The Three Minute Challenge: Minding Your Emotions to Set Your One Big Goal in 2020 — #TheThreeMinuteChallenge #NoExcuses2020

The Three Minute Challenge: Minding Your Emotions to Set Your One Big Goal in 2020 — #TheThreeMinuteChallenge #NoExcuses2020

by | Jan 8, 2020 | #TheThreeMinuteChallenge, Decision-Making, Excellence, Fulfillment, Goal Setting, Learning to Lead, Passion, Positivity

#NoExcuses2020

My goals are so high that I don’t have any time to relax in any way, shape, or form. ~ Kevin Hart

Life should be an incredible adventure, filled with spectacular moments. The life that we create for ourselves is not something that we should leave to chance, but rather one that should be pursued with persistence and hard work in order to achieve true happiness. We all have tons of things that we want to accomplish throughout life, and rightfully so.There is always an amazing sense of personal fulfillment when we grow. When we take the steps to see ourselves through the phases of goal attainment, we seek and reach new heights.

But, not every goal has to be as great as climbing to the peaks of Mount Everest. It can be as simple as working to be the very best parent for your child this weekend. Or, getting to a point of organization in our home or business office. The point is that reaching goals make us feel better in life and work. And, often our goals focus on conquering our inner-selves. We all have internal “mountains” to climb as well as the external goals that we want to achieve.

Regardless of what you want to accomplish this week, this month, or this year, there is power in identifying a single goal on which you plan to focus all of your efforts today, right now. Of course, over the time-span of this year, #NoExcuses2020, you may want to do more and be more. But, to be successful in any area, especially those that can feel elusive at times, requires incredible effort and focus. It means that we need to target one important goal at a time. And, it means that we need to address our emotional state before anything else is possible. This is Phase One of our goal setting model.

The Phases of Success Through Goal Setting

Avoid the tendency to try and set more than one goal. Remember, this is a goal that you have a deep desire to achieve, one that scares you just enough to create an unsettling feeling within you. It should be something that has been gnawing at you for whatever reason; you’ve been avoiding the required effort to make it a reality. Start with Phase One by taking The 3 Minute Challenge.

The Three Minute Challenge

Phase 1: Set One Big Important Goal

There are a few critical steps to identifying one big important goal. You have to take the time in this process to generate the emotional gravity that is equal to the desired achievement.

  1. Identify one goal that you are truly passionate about that you want to achieve this year. Tell yourself why this goal is important to you and the impact it will have when you are successful.
  2. Identify the 5-7 emotions that you feel when you think about the goal. What does it feel like to take the leap? Write them down.
  3. Find a cool, quiet place to relax and envision yourself pursuing the goal. What situations do you find yourself in during your pursuit? Imagine each scenario as you reach your destination, achieving the goal.

Technical Tip: One of the biggest differences between goal-setting and goal-getting is in the way we handle our emotions. When you write down your 5-7 emotions that you feel whenever you think about your one big goal, try turning all of them into positive emotions. For example, if you feel “anxious,” tell yourself that you’re “excited” instead. “Fear” can become “ calculated risk” and “lost” can become “opportunity.”

Reach out and share your story with us.

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.

Joe & T.J.

The Three Minute Challenge: Topical Training Investments for Teacher Leaders — #TheThreeMinuteChallenge

The Three Minute Challenge: Topical Training Investments for Teacher Leaders — #TheThreeMinuteChallenge

by | Dec 22, 2019 | #TheThreeMinuteChallenge, Culture, Education, Feedback, Learning to Lead, Principal Leadership, Professional Dialogue, Teacher Leadership, Teamwork

Plan for Success

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest. ~ Benjamin Franklin

Putting It All Together

In the world of culinary arts, there exists a fascinating, even mysterious, concept called “umami.” Although commonly referred to as one of the five basic tastes, characterizing this way doesn’t do it justice. Umami, which is the Japanese word for deliciousness, refers to the savoriness often found in many foods.

Umami is a substance perfectly formed to create an explosion of taste. When we think of growing and developing leaders, we are searching for a similar substance that will transform the ordinary into the extraordinary–a unique blend of experiences, training, reflection, and development to help leaders become effective regardless of their situation. Throughout this month, we’ve identified the key practices for developing teacher leaders. Great school administrators know that they cannot be successful without a core group of strong, instructionally gifted, teachers who are also leaders.

