The Principal's Handbook

Leadership by Design
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In today's episode, I wanna talk about creating habits as a principle. Stay tuned.
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.
Welcome back to the podcast. Today we're going to be
talking about creating habits As a principal, and I love habits and routines. This is how I am so productive, is I'm a very routine person. I have a lot of habits in place that really [00:01:00] help me to be successful,
I think as a principal, if you can be really intentional about building habits, it's going to allow you to get more things done automatically, and you can be proactive in the things that you really wanna get done. It also frees up your mental bandwidth. We know as principals, we make so many different decisions within a day, and there's so many complex decisions that we make that having free space with our mental bandwidth and
making less decisions is so helpful for us because we just get mentally tired. , I know I'm mentally tired by the end of the day, I am so tired. , and it also creates consistency that staff and students can depend on. So the more habits you have, staff and students see that it's just like in a classroom, right?
We know that good teachers have habits and routines in their classroom that students follow. We wanna do the same thing in our building. , So today I wanna talk about designing a customized leadership habit system that works for your specific school context, [00:02:00] because not all habits or routines are going to work for everybody.
Personalization for this is the key to make it work. I always think about my principal when I was a teacher. He had amazing habits. He was a person of routine. He always did the same things and that made him so successful. And one thing he did all the time was he was in classrooms. Constantly, like he was in my classroom as a new teacher at least three times a day, which I then later went and observed him after I had my own building to go back and see some of the ways he was visible.
And my building had 550 kids. The building I taught in had 275. That's a huge difference in getting in classrooms three times a day. There's no way I could do that. It didn't work for me in my building, but it did help me know that I wanted to be more visible just like he was. So you have to find those habits that work for you.
Also, he went out to recess every single day and played kickball with kids. It [00:03:00] worked for him. It was wonderful. We didn't have a lot of recess behaviors that he had to handle because he was out there playing with the kids and, refereeing the game so that there weren't issues.
Because I know as a principal, if you're elementary, there's always a lot of sport issues, right? Kids think it's the biggest deal when they're playing, and so they can play really rough and he. You know, didn't have behaviors because he was out there being proactive. So that was the habit he had. Now in my building, again, I couldn't do that because lunch span, over lunch and recess was over a , two hour period of time because my building was so big when his was small, like it wasn't that long.
There were only a couple blocks. So all of that makes a huge difference. , and I also really quick just wanna. Talk about the difference between a habit and a routine. So really routines are systems that you put into place and you do them at certain times and they become a habit when they're automatic.
So routines become habits over time. So I kind of say both words really the goal is [00:04:00] for everything to become a habit over time because you do it so long term. But I think often in leadership we think of them as routines. , it's the same idea. It's having things in place that you're doing at the same time, you know, every day, weekly, monthly, whatever works for you.
, so why do many principals struggle with consistent habits? I wanna talk about that. Often I hear from principals that they can't have habits and routines because there's too many emergencies. They live in this world of there's too many emergencies. I can't even try to have that right. And the problem with that is you become a very reactive principal when you're constantly telling yourself this story that there's too many emergencies for me to be proactive.
And so you really have to change your mindset and think about the fact that the more you can be proactive, the more habits you can have in place. The less reactive you have to be. So for example, I just said the principal at my school when I was a teacher was outside at recess and he had a lot of, he mitigated [00:05:00] a lot of recess issues because he was outside with the kids.
And so that took away from him being reactive to recess issues by being proactive by being outside. So again, you have to figure out what works for you. Um, also administrative demands. There's a lot of demands on principles that can push out our intentional leadership practices if we aren't really intentional about protecting that time and protecting those habits.
We also can get caught in the comparison trap, right? Like I said, if you copy another principal's habit system, it's probably not gonna work for you because you have a different amount of students in your building. You may or may not have an assistant principal. You may or may not have secretaries that you can delegate to.
All of these things make a huge difference on what your habits look like, so I can't tell you what the best habits are for you. You can't follow exactly what another principal does. You have to make it work for you. Also, I just wanna say there are years that I had extreme behaviors, [00:06:00] and then there were years that we had less extreme behaviors that also impacted my habits.
So from year to year, again, it's just like being a teacher where your classroom looks different year to year. So does the building right. We, uh, you know, we've had some extreme behaviors in the building that I was in before that they moved, and it totally changed the next year and what that looked like for behaviors.
We know that just a couple kids can make a huge difference in what your day-to-day looks like. So. Thinking about all of that and not getting caught in the comparison trap and then thinking about, you know, how a one size fits all approach to leadership routines. It will fail. It will fail because like I said, every building has its unique challenges.
