The Principal's Handbook

Building Effective Organizational Systems for School Leaders with Darrin Peppard
[00:00:00] Welcome to the Principal's Handbook, your go to resource for principals looking to revamp their leadership approach and prioritize self care. I'm Barb Flowers, a certified life coach with eight years of experience as an elementary principal. Tune in each week as we delve into strategies for boosting mental resilience, managing time effectively, and nurturing overall wellness.
From tackling daily challenges to maintaining a healthy work life balance, I'm Barb Flowers. We'll navigate the complexities of school leadership together. Join me in fostering your sense of purpose as a principal and reigniting your passion for the job. Welcome to a podcast where your wellbeing is the top priority.
, welcome everyone to the podcast today. I'm excited to have our guest on. I have Darren Peppard with us today, who's a leadership coach and author and speaker. And today we're going to be talking about organizational strategies for principals.
This is a topic I've heard come up a lot with principals just needing help with different ways to organize. [00:01:00] We know that there are so many initiatives principals are keeping track of and systems. So I just thought this would be a great topic. And I have Darren today, who's an expert. So welcome Darren to the podcast.
Well, thank you so much, Barbara. I appreciate you having me on and I'm looking forward to this conversation. Yeah. Do you want to start by just talking about your experiences and telling everybody a little bit about yourself and your experience as an administrator. Yeah, of course. So thank you for that.
So I was a public educator for 26 years. I began as a middle school teacher. I was a high school teacher, head basketball coach. I went on to be a high school assistant principal, principal, superintendent. So I pretty much ran the gamut. And in public education, um, a couple of pieces, I think that are relevant in my story.
I'm a traveler of the road to awesome. Everything that I do is connected to road to awesome. It's the name of our company. It's the name of my book. , but road to awesome really speaks to 2 moments in my career. [00:02:00] And I mean, we've all heard the, , the final stanza of Robert Frost poem. The road not taken.
Two roads diverged in the wood, and I, I took the road less traveled by, and it has made all the difference. We've, we all have those moments in our life, in our careers, where we face that fork in the road, where two roads diverge, and two quick ones that I'll share that really kind of define my story. The first is as an assistant principal.
I was in charge of all high school discipline and attendance at a school for about 1200 kids. I did over 2200 discipline referrals that year. Everything was, it was fighting a week in the hall every week, , terrible attendance. I mean, our culture was awful. And I know we're going to talk about culture and climate a little bit later, and that'll be kind of the driver behind that.
But in a staff meeting partway through the year, we're trying to solve like the two most important things, right? You know, the two biggest issues, Barb, in education are, what are you going to do about hats? And what do you know about cell phones? We're in that staff meeting, right? And somebody just raised a hand and said, why does [00:03:00] it always have to be about what they do wrong?
Why can't it be about what they do right? So boom, there's one, two roads a moment for me right there. We'll talk more about it a little bit later. The second one, I transitioned from being the high school assistant principal to being a principal, and I'd actually had been in charge of curriculum, instruction, and special programs, and I loved that AP role.
But when I moved down the hallway 40 feet, the superintendent told me, Hey, Darren, I need you to be the instructional leader of the school as the principal. But I already was. And so I took with me this thought of I have to keep doing everything I was doing and now be the principal and I've got to carry everything on my shoulders.
So every day I threw on the cape and I'm going to be the superhero at my school. And that led to, I know we're going to talk about this too, that led to burnout. That led to me being a very ineffective leader. , I was just a firefighter and I was real fortunate. Leadership coach was hired to work with me in my second year.
He came to my school. It was one of those days, right? [00:04:00] We were talking about this before we hit record, you know, those, those days that all of us as school leaders have, where you walk in the door, you got eight people want to talk to you, your push pin board is littered with notes, your secretary's got things, and you got an angry parent waiting in the lobby, right?
It's just a Monday, right? That was what it was for me. And My coach, as soon as we get everything accomplished, , we're out in classrooms , and he just stopped me. And he's like, Darren, do you want to be a leader or do you want to be a firefighter? And that was another one of those two road moments where it's like, okay, I have to make some decisions about who am I as the leader of my school.
