The Principal's Handbook

Celebrating Principal Wins in 2025
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[00:00:00] In this episode, we're talking about celebrating as a principal. That's all coming up next on the Principal's handbook.

Speaker: 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. 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. I.

Welcome back to the podcast. Today we are talking about. Celebrating 2025 and why principals need to celebrate their wins.

And I decided to do this [00:01:00] podcast episode because I was sitting and reflecting and I was thinking, when was the last time I took time to truly celebrate myself? Not the staff, not the students, but myself. And this sounds very selfish when I say it, but it's not because we spend so much time. Or at least I know I do, thinking about all the things that I want to do better or we need to be doing better, and we think about these are the things I need to implement, these are the things I need to do.

But we rarely stop and celebrate. We rarely stop and celebrate like all the areas that we've made progress, all the areas that we've done really well. And what got me thinking about this is as I was recording podcasts, I realized that I have recorded over 120 episodes. Of the Principal's handbook. And that's super exciting because I've released an episode every week.

So that's over two years of being consistent of getting podcast episodes out. And [00:02:00] for the majority of that time, , I've been working full-time while doing it. So, you know, that's a big accomplishment and I never just take the time to celebrate those wins. So it just got me thinking about how many of us as principals do this.

We can celebrate other people, but we don't necessarily. Take time to celebrate ourselves. And I think part of why principals struggle with celebrating is we're conditioned to jump to the next fire to react. The next initiative that we have to do that came out from the state, , the next crisis that is happening.

Even when we say something good in a school, we always go knock on wood. Like, we don't wanna say it 'cause it's gonna jinx it. And so it can be really hard to celebrate. And often I think we also. Have the feeling that wins are just expected, like the things that we do well?

,, that's just the expectation as a principle. So we shouldn't celebrate it. It's just what we're supposed to do in our job. And I also think some people think celebration feels unnecessary because we're used to [00:03:00] putting everyone else first.

So it can feel unnecessary, it can feel selfish. And what it does is it's going to burn us out and we're going to have emotional exhaustion because. We need to take time to celebrate. Think about this. I talk in my podcast so much about the T cycle. Your thoughts create your emotions, which create your actions.

And so even if you're a positive person, if you're not taking the time to celebrate, it's not fueling further action of what. Good things are happening. , When you're celebrating, it forces your brain to look for what's working. I always say we can find evidence for any thought. I can find evidence for the thought that I'm not doing enough, and I can find evidence for the thought that I'm doing too much,

those are totally opposite thoughts, but I can quickly find evidence for either one. And so it's what thought do you want to focus on? And so do you wanna focus on thoughts of celebration of the good things you're doing? Or do you wanna focus on thoughts of what you're not doing enough? , And just [00:04:00] think about what is the action, what are the outcomes that happen when you focus on the good things happening?

It's just like When you focus on gratitude. , there's so much out there about gratitude. Gratitude shifts our thinking from, scarcity to focusing on what we have.

It focuses, , on things like not enough time to, and not enough. Support to this feeling of abundance. Look what's working. Look what I do have, and celebrating is kind of the same thing. It shifts us from what are we not doing enough of to look what I've done. And of course you don't wanna do this in a conceited way, but I think many of us struggle with just taking that time to celebrate the good things happening.

, And if you're a leader who celebrates regularly, you're going to be more resilient. You're going to have a more positive school culture because you're shifting the thoughts in that building.

You're focusing on a different thing. You're focusing on the good that's happening, not what we're not doing enough of. [00:05:00] And so if you think about it, if you get stuck in not celebrating. You're really desensitizing and not , bringing attention to whatever growth you've made.

You know, you Make staff feel unnoticed. If you're not good at celebrating, you make small wins. They just disappear. Those small wins, they feel not important, and motivation can drop, and so it's really important for you to focus on celebrating yourself. To yourself, , not to your staff, celebrating yourself to yourself, and then celebrating your teachers and your staff as well.

So first I wanna guide you through a reflection of just some questions you can think of. I just have, , six questions to think about. What you can celebrate from 2025. And I will put these in the show notes as well, so that if you wanna look at 'em, you can maybe even take some time to jot down some real thoughts about these reflection questions.

But the first question is, what did I do this year that I once [00:06:00] thought would be really hard or even impossible? . And this is a interesting question because as a principal, as the years go by, it's interesting to think about things that used to be really hard. Until something shifts. I joke, for example, I have some students that you know, the behaviors are higher than they've ever been, and that can be a really negative thing, of course.

But the positive from that is things that I used to think were a big deal as a principal are not anymore because my. , My capacity for dealing with behaviors has grown so much because the behaviors look different, think about what did I do this year that I once thought would be really hard or even impossible.

Second thing, where did I show courage or leadership? Even when I felt uncertain. So where did you show up with confidence that, you felt uncertain, but you showed up anyways? What systems did I build or improve that made life easier for students and staff? What difficult situation did I navigate better than I would have in the past?[00:07:00]

And then where did I grow as a leader? That's a huge one I think, to really think about all the areas you grew as a leader and I don't think we put enough emphasis, but every year you're in leadership. Hopefully you're continuing to grow. Even if you're in a district that is not sending you to a ton of professional development, hopefully listening to podcasts, you're reading your own books, you're finding ways that you can grow, and then of course the experiences that you have.