We began the month by establishing the proper foundation necessary for our teacher leaders to grow, which consists of exposure to universal principles for the novice person. The fact is that every school leadership team should be doing an ongoing book study. In our second step of development we increased the sophistication of the training through specialized, experiential training. In this quadrant, the teacher leader is still a novice, but the training is very specific, such as joining a school-based team to do instructional rounds. The third quadrant is where the teacher leader develops through learning practical skills. Much of this quadrant hones in on self-development through feedback. In our model, we distinguish the difference between the skill level of the person and their learning needs regarding specialized training and specific concepts. We do so because education is a people business–influential leaders masterfully navigate both the people and the issues. This brings us to the fourth quadrant.

Becoming the Expert

Because we are pursuing umami–the perfect blend of seasoning that delivers the greatest satisfaction and results–teacher leaders need to “graduate” to the fourth quadrant, which is topical. So many of the issues faced by leaders are multi-dimensional with long tentacles and significant implications. Development within this quadrant demonstrates that the teacher leader is truly in charge–leading an initiative or department, making a real change in the school, and focusing on the people involved.

The training in this quadrant mirrors the complexity of the problem and the challenges associated with it. A great example of a complex change that we often make is through a restructuring or modification to a curriculum based on new standards. But, the truth is that even when standards change and the curriculum and assessments follow suit, that doesn’t mean that changes will be made at the classroom level. Policies don’t change practice; people do.

The skilled teacher leader, in our example, understands the team dynamics at various levels, communicates with administration, knows the standards, can lead changes to the curriculum, and, most importantly, empowers teachers to make the necessary strategy adjustments in the classroom. They are experts in both the teaching side and the leadership side of the equation. They know how to do the work and how to influence the group they lead. Great principals know that both skills are necessary and they develop the specialized topical needs of their teacher leaders. Take The Three Minute Challenge:

The Three Minute Challenge

 

  1. Evaluate the depth and rigor of the training that you are providing your teacher leaders as a group. This should mostly fall within the foundational quadrant. But, because they are confronting and solving real issues that require a keen understanding of the problem and the people involved, they also need topical training. Identify one of the leadership topics where each of your leaders needs more development. Make a list of the topics.
  2. Find a leadership conference, local or nationally, that has strands that address the topics you listed. You may be able to send your whole leadership team or budget to send them in groups of twos and threes. The key is that the conference is not a typical teaching conference but an actual leadership conference.  
  3. After folks have gone to their training on the specific topic, create a check-in calendar that establishes a clear timeline to evaluate practice and progress for the teacher leaders. These meetings should focus on pre-identified short-term goals that represent essential progress toward the desired outcome. The outcomes can be based on the change they seek to influence or a detail about how they are leading differently because they’ve been trained. Your job is to listen and provide feedback.

Technical Tip: Teacher leaders are teachers first. Their influence is born from their credibility and prowess in the classroom. As they continually develop as a leader, be sure that they are still enjoying what they love to do most—teaching! Although their role has grown considerably as leaders, their strengths remain within their love for teaching and learning. Not only do they need to grow as leaders, they need to continue to grow as teachers. The tip is to ensure that your teacher leaders are getting the leadership development necessary to lead better but also the teacher professional development to grow as teachers. Use the leadership continuum model as a teacher skill development model. Listen to what your teacher leaders want to learn next as teachers and find them the path to do that.

Leadership Continuum Model

Leadership Development Continuum Model

Reach out and share your story with us.

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.

Joe & T.J.

The Three Minute Challenge: Practical Learning & Feedback Cycles for Teacher Leaders — #TheThreeMinuteChallenge

The Three Minute Challenge: Practical Learning & Feedback Cycles for Teacher Leaders — #TheThreeMinuteChallenge

by | Dec 18, 2019 | #TheThreeMinuteChallenge, Education, Feedback, Learning to Lead, Principal Leadership, Principals, Professional Dialogue, Teacher Leadership

The great aim of education is not knowledge, but action. ~ Herbert Spencer

From Novice to Expert

When we think of great leaders, we often think of someone we know or someone who we have read about or studied. For us, the greats, like Lincoln, quickly come to mind. It’s easy to think of his influence, key characteristics, and noble qualities, which set him apart from so many others who have led from the same office. We know, though, that titles and degrees don’t make leaders, and experience alone is not a great teacher. Understanding theory, contemplating concepts, and even studying situations doesn’t compare to being fully immersed in practical experiences. Yes, these growth activities are great for the novice leader and will help her to lead with more efficacy, but there’s no substitute for practicing a specific skill and taking the opportunity to learn from the experience, gain valuable feedback, and set a course toward mastery. As the adage says: “one hour in the field is comparable to twenty hours in the classroom.” We may think of Lincoln as an expert leader, but he, too, was once a novice.