And so in a nutshell, in a pretty big nutshell, that's kind of my story, those two moments. And I know those will kind of get feathered in as we talk about organizational systems today. Thank you. Yeah, I love that idea of a firefighter because I feel like so many people are doing that so often where we're just putting out fires versus being proactive about the systems and we do [00:05:00] organize the school.
So I think this will be a great conversation. Let's start with, , organizational systems around teacher support and development. You talked about you worked with curriculum and instruction, and we know. There takes a lot of systems that need to be in place to have good PD for teachers to continue to develop them and ways that you can give them ongoing support.
So what strategies do you have for that? Yeah, , so I would say, you know, first and foremost, Barb, and this is going to pertain to all of the different systems we'll talk about. But, , something that I feel really, really passionate about for all school leaders, and this connects back to that moment for me where, hey, I'm firefighter or leader?
, what do you want to do? It starts with gaining a lot of clarity around what specifically is it that you are looking for? What is it that you expect as a school leader of everybody else, but also of yourself. And when you can get really clear about that and that that's the work that I do with leaders is really hammering [00:06:00] home, getting clear, first and foremost, what is your compelling vision of Not the one that we write on the wall or that's in your policy handbook.
Those things are important too. , don't think I'm dismissing them, but as the leader of your school or as the leader of your organization, you have to have that clear, compelling vision, you have to be the one that's crafting that and helping everybody else understand what their responsibility is, what their piece is in achieving that.
You know, here's where I see our school in nine months. Here's where I see our school in two years. That's what we should really be focusing on. And when we gain that clarity, now we can kind of take a look at What is it that the people around me are going to need in order for that to become a reality?
, we, I don't know about you, but I certainly experienced this, , as mostly as an assistant principal, , we had a curriculum director in our district who or, Every time he went to a conference, we [00:07:00] cringed and he went to conferences all the time because every time he came back, here came a new initiative because he saw something shiny and we chased it.
And I'm not kidding. At one point we had 13 initiatives in the air and My teachers would just say, Darren, when do I teach? , like, when do I just teach, you know, cause there's so much stuff. So so getting to systems, number one, get clear about what you really are looking for, and then number two, I think you've got to identify where all of your staff are, what are their specific needs?
You know, , we talk all the time in education about meeting kids where they are, if you want your teachers to do that, you better model that. as the leader and meet your teachers where they are. We can't expect every single one of them to perform like your calculus teacher who's been in, in the classroom for 37 years and is, who's just an absolute brilliant, brilliant teacher.
You're going to have teachers who are brand new. You're going to have teachers who [00:08:00] are in their fifth year. You're going to have people who are going through different things in their personal lives. You've got to know where your people are. I think that's where it all begins. Get to know who they are, what their needs are.
So Number one system as a leader. Be a great listener. It doesn't sound like a system, but it is. You've got to be a great listener. That means going and spending time with your teachers in the classroom when there aren't kids there. Yes. Go and be there when kids are there. Do your walkthroughs. We'll talk about, that maybe in a sec, but be there when there aren't.
Because you've got to know what it is that they need and what really is going to be the best thing to help support and grow them. The second thing I would say as far as building systems around supporting our teachers. Is we've got to ensure that as school leaders, we are getting into their classrooms when there are kids there so that we can provide that support so we can be there to support them now, depending on what your [00:09:00] actual school, you know, looks like when I was a superintendent, we were really, really small.
I had 1 instructional coach for the whole district when I was a high school principal. I had a team of 5 instructional coaches and I had 3 assistant principals. So, you know, my. My instructional leadership team was quite a bit bigger. So, you know, identifying how each individual is going to provide support, how the collective team comes back and shares.
Here's what we're seeing as trends in the classroom. Here's what we're seeing as potential needs in the classroom. I think that's the real work of the building level leader. You need to be in the classroom too, but you've got to be in touch with everybody on your team so you know what they're seeing, what struggles are out there.
