roles and be able to contribute to the school as a whole to guarantee that it functions at its highest level. The first step in building a winning team is in your dedication to branding and actively telling the school’s story. This generates attraction and attention, which leads to the second critical step, recruiting. People want to be a part of something great, and if your school is doing incredible things for students, others will want to join you. Lastly, selecting the right candidate is paramount. Vacancies go far beyond the job opening and extend into the culture, the fit, and all of the other aspects of being a strong team player.

Excellent schools capitalize on all three areas–branding, recruiting, and selecting–to build their winning team. Take the first step in branding by telling your story. Use the ThreeMinuteChallenge below, and let us know how it goes. 

  1. Reflect: Think about how well you are engaging the greater school community and informing them about all of the things that are going on in your school.
  2. Identify: There are multiple avenues for telling your story and continually building your brand. Identify one or two key social media platforms that you will use to communicate your school’s priorities and achievements. We like Twitter best for this. 
  3. Do: Commit to a 10 day challenge of telling your story. It only takes three minutes a day to Tweet, share a pic, or create a quick video. For 10 straight days, commit to communicating something special about your school. Whether it’s preparing for the upcoming school year or celebrating recent graduates, find ways each day to promote the great things that define your success. 

Pro Tip: Audit your website to see how well your brand is communicated. In BrandED, Authors Sheninger and Rubin tell readers to assess their website by conducting a website “walkthrough” to determine if the message is clear and consistent as well as to determine if it effectively communicates the school’s story. 

Stay tuned for more challenges, reflection questions, leadership models, podcasts, and more by following dereka206.sg-host.com. It’s our job to curate, synthesize, and communicate so that you can lead better and grow faster. In a world plagued by nothing but noise, we help you by getting to simple.

TheSchoolHouse302 is about getting to simple by maximizing effective research-based strategies that empower individuals to lead better and grow faster.

3 Books that Every School Leader Needs to Read to Build A Winning Team

3 Books that Every School Leader Needs to Read to Build A Winning Team

Great School Leaders Understand How to Market & Brand Their School

Don’t miss this vblog on books you need to read to lead better and grow faster. We recommend three titles that are must reads on the topic of building a winning team–branding, recruiting, and selecting top talent. 

https://youtu.be/pSUzJhQo8Uc

BrandED by Eric Sheninger & Trish Rubin 

The Power of Branding by Sony Sinanis & Joseph Sanfelippo

Building A Winning Team by Joseph Jones, Salome Thomas-EL, & T.J. Vari

Let us know what you’re reading by contacting us at [email protected]

We can’t wait to hear from you. 

Joe & T.J.

PS — If you have a topic you want us to cover or need recommendations on books to read in a particular area of leadership, just send us a tweet or email. 

A School Leader’s Guide to Building A Winning Team

A School Leader’s Guide to Building A Winning Team

A Winning Team

Creating and sustaining a winning team of talented people is maybe the single most important task of a leader. But a winning team is not just about putting together a group of high performers. In fact, the problem is twofold: 1. Assembling a team of driven players doesn’t automatically create the chemistry that it takes to “win.” And, 2. Building a team is more about the current culture of your school or business than it is about pulling new people onto your staff.

Consider the first problem. Having all the best players on one squad doesn’t mean that output will go through the roof. In fact, capacity is always more important than competence. You need people who can pivot–agility, adaptability, and the art of learning a new skill far exceed a narrow expertise. Dennis Rodman is considered one of the best rebounders that basketball has ever seen. But he was a leading scorer in college. On a team with shooters like Pippen and Jordan, Rodman found his niche.

Let’s also consider the second problem. If your brand, your culture, and your casting net are weak, your team is not set up to win. To drive the point clearly, we bring forward the Google-culture that attracts talent from around the world. It’s their branding and the fact that their internal working benefits are as well known to the public as they are to their employees.

That leads us to the three most important ways that you can build your winning team–the boosting and branding of your culture, the recruitment techniques that you use, and your selection process when you’re hiring. Let’s dive a bit deeper into each.

Branding Your Team 

The branding equation is simple: Story + Priorities = Attraction. In The Power of Branding, Sinanis and Sanfelippo address the importance for schools, or any organization, to tell their story. Too often, even the local community, and sometimes parents, don’t know all the great things that happen within a school. Even worse, when something unfortunate happens, that does get advertised. Schools with the best reputation earn that stature by systematically telling the story of every great moment, program, initiative, and circumstance. It’s why “priorities” is the second component of the equation. Telling a story about how priorities came to fruition builds the belief that the team is winning. In fact, it provides proof of the “scoreboard.” That is precisely what attracts outsiders to a brand so that the team gets stronger from the inside-out as well as from the outside-in.