I always say all the different experiences I have, I grow so much. And then the people I work with, I'm, like I said, I'm in a new district. I'm thinking I've been there just for the school year and I have learned so much from just the different administrators I'm working with on behavior and navigating different things that I didn't navigate in my last district.

So I'm learning, I'm growing. , And then what did I accomplish this year that I'm really proud of? So just that general question and thinking about this even outside of the school setting, because again, I always say we can't look at ourselves isolated as, just a principal, but like as a [00:08:00] human, maybe you lost weight this year.

Maybe you became more active, or maybe you started taking care of your health better. Maybe you decided that you're gonna put your family first. , What did you accomplish this year that you're really proud of? And these things don't have to be huge. We have to celebrate. Those micro wins as well. And then once you take time to celebrate, , yourself, , you could even use these questions to celebrate with your teachers at a staff meeting.

Have them take five minutes to sit and reflect because we don't do that enough, and have them think about where they showed up with courage that they were excited about, and then share that if people wanna share out and celebrate that. The other thing I was just thinking as I did a staff meeting.

, My last school, I always started the staff meetings with celebrations, and that was a big deal and , I took that from the principal that I worked with, but we would start with celebrations and they were personal and professional. And so people would celebrate there when they were getting engaged, when they were having babies, and they would wait to share it at the staff meeting because they knew that.[00:09:00]

Part of what we were gonna do. And I laughed because one time at my old school, I forgot, a teacher was like, I thought about this. I took time and thought about this last night and you skipped celebrations. So then we had to go back to it. But as I was at my new school, I thought I, I've already had two staff meetings and I totally forgot that I always do celebrations.

So I started with celebrations and it was a tough day and it was really hard. But you know, even the smallest celebrations we're in a K one two building, kids throwing up in the trash can versus all over the floor or. Just making it to the bathroom. Like these small things we can celebrate. , It doesn't always have to be huge things.

Have those micro celebrations and then it gives us a laugh as well, and, it brings us closer together as a staff. So celebrate your teachers. I also like to celebrate, you know,, I talk about the data. Look at

how much these kids are growing. When we have data meetings. I like to point out specific kids scores that I see.

Huge growth. Look at that. You guys did that as teachers. , So pointing that out and giving teachers those wins [00:10:00] and helping them find that as well is really going to not only help them have more positive thoughts, emotions, and actions, but. It helps create a better culture in your building where it's one of celebration instead of constantly thinking about what you need to be working on.

And , I have to catch myself in this because I'm really guilty, especially being in a new building of, we have a long way to go. There's so much we could be doing, but I need to stop and just catch myself in those celebrations. And that was something my own coach that I'm working with talked to me about is like, how are we celebrating staff?

How are we looking? At that data, if you see good things, how are you sharing it with them? Don't just keep that to yourself. Share it with your staff. I also just wanted to share a couple ways that you could make celebration part of your routine.

So one is creating a daily or weekly win list. , Where you're thinking of three wins for the day. I like to do this where I, and this is part of my eight to four principle planner, is actually think of three wins for each [00:11:00] day. , What are three good things that happen each day and what are three wins I wanna have for tomorrow?

That's another way you could do it, like three wins that happen today. Three wins I'm already planning for tomorrow. Another way is some sort of teacher shout outs on Fridays. So I've done this in my weekly notes where I would have like teacher shout outs and thank yous. , You could also do quarterly reflection meetings with your staff.

The other thing I do is. We do positive notes and then put it on like a little ticket, and I pull a ticket and give out gift cards, to staff at the staff meetings so that they can celebrate each other. And it's simple things like, thank you to so-and-so for covering my duty. Or thank you to, , the custodian for doing something.

Whatever it is, you can thank each other for helping each other out. And then again, you could do celebrations at data meetings and celebrate the positive data changes that you're seeing with kids. And then celebrations at staff meetings where you're making sure to start at some sort of meeting.

Where you're celebrating [00:12:00] those wins. So those are just some things to think about to make celebration routines so that you don't forget it because it's so easy to forget celebrating other people. All right. So I really, really encourage you to take time to reflect on those questions that I talked about earlier.

If you're driving and you didn't really get a chance. Like I said, they'll be posted in the show notes. Go back and take some time and write them and just journal. I know that can be really hard, but we've gotta take time to celebrate. It's great to see where those wins are.

I always like to talk about your 1.0 and your 2.0 self, and if you go to episode one 10, I have a podcast episode about that. , But it really is thinking about your 2.0 self. Like what are areas you've changed, what are areas you've grown and they've just become part of your new identity and you might not have even thought about that.

So celebration just reinforces the identity that you're a person who keeps growing. Reflecting and appreciating the good things happening in your life. So I hope [00:13:00] that you take that. . I hope you find some leadership wins, personal wins that you can really reflect on and just have gratitude for those wins.

Alright, I hope that that's helpful, and I hope you tune back into the podcast next week. .