And then at that point, hey, either we develop , that professional development support from within. We lean into the teachers we have that are doing a great job with something. And, you know, we, we do some sharing out. We did a lot of ed camp style stuff when I was a school [00:10:00] leader. Or that's when maybe you need to lean into somebody from the outside to come in and provide that professional development.
But if you're not clear about what you're looking for, if you don't know where your people are, and if you haven't put together something around the team you have, then it's really hard to start building systems. So I would tell you that's where it begins. Yeah. And I want to, talk about two, one thing you said that I really resignated with I came into a building So I was the assistant and became principal.
But before me, , the principals were there like two to three years. So they had a lot of different principals and I learned as someone who had all these ideas as a new principal and wanted to, you know, initiate new things. , I had to respect what had been done in the last few years.
And listen, because like you said, they would start an initiative with a principal and then a new principal would come and have their own agenda. And then a new principal would come. And so by the time I was [00:11:00] there, I felt like I just needed to hear out what they've been doing and why. And see if I could help some of those initiatives continue so it wasn't just like, I come in, now I have more new stuff.
So I think that listening component is so big that you're talking about. Yeah, yeah, and something I'll build on with that. I'm glad you bring that up because, you know, when our curriculum director who just kept bringing more and more our way, and I don't think he was bad.
I mean, he could see it in his head where it was, but he wasn't able to provide the clarity to us, which, of course, meant our teachers had no clarity on how it all came together. once he retired, the next person came in. As a collective district leadership team, we talked about, you know, how do we best support our teachers and we created a protocol.
That's actually one of my favorite protocols. Now I do it in my own business. Um, it's a protocol that I simply call, start, stop, continue, consider. And I would do this in staff meetings. [00:12:00] Uh, so this is a great system, especially if you're a newer administrator, like Barb, like the situation you're talking to.
, and man, I see this so much, I talked to a principal about a week ago at a conference and she'd been the principal for three days. I mean, this was late November and she just got hired and she was the fourth principal in five years. This is happening so much. So this protocol will help your teachers to calm, you know, The waters to feel a little bit more relaxed and maybe to have a little bit of hope.
What I would do in a staff meeting is I would just put a bunch of post it notes on the tables. I would put four posters, one in each corner of the room. One would start, one would stop, one would consider, one would continue. And just have them start writing down everything they think is on their plate.
Everything they believe they're being asked to do. , when you've been through four or five principles in a short period of time, and there's all these different initiatives, you don't know which one belongs to who, but you're just thinking, okay, I know I've got this and I've got this and I've got this and I've got this.
One [00:13:00] thing per post it note. And then let's just start placing them around the room. What are the things we need to stop doing? Or that you would like to see us stop doing? What are the things we need to start doing? What are the things we should keep doing? And what are some things we should just consider?
What that does is it gives you as the school leader a great lay of the land. of here's where they think they are. I found when we did this, and I did it every year, I found that there were always things on the stop list that as a school leadership team or a district leadership team, we'd already said, yeah, we can quit doing that.
But they didn't get the message somehow. And yet they still are carrying this around, right? So that's a little bit of a squirrel chase there. But I think that's a protocol that really helps get that clarity, not just for you. But for everybody who's a part of your school, and it gives you a really good, clear vision of what everybody thinks is being asked of them.
[00:14:00] So that helps you really get them closer to where you're trying to go with that compelling vision. That clarity piece that you just talked about is so huge because I'm thinking about so many conversations, even after I'd been in the building for eight years. Of teachers being like, well, they said we had to do this and I'm like, well, who's they?
I'm the principal. Who's they? Yeah, the famous they. Yeah. I'm like, I don't even know about this that you're saying is like a rule or something that we have to do. , so it's just like they carry these things with them that they hear something and they hold on to it and think that it is a requirement.
Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah, it is. It really is. So getting that feedback, like you said, every year, not even just as a new administrator, but you know, where you can really hear their thoughts and what they think is on their plate, because you do say something once, but they need to hear it so many times in so many different ways that you're thinking.