Practicing to Lead Better

Leadership is a multidimensional skill that takes significant practice to get better. One of the most frustrating things is that even as you begin to master one aspect, another area quickly reveals itself as a weakness. It’s the humble and reflective leader who grows and learns from all situations, continually evolving as they work toward being highly effective.

This month we are totally focused on developing teacher leaders, who are critical to the success of any school. But, just because they are excellent classroom teachers, does not mean that we can assume that the skills that make them a terrific teacher translate into sound leadership strengths. Although they may put considerable effort into leading their department or a school-wide initiative, teacher leaders often don’t get enough feedback on how well they are leading. Teacher leadership teams are a widely used practice for managing change initiatives and special projects in schools, but too often they are not supported in their growth as leaders.

Teacher Leader Training

When we think about teacher leaders and training, we need to separate and distinguish actual leadership skills versus pedagogical expertise. For example, our math department chair needs to be a master within the domains of curriculum, instruction, and assessment and must also possess the ability to skillfully lead a department. Real teacher leadership goes well beyond ordering supplies and delivering messages from the principal. Great teacher leaders know how to skillfully address teacher and student needs, review data, and drive a course of action aligned to the vision and mission of the school.

This dynamic role requires them to receive cycles of coaching and direct feedback as they learn to lead better and grow faster. They simply cannot become an expert without targeted, well-developed training, based on the practical experiences they encounter in their roles.

Take the following challenge to support your teacher leaders and their growth in a specific area of practice:

The Three Minute Challenge

 

  1. Identify a specific leadership competency that you would like to support for your leadership team or a specific leader on the team. Review the skill at an upcoming leadership team or face-to-face one-on-one meeting. Be sure to discuss what it looks like in action. 
  2. Schedule a time to visit a department meeting that one of your teacher leaders is running. Be prepared to observe the leader practicing the skills you discussed. Take note of what they do well for specific praise. You want to focus on strengths before making any corrections or recommendations. Note one nuance that could help the leader to hone their skills to be better for the next meeting. 
  3. Continue the cycle. One-and-done feedback sessions aren’t typically enough for real change to occur. Keep your teacher leaders on a cycle of feedback just as you would with feedback for your teachers regarding their classroom practices. As you support their strengths and provide critiques to their methods, follow up on those specific recommendations so that you’re seeing the results in action over time.

Technical Tip: When identifying leadership skills to bolster, use a set of teacher leadership standards. You can, of course, use the skills you’re discussing in your book study, but there are leadership standards, and standards specific to teacher leaders that you can reference with ease.

Leadership Continuum Model

Leadership Development Continuum Model

  

Reach out and share your story with us.

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.

Joe & T.J.

The Three Minute Challenge: Experiential Learning for Teacher Leader Development — #TheThreeMinuteChallenge

The Three Minute Challenge: Experiential Learning for Teacher Leader Development — #TheThreeMinuteChallenge

by | Dec 11, 2019 | #TheThreeMinuteChallenge, District Office Leadership, Education, Feedback, Learning to Lead, Planning and Preparation, Principals, Teacher Leadership

Experiential learning takes place when a person involved in an activity looks back and evaluates it, determines what was useful or important to remember, and uses this information to perform another activity. ~ John Dewey

Experiential Learning

Experiential learning, or learning by doing, is a critical step in the teacher leader development process. This quadrant is about leadership refinement. We liken this work to that of the stone sculptor, who systematically removes pieces of stone to create a specialized work of art. The routines and norms established for foundational training, such as book studies and case studies that can be discussed at leadership team meeting, are perfect for general leadership growth. Once established, it’s time to move forward to more specialized experiences for teacher leaders. This is not to say that they’ve mastered the foundational knowledge quadrant or that they’re experts in their roles. It just means that they need more development experiences that put them in a position to actively engage as a leader, reflect on their engagement, and use that information to improve a skill (such as feedback conversations and department meeting debriefs about findings from classroom visits).