Recruiting Your Team

Too often, recruitment strategies are passive. A vacancy pops open, the job is posted, and we wait to see what the application pool presents. But with tools as easy to use as Twitter or LinkedIn, it’s almost irresponsible to be less than actively recruiting for top talent, even targeting individuals with a proven track record. Especially if your brand is clear through the stories you tell about the priorities you’ve set and goals you’ve met, it should be fun to glamorize an opening on your team to attract the leading players in your field.

Selecting Your Team

Finally, organizations can’t leave the selection process to an interview alone. Interviews aren’t good measures of anything more than interviewing skills. That said, the key to a quality selection process, even an interview, is through the creation of what we call the archetype of the position. When you have a vacancy, you don’t just need a qualified person to join the team. You need specific traits, skills, experiences, and mindsets to fill your gap. Creating the archetype of the position means intentionally listing (and posting) what it is you’re looking to gain. Yes, you may need a certified social studies teacher, but what other gaps in experience and culture might this person fill? Don’t just consider the primary functions of the role, examine the other aspects of the team that the person is joining to ensure diversity and fit.

Want to Know More? Check out Building a Winning Team. We dive deeper into branding, recruiting, selecting, and a ton of other content to help you create and sustain an awesome team of people. If you want the most successful team possible, you’ll enjoy the technical tips, strategies, and practitioner spotlights that are included in the book. Let us know what you think. We love to hear from you.

Stay tuned for challenges, nuggets of wisdom, reflection questions, technical tips, and the best resources for leading better and growing faster. Follow us at dereka206.sg-host.com to join thousands of leaders who get our alerts, blogs, podcasts, and more.

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TheSchoolHouse302 is about getting to simple by maximizing effective research-based strategies that empower individuals to lead better and grow faster.

Joe & T.J.

Review and Reflect: The Present Leader — #reviewandreflect

Review and Reflect: The Present Leader — #reviewandreflect

Model for the Present Leader

This is TheSchoolHouse302’s monthly #reviewandreflect, wrapping up our focus on being a Present Leader

Major Takeaway for this Month:

We wanted to focus on presence this month since we are disconnected during COVID-19 in so many ways. Granted, you may be on calls and Zoom meetings all day long, but nothing truly replaces the human connection than in-person opportunities allow. 

Presence can be achieved in three predominant ways. One, Tune In. Present leaders notice things and they are very aware and sensitive to what’s occurring. Two, Presently Lead. We have to be in the moment, directly handling the tasks for the day. Three, Forecast the Future. Know what’s around the corner, which is referred to as perceptual acuity, puts present leaders in a position to make meaningful decisions by “seeing around corners.” One of the best ways to understand the future is to make decisions that put your vision into play.

Three Minute Challenges

Throughout the month we offered 3-Minute Challenges to develop the skills necessary to be more present as leaders. The desire to be more present and readily available for your team is one thing, but it’s only valuable if it is supported with decisive action. 

How well did you do on the challenges this month?

How well do you notice what is going on around you and within your organization?

How well do you lead in the present with a full understanding of the current circumstances?

How well do forecast the future by intimately understanding the present?

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Read to Lead

One of the most powerful ways to fuel your thinking and continue to grow is to be a voracious reader. Below are the three must reads we’ve featured this month.  

The Leadership Pill by Ken Blanchard & Marc Muchnick 

Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman

I Have the Watch by Jon Rennie 

What an expert has to say about leading in the present:

We were thrilled to interview Jon Rennie this month. Jon’s time as a Naval officer on Nuclear Submarines and experience within industry makes this interview incredible. Jon’s insight on being present and the damaging effects from the absentee leader make this a must-listen podcast. 

Jon described how a ship in the harbor is really nothing more than cold metal until the crew brings it to life. Present leaders do exactly that for their organization.

That’s our Review and Reflection on the Present Leader

TheSchoolHouse302 is about getting to simple and maximizing effective research-based strategies that empower individuals to lead better and grow faster.

Please let us know how our leadership posts are working for you, what you are reading to improve yourself, and your thoughts on leadership and growth here on our blog and Twitter. Follow our #onethingseries podcast on iTunes and our #readthisseries on YouTube. 

Joe & T.J.