I talked about this a couple of times and they still don't [00:15:00] understand that they don't have to do it anymore. Right. Yeah. Right. Well, in 90 percent of your teachers are going to be, I mean, they're, they're pleasers, right? You know, it's, it's, you know, hey, , Barb wants us to do this. I'm going to do everything I can to support Barb.
So I'm going to do this. , and before you know it, I mean, they're doing all of these things that you might have even said, yeah, let's quit doing that. But they missed that message somehow. Right. So I think , it's just a really great opportunity to just kind of reset. Uh, one of, one of the principles that I, I'm coaching right now, , actually in Nevada, , he has added , this protocol is every single staff meeting.
And , they made it a much more relaxed thing. It's not, you know, a bunch of posters and that kind of stuff. , they actually use a jam board, so it's just digital. You can go and add at any point in time, you can add something to start, stop, continue, consider through their jam board. But, , it just really, it just lets everybody feel like, Hey, I've got a little bit of a voice and I can share, you know, here's what's going on.
I mean, you know, it's a [00:16:00] big difference maker. I think it's a great system to use. Well, and I think that system goes into the next topic or overview of school culture and climate if we're thinking about systems for school culture and climate, you know, and I also think of the idea that you brought up that teachers are people pleaser.
So I think that plays a huge impact into the school culture because, you know, I've seen over time that emotions are so high. With people who are people pleasers, and they're passionate about what they do, and they want to do things right. And what can happen is it can create this high emotional environment, , where there can be conflict because people don't agree on things, or, They're not seeing the bigger vision, and it's maybe not aligned with what they think they should do.
So let's talk about systems here for school culture and climate. Yeah, absolutely. Well, so, and this goes back to, you know, my, my first two rows moment, you know, why does it always have to be about what to do wrong? , when I first got [00:17:00] to this high school, so it's not, it's not the school that I taught in.
Um, this is back at my home state. We, we decided as a family, we were going to move back, let our daughter grow up around, you know, aunts and uncles and grandparents and that kind of stuff. And so we come back to our home state and at this particular school, , I'm at a wonderful school. I loved my time at this school.
, But we were a pretty toxic culture and I, I didn't realize it. , and I'll be honest with you. I mean, again, I was in charge of high school discipline and attendance. So, I mean, that's arguably the most thankless job in school leadership. And, you know, again, , 11, 1200 kids did over 2200 discipline referrals and it was nonstop cookie cutter discipline.
And again, you know, we're in this meeting and it's gosh, why does it always have to go with, they do wrong. We had to take a deep, hard look. And this was me as an individual, first and foremost, at what are we really looking for? And I think, again, this gets to the clarity piece. [00:18:00] What are you looking for? And, you know, what is it that you expect?
I mean, back when I first got into this role, you know, I would start my day, grab my cup of coffee, and head out in the hallways, before the bell rang, and I could probably get three, four, five discipline referrals, just because I was looking for what they were doing wrong. And I wasn't the only one.
I mean, it was our whole leadership team. And. We had to start showing up a little bit differently and I think that was my big takeaway from that was if you want to change the culture in the organization that you're in, start thinking about how you lead it because you have no control over what anybody else does.
So for me, it was, hey, instead of going up and wandering the hallways looking for things kids are doing wrong, how about I show up at the front door? Now this isn't groundbreaking. A lot of principals are at the front door greeting kids, right? But I wasn't. So why shouldn't I, right? 90 percent of my kids came in the front door.
90 percent of my parents dropped off at the front door. 90 percent of my buses. Heck, 90 [00:19:00] percent of my staff came in the front door. I needed to just be there to lean into building relationships. That to me is the first piece when it comes to culture and climate. You said it yourself. Teachers are people pleasers, right?
They want to have a relationship with their school leader, you know They want to at least know that person sees them as a human being, and my focus Became, it wasn't right away, it became I wanted to build a culture on our campus where everybody felt that they were seen, they were heard, They were valued, and they were trusted and you can't do that from your own office.