Teacher Leader Isolation

One challenge in providing experiential leadership development for teachers is that most teacher leaders are classroom instructors, allowing very little release time to draw on experiences beyond the classroom walls. However, this is where school administrators need to be creative, since the benefits far outweigh the obstacles. Having teacher leaders join administrators, specialists, and other coaches for learning walks, instructional rounds, and other classroom visits are the only ways for them to gain access into the eye-witness accounts of what happens within the department they lead. The key to experiential leadership development is that it takes prior planning to ensure that it can happen seamlessly within the teacher’s day. Take the following challenge to support your teacher leaders.

The Three Minute Challenge

  1. Identify a problem-of-practice (POP) for a department or initiative that is being led by a teacher leader. Let’s take for example our world language department where we’ve identified the need for teachers to spend more time in the target language. Prior to setting up instructional rounds, we review this POP with the world language department head–what it looks like when done well and any other associated practices.  
  2. Next, schedule a day for the department head to get release time to conduct instructional rounds (visit as many classrooms as possible to see how often teachers are in the target language). If possible, visit classrooms across multiple schools for perspective. The idea is that the teacher leader gets to experience as many classroom visits as is feasible. 
  3. Lastly, leaders should visit classrooms together. The subsequent conversations and reflections are where the real learning occurs. The leadership lessons are what gets applied in the upcoming world language department meeting, not just the learning that takes place on the day of the rounds. Be prepared to debrief as a school leadership team but also with the department of teachers you visited. The feedback conversations are more important than anything for both teacher leadership development and growth for the teachers in the department.

Technical Tip: Don’t be bound by a walkthrough tool for giving feedback to teachers. Supervisors and coaches should be able to provide narrative feedback aligned to the overall instructional focus during walkthrough visits. That said, instructional rounds are different. Use a tool that helps the teacher leader to collect data about how often teachers are speaking in the target language.

Leadership Development Continuum Model

Leadership Development Continuum Model

Reach out and share your story with us.

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.

Joe & T.J.

The Three Minute Challenge: Set the Agenda for Teacher Leadership Development — #TheThreeMinuteChallenge

The Three Minute Challenge: Set the Agenda for Teacher Leadership Development — #TheThreeMinuteChallenge

by | Dec 4, 2019 | #TheThreeMinuteChallenge, Feedback, Learning to Lead, Teacher Leadership

One must first of all have a solid foundation. ~ Sri Aurobindo

Advice for Principals 

A celebrated principal we know well once told us these wise words: “Success as an administrator is quite simple–always remember that it’s about the people not a program.” This advice epitomizes what great leaders understand, which is that people make the difference, and it is the responsibility of the leader to continually invest in them to develop their capacity.

Teacher Leader Capacity 

Successful school systems build a network of strong teacher leaders who exercise extensive control over key responsibilities that can range from being a data coach to mentoring new teachers to the department chairperson. The art of leading well is in knowing what people need in order for them to grow and learn in these multifaceted positions and then to tailor their professional learning so that it is relevant to the person and their role.

The first step in capacity-building for teacher leaders is always universal in nature and requires leaders to devote ample time during every meeting to the professional growth of the team. This builds the strong foundation necessary for every leader, regardless of his or her position or responsibility. We realize from experience that there is always a great deal to cover on every leadership team agenda, but covering those items doesn’t necessarily lead to the team’s ability to make change after the meeting. In other words, we must ask ourselves whether or not a discussion of the items at the meeting puts teacher leaders in the position to lead what we’ve covered with efficacy and success. Two questions emerge:

Are you getting the results you set out to achieve with every item on the agenda?

Is success tied to the activity of the items or actual results?

If you answered either of these 2 questions with the potential opportunity to switch up your meetings to include a discussion of leadership, well, then you’re not alone. We often confuse completing an activity with the success of it rather than its actual goals. Efficiency can be mistaken for effectiveness. Completion doesn’t equal success, and too many of our agenda items end up being about process-checks rather than leading the work forward. With that said, take The Three Minute Challenge to redesign your next meeting, to support your leaders, by doing the following:

The Three Minute Challenge

  1. Identify an area of growth for your teacher leaders. For example, this month we are focused on feedback. This is a critical topic because we know how difficult of a skill it is to master. So, you may focus on Brene Brown’s work on clarity, such as “being clear is kind, and being unclear is being unkind.” In this case, we’ve selected “being clear with feedback” as an area for universal growth. Teacher leaders often need training to be clearer with their feedback regarding an initiative.  
  2. Next, write out your agenda and add this foundational training as a key part of what is going to be covered at the meeting. Remember, foundational development is the first quadrant of our leadership continuum, and it is designed for novice leaders and the principles covered are universal in nature, like “being clear with feedback.” Add it as an agenda item with 30% of the meeting time allocated to the discussion. 
  3. Last, plan ahead. Let your team know what you are going to do and why. Construct and develop an activity so the focus is evident and the outcomes are clear. Start with a simple book study using a book about being clear with your feedback as a leader. Then, sit back and watch your leaders transform as they learn to lead your initiative with more success.