You've got to be visible. You've got to be present. You've got to be engaged. And is it hard? Yes. Is it exhausting? Count on it. But that's how you build culture. You also have to ensure that people realize that culture doesn't belong just to one person. Everybody on the campus impacts the culture and the climate of your school every [00:20:00] single day.
So start by setting really clear expectations as a collective group. What do we expect? What are we looking for? And then I would tell you this is the system that we utilized. We leaned in very heavily. Again, we were a high school. We leaned in very heavily to the Jostens Renaissance program and the whole model with Jostens Renaissance is about recognizing, rewarding, and reinforcing what it is that you're looking for.
For us, discipline referrals were super high. Attendance was poor. Graduation rate was poor. You know, let's really lean into that. , let's recognize, reward and reinforce the great things that are happening on our campus. Very much a PBIS style model. If you're not utilizing some type of system that is designed to incentivize that positive behavior, that will not, emphasize , the attendance you want to see, , the attitude that you want to see, [00:21:00] that's where you've got to start working.
You got to really start leaning into here's what we want to see, and then just figure out how do you want to recognize, reward, and reinforce. I'll tell you at the high school level, what we did, was , we took the pep rally and we turned it on its ear. And we said, Hey, you know what? Pep rallies are awesome.
We do those for football. We do them , for a basketball team, whatever. What if we do them to recognize reward and reinforce academics, attendance and behavior? And those rallies became bigger than our pep rallies. You know, to actually recognize your board and reinforce kids who are meeting your targets and exceeding your targets.
Holy cow. First and foremost, 96 percent of our kids were doing the right things. All of those decimals referrals came from 4 percent of our population. We're spending all of our time on 4 percent of our population. So really make sure that you're leaning into those things , and then do the same thing with your staff.
You know, what is it you want to see , from your staff? [00:22:00] Recognize reward and reinforce that. I could give you a million different things we did. My book Road to Awesome has a whole giant chapter on just that, on how you recognize reward, reinforce staff, and a whole giant chapter on how you do it for students.
But I think that's a really, really big piece. Again, it gets back to clarity, Barb. What are you looking for? And then when you see it, Recognize reward and reinforce that. That's how you start to shift the culture of your school. And I like how, , some things are integrated. Like you talked about obviously visibility when you're talking about supporting teachers and instruction, but visibility in the building is also going to support the culture.
I would try to get into, I was only a building of, I mean, you're talking about buildings that are huge. I was like 550 kids, about 24 classrooms. So I got into every classroom every day. And teachers would expect me to do that. At first they weren't sure, but I did it because actually when I was a teacher, my principal did [00:23:00] that and I had parents who might complain about something.
And he could say, I assure you that's not happening. , I'm in the classrooms. I see what's happening. And I was able to then support my teachers in that way. Right. Where I could. Justify certain things happening because I actually was in the classrooms and then kids knew I was invested too. So I think it creates this overall culture that you're invested in their learning.
You care about the teachers and I was able to do a lot during those walkthroughs because teachers expected me to come around. So they would save their questions for me. They might have me talk to a student where it didn't have to be this big deal, but I could just pull them out and talk to them in the hall, you know, There's so many ways that can be utilized when you make it part of a system where it's routine and people come to expect it, you're going to be in there.
Yeah. So, so I'm curious, , I'm going to, I'm going to flip the microphone around here and I'm going to ask you a question on your own podcast , because I hear this often , from principals, you know, it's hard for me to get [00:24:00] into classrooms, right? I mean, uh, a really good friend of mine is a high school principal in San Antonio, 2800.
You know students on his campus nine buildings. He blocks the entire monday to be in classrooms period He's not getting into every classroom all day. He's in classrooms. How did you get into 24 classrooms every single day? There had to be some systems. I want to hear about that Yeah. So for me, I knew mornings was the best.
Sometimes teachers would be like, you come in at a , similar time each day. I wish it was different. So you could see different things. I would try to do that. But I would also say sometimes this is the only time I can get in because afternoons were crazy with, Discipline or other things happening.
So I knew from 9 to 11 the building was typically pretty quiet. So unless I had an observation or I would do it around that time, but I scheduled it every day. And I also didn't spend five minutes in each classroom. You know, I was in there, I was walking around seeing what kids were working on.
And You don't [00:25:00] have to be in there a long time, less than a minute, and you can see a lot happening in that classroom. I mean, I can go and instantly see what's being taught, see how the kids are engaged. Right. And so if you think about less than a minute within a half hour. I was able to get into every classroom in the building now for newer principles that I work with.
I usually tell them , if they're not used to doing this, and this seems hard pick a couple grade levels a day. Maybe you try to get in, 2 grade levels a day. On certain days or flip it, but, , just create a system where that's the norm that you're getting into classrooms because you'll see how important that is.
And I think it goes with delegating because the principal, like I said, and I was in a very tiny elementary school. So he probably only had 15 classes to get into, but. He came in three times a day. He was in my classroom. It felt like all the time, but it was just, he delegated so much that he wasn't in his office doing paperwork.
He was out in the [00:26:00] building, visible kids expected to see him as a teacher, they would be like, where is he today? Where's the principal, which I thought was amazing that they knew he wasn't there. , so that's something that I always strive to have is I wanted kids to know if I wasn't there.
Yeah, no, I think that's big because what you're really talking about there is taking ownership of your time. And I mean, I know you've got a question about operations and I'm just leading you right to it here. But if you as the building administrator can't take ownership of your time.
And you don't have at least the illusion of control of your time. I mean, let's not pretend that you have 100 percent control of your time, but the more you're able to own your calendar and be able to, I'm sure between nine and 11, your building secretary or administrative assistant, , whatever title you gave them.
, I referred to mine as the director of first impressions, by the way, because that's who's answering the phone. That's who the parents see. Right. But. Um, that person I would [00:27:00] guarantee knew when it was appropriate to interrupt you and when it was nope, Barb's in classrooms. I'm not going to interrupt her right now.
That is so true because when I started, They would interrupt me for the smallest things. , I would get so frustrated. And then it, like you said, it comes back to clarity. I had to realize , who was the problem? It wasn't them. They didn't know what to do. It was me not being clear about when to get me.
, and what was an incident that they really needed to find me, you know? , so that was a conversation we had to have a lot, and I have to do that. When we think about culture to protect, even when it was my assistant principal or the counselor, I would hear in the office, I'm calling her and I would say, , what's the situation?
Is it really this important that she needs to be called right now? Because it's easy to be like, oh, the student said this, they need the counselor right away. Well, she's very busy. You know, we have to prioritize. Yeah. Like, so same for the other 100 percent leadership team, but again, it's about having systems [00:28:00] in place so that people know, , like for me, when I was in classrooms, , and , this is one that I share , with school leaders all the time.
And so if you go in classrooms and you carry a walkie talkie, listen up, if you're driving, turn the radio up a little bit, right, or whatever, but pay attention to this one, turn the radio off when you go in the classroom. So many principals are afraid to turn that radio off because what if something happens, right?
You know, oh my gosh, they've got to be able to get a hold of me. I guarantee you have a cell phone, right? So the system that we developed, I'll give you this system. We called it 9 1 1, 4 1 1. If I'm in a classroom or one of my assistant principals is in a classroom, whatever, we knew, we had a shared calendar, we knew when people were in classrooms and If I'm in a classroom, I am not to be interrupted, not even for a superintendent phone call because the superintendent knows text me before you call me because if I'm in a classroom, you're not going to get me in my [00:29:00] office.
Right? But the system was if there is an absolute emergency, you text me 911. I will step out in the hallway and I will call you right away. If there's just something I need to know, but it's not like, hey, you've got to do something with it, just shoot me a little text 411. That's information for for those of you who are in my generation.
We used to be able to dial a phone 411. It was information before Google and just, hey, here's what's going on, you know. We had a student, fall and get hurt there in the nurse or whatever, right? Here's a little 411 for you, but keep doing what you're doing. You know, when you do that, well, you talk number one, you talk about a school culture piece that allows you as the building leader to be engaged.