Technical Tip: Set up a padlet to capture key ideas and thoughts in a central online space that can be referenced beyond the meeting.

Leadership Development Continuum Model

Leadership Development Continuum Model

Reach out and share your story with us.

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.

Joe & T.J.

The Three Minute Challenge: The Trusted Few and Evaluated Impact of Decision-Making #TheThreeMinuteChallenge

The Three Minute Challenge: The Trusted Few and Evaluated Impact of Decision-Making #TheThreeMinuteChallenge

by | Nov 20, 2019 | #TheThreeMinuteChallenge, Decision-Making, District Office Leadership, Education, Learning to Lead, Long-Term Decision-Making, Systems Thinking, Teacher Leadership

Trusted Few & Decision Impact Throughout this month we delved into the dynamic topic of decision-making. It’s fascinating to think that we make more decisions in a day then we take actual breaths. Although that’s hard to believe, human beings are built to be decision-making machines. And the types of decisions we make in a single day cover the full spectrum of complexity, importance, and significance. Some decisions are profound, with lasting effects on our lives, while others are merely inconsequential. Taking all of this into account, our goal is to provide a simplistic methodology for you to create an environment that helps you, and others, make the most of every decision you make. As educators and leaders, we are intrigued by decision theory and why people make one decision over another, the process they use to make a decision, and how circumstances dictate so much of the outcome. This is why it is necessary to take a step back and look at your decisions over time to help guide future situations. Whether it’s through a personal or professional lens, we are all subject to the realities decision-fatigue, which is the reason why core values and routines are so important. Without them, when we face challenging times, we tend not to make the best choices. The humbling truth is that leadership can be lonely, but that doesn’t mean that we have to take charge alone. Our decision-making prowess improves when we can employ the last two parts of the model. This requires us to rely on a few trusted individuals who can help us when making tough decisions and then to evaluate the impact of our decisions by measuring the effectiveness of their outcomes. Fortunately, not every decision requires consultation, nor does every decision necessitate evaluation. Take time for the following two challenges–only three minutes each–and you’ll uncover some of your own reasoning and patterns within the decisions you make.

#1: Evaluate the who, when, and why of your decisions — Trust is an essential element to any productive relationship. The more we trust an individual or group, the more apt we are to share our thoughts, feelings, ideas, and challenges. Unfortunately, we’ve all experienced a lack of trust at some point in our lives. The difficulty with not having trusting relationships in an organization is that time and energy are given to protection and secrecy instead of transparency and openness. The former halts success and increases suspicion, while the latter accelerates achievement and reinforces the mission. Take a few minutes to evaluate the level of trust within your organization as it pertains to the who, when, and why of your decisions:

  • Who do you rely on to help you make important decisions?
  • When do you include them in the decision-making process–in the beginning, when the issue is fresh, in the middle when you get stuck, or at the end when you have a fixed idea and you’re just looking for confirmation?
  • Why do you seek out those individuals as trust-agents over others who also may by helpful?

#2: Evaluate the how, where, what of your decisions — It can be said that the sum total of our life is what we accomplish is the culmination of all of our decisions. What we expect from ourselves and others usually determines our results. The challenge before us is in determining whether or not our decisions are moving us and our organization in the right direction. Take a few minutes to analyze the effectiveness of your decisions as it pertains to the how, where, and what of making them.

  • How do you know if a decision that you made was good or that it achieved the desired result? How do you take the necessary time to analyze the results?
  • Where, in terms of physical space, do you find the most success with your decision-making circumstances?
  • What aspect of the decision-making process do you need to improve–values, routines, people, or impact?
Stay tuned for our upcoming Review and Reflect where we take you through the entire month to synthesize the information to empower you to make better decisions. Find us on Twitter, YouTube, iTunes, Facebook, & SoundCould. And, again, if you want one simple model for leading better and growing faster per month, follow this blog by entering your email at the top right of the screen. TheSchoolHouse302 is about getting to simple by maximizing effective research-based strategies that empower individuals to lead better and grow faster. Joe & T.J.