When you're in the classroom, you shouldn't be sitting in the back answering emails, schedule your emails, do that at another time. But man, , when that walkie talkie goes off, , all that says to every single person in the room is, Hey, I was just waiting for a crisis. Now I gotta go. I'm gonna throw on my cape.
I gotta go be the hero again. [00:30:00] No, turn the dumb thing off. Nobody wants to hear that. And if you're like me, then you'll probably forget to turn it back on, which is okay. Also, they still know how to get ahold of you. I was actually terrible about carrying a walkie with me, so I always had my phone. So people would text me or they had a system where they would, , hit the intercom one time and it would just make a beep.
So wherever I was, that was like my sign. It was a true Oh, that's good. Yeah. So it nobody That's good. Yeah, I like that. Like . But it just was one beep across the building , and they knew a principal needed to show up, so. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, that's nice. It's , kind of like on an airplane, that the pilots will ding for certain reasons, and none of us know why, , but the, , flight attendants know exactly what it means.
That's cool. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that was helpful. Well, as we wrap up today, I want to talk about reflection. Like what does a system look like to really stop and reflect on leadership? Because I think often we don't take time [00:31:00] to do this enough. I had an assistant who was super reflective and would try every day he would schedule it, but I don't think this is something that we think of in our organizational systems of something that needs to be done regularly in a reflective way.
So what tips have on this with school leadership? Yeah, so I have two. Um, one, uh, and, and the first one kind of goes back , to the owning your calendar, right? Every Sunday I would go to my calendar and I would identify times that I was going to block where I could be focused on my priorities. As a school leader, I had six, and , this really is the core of my book.
There were six things that I was focused on as my highest, big, like, top level, I'll call them balcony level priorities, because balcony's number two, I'll tell you about it in a second. Number one, Building and maintaining positive culture and climate. Number two, ensuring that my staff felt seen, heard, valued, and trusted.
Number three, empowering and embracing student voice. Number four, being [00:32:00] the instructional leader of my campus. Number five, leading with a coaching mindset. And number six was being the champion of my organization. So I would make sure that I was putting blocks of time on my calendar. And my secretary knew those were times where I was not to be interrupted.
Those were my high leverage leadership times that I was going to really focus on whatever those might be. And I may not even know going into the week exactly what I was going to do in this 20 minute time block on culture and climate, but at least I had the time blocked so that I could make sure that it got done.
At the end of each day, I would check in on those priorities. I had a planner that I actually developed and I'm happy to give any anybody listening to the show, I would give you this planner for free. , where at the end of every day, there was just a little place for reflection.
And at the end of the week, just a little place where I could write reflection. And I always blocked about 20 minutes at the end of my day after I did my emails. To, okay, now it's time to reflect because we have to do that. [00:33:00] The second one and that's the balcony level leadership. And to me, this is the, this is a bigger one.
So I mentioned, I was a head basketball coach. , I coached back when video was actually shot with video cameras, , like it was actual video tape. Right. And we, our bus rides were three hours. , I was a coach in Arizona and we were about three hours , from Phoenix. And all of our region games were in Phoenix.
We're the only big school outside of the Valley North. So I spent a lot of time watching tape. Well, there's a school leader. I kind of wanted that same thing. I wanted some tape, right? And tape in basketball, it's always shot from the balcony level. So I would actually go stand in my high school gymnasium as a principal on the balcony, and in my mind's eye, I placed those six priorities on the floor.
And I would just check in on myself. How am I doing here? What evidence do I have to say that I'm really focusing on culture and climate? What have I done the last two weeks? I usually did it about every two weeks. It was [00:34:00] really a great exercise for me. The first couple times I did it, , that the balcony actually is an area that kids walk across to go from the main park.
To the pool at that particular school and I'm one who thinks out loud and I think my kids thought I'd lost my mind and then they're talking to myself like, geez, pep, what are you doing? You okay? And my secretary, like, came and checked on me. Like, Darren, are you okay? Um, but what I found was number one, it was an important exercise for me to reflect.
Number two, my staff started seeing that and understanding that. And I think they became a little bit more self reflective. And number three, my secretary, who, by the way, had 100 percent access to all of my email and all of my calendars, she would start to put that on my calendar if I was falling off of the path.
I would just see balcony on the calendar and go ask my secretary and she'd say, yeah, you need to get over there and get refocused. You're not staying focused on your priorities right now, which happens during the course of a school year, [00:35:00] right? I mean, we have that ebb and flow of, Of really busy times and not really busy times, but I think that's it.
I think number one, make sure you're scheduling your time and your settings time aside intentionally to reflect daily. But then also find that place Whatever it may be for me. It was literally on a balcony, but find that place where you can go and Really reconnect with the clarity that we started the show with what do you really care about?
What are you really focused on? What is that compelling vision and are you taking the steps? You'd need to be taking in order to truly be the leader that your school needs and deserves And the one thing I would add to that, I love the idea of a balcony view I feel like you can speak to this because of your current position and getting your own coaching.
, but I always advocate for people because I didn't really know what coaching was until a couple of years ago. Is if you are struggling in any way or feeling stuck, find a coach, find a leadership [00:36:00] coach. And there's a lot of different leadership coaches. I'm not just saying me or you, like you have to find someone who's a good fit for you.
, but I cannot speak enough to the power of having somebody else give you perspective. Who's not in your district because I was always talking to people who were in my school district. And so I didn't get that outside view until I hired coaches on my own. And I never had a district that bought my coaching for me.
I paid for my own coaching because I knew how important it was. , so just something I always like to stress to principals that if they're struggling. It is such an investment to get yourself a coach to just help you with your leadership, help you in all these different areas so that you can get back to that clarity.
Because like you said, unless you're revisiting it all the time, it's so easy in the day to day, the overwhelm, the stress, like to just try to survive. And not be leading anymore and not be in that vision and purpose that you originally set out to be as an [00:37:00] administrator. Yeah, Barb. I'm really glad that you bring up the coaching piece because I mean, what a game changer for me.
That was I mean, I seriously was a guy that I mean, I would describe myself as. As somebody who was breathing through a snorkel, like I could not get my head above water for that first year, year and a half. And honestly, it probably was in scuba gear. Most of the time I was so far underwater and working with that coach.
It wasn't just when he said, you know, do you want to be a firefighter or a leader? I mean, it was him being that sounding board. It was him providing some perspective. , and. In his case, he was still an active principal. So I went spent time at his school a couple of times and, you know, just being able to see how he operated, what he was looking for , when he went into his classroom observations, but just all of that, right.
, understanding, you know, how you develop systems. I wasn't a systems thinker until I had an opportunity to work with him. And, and I think so highly of coaching him. And not only is that what I do, But I have two [00:38:00] coaches myself now. I have a business coach and you know, I'm also a I'm a keynote speaker I have an actual speaking coach.
I mean you need that other perspective. It's so important So yeah, whether it's me you there are so many great people out there who can help you and maybe don't wait till you're struggling If you're brand new get a coach just get a coach it's amazing. I work with some principals who are 10 15 years into their journey and obviously some who are brand new in the role and everything in between.
I think , it's a huge, huge piece. I'm glad you brought it up. Yeah. Well, thanks so much, Darren, for being with us today. This was a great conversation. , how can people find you if they want to reach out to you? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, of course. Yeah. If you go to roadtoawesome. net that's R O A D T O.
Awesome dot net. , that's where you can get in touch with everything that we do. , The books are available on there information about our coaching Ways to contact us our new [00:39:00] principal academy. There's a link there to our new principal academy If you're a social media person, I am darren m peppered on literally every platform So come and find dm.
, also you can email me at darren at road to awesome. net All right. Well, awesome. Well, thank you so much, Darren. I appreciate having you on the podcast. Yeah. Thanks so much, Barbara. Appreciate it.
Mhm. Mhm.