Its unique demographics, histories. , your staff is very different. I worked in a district where there were two elementary schools. Our staff were so different. Even that principal and I, even though we were in the same building. We couldn't have the same habits. We had different leadership styles and that's okay.
It just worked for [00:07:00] us. It worked for our buildings. And I see that with principals that I coach in the same district, right? Every school has its unique demographics of students and staff that brings on its own challenges, , that they need to have their own habits and routines that work for them. So really think about, you know, the size of your building, your staff.
Do you have a veteran staff? Do you have newer staff? Are you at an urban school versus a suburban or a rural school? You know, what grade levels do you have in your building? These are all things that you have to think about that are going to shape your habits and what works for you. Okay, so those, as we go into this episode, those are things I want you to consider.
But now I wanna talk about four ways that you can create a new habit. So I have. I have a product called Leadership by Design, and it's the complete habit tracking system. And in that product I talk about four ways to create a new habit, and that's what I'm talking about today. I am talking about from that product, these four ways to create a habit.[00:08:00]
And the first way is the habit loop. And the Habit Loop comes from James Clear and he has the book Atomic Habits, one of the most read, , books about habits. He has a great newsletter that he sends out, so I highly recommend that book if you have not read it. But he talks about the habit loop, that basically there's a cue that triggers your behavior.
Then you have a craving. So a motivation for that behavior, a response, and a reward. Okay, so cue a craving response and reward. And you have to know what those are. So he basically says, if you're trying to get rid of a habit, you need to create a new habit because there is this habit loop. And , as you're thinking about your school leadership.
Thinking about what cues, what triggers do you need to have that initiate behaviors? Is it, , something on your phone, an alarm on your phone? Is it. Someone reminding you, you know, what is that? And then thinking about your craving, what motivation do you have for the behavior? So for example, if it's getting in more classrooms, [00:09:00] maybe the motivation is to be more visible.
Maybe the motivation is to see what's happening with your new reading curriculum,, whatever that is. But having that craving in there, and then the response, what is that actual habit that you're going to do and what's the reward? What's the benefit you get from that? And hopefully, if we're talking about classroom.
Walkthroughs. The benefit is you get to actually see kids engaged in learning. Another way you can create a new habit is implementation intentions. I love this. It's super simple. It's just basically when then planning, so you're thinking about When I do this, then I will do this. So for example, when I arrive at school, I will plan out my day when I do announcements.
, I will go to classrooms right after, so thinking about when you do something, then you're going to do this, and you can identify natural transition points in your day. Maybe when you go to lunch duty, then you're gonna go to classrooms, right? Whatever that is for you. But just thinking about what [00:10:00] is that intention, what's that habit, it goes back to what James clear's talking about.
It's that cue, right? So the when is your cue and then your response. What are you gonna do? Another way I like to form habits is habit stacking. This is such a great way, is to build on habits from existing habits. So basically, if you wanna start a new habit, you build it on from something you already do.
So for example, I had said, you know, I do morning announcements every morning. I wanna get in more classrooms after I do morning announcements, I'm going to get in classrooms. That's, , morning announcements is a habit I already have. I'm gonna create a new habit on top of that. Okay? So identify what your strongest existing routines are, and if you're like, I don't have any routines, I don't know what to do.
Well, you have the routine of going into school. That's a routine. You have a routine of leaving school. , you probably have a routine at some point of checking email of. Talking to teachers, you know, just think of these small routines that you have [00:11:00] and how can you build on those existing routines.
And then there's micro habits, and I love micro habits because it's super small. You're picking the smallest habit and just starting with tiny actions because if you think about a goal that you wanna accomplish, often we pick two large of things to accomplish when we're not doing anything. I always think of exercise, right?
If you're not exercising. It's hard to say I'm gonna start exercising for an hour a day, but if you said I was gonna go for a walk for five minutes a day, that seems manageable. It's the same with micro habits. So you're picking a super small habit. So I'm, again, I'm gonna use the example of classroom walkthroughs.
If you're not getting in any classrooms and you wanna start. Don't say you're gonna get in every classroom every day, that's not realistic for you. You need to pick a micro habit. Maybe it's, I'm gonna go for two minutes of classroom visits, or I'm gonna set a 15 minute alarm, or I'm gonna get into two classrooms.
Right? Pick the smallest micro habit if you wanna. You know, give more [00:12:00] appreciation to staff and you wanna have more gratitude. Maybe it's, I'm gonna do one positive staff note per week, right? Like one small thing that you can do, and then you gradually expand on those micro habits. Okay? So that's a great way to get started if you're not doing anything right now that you want to do more of.
So those are four ways to create a new habit. And again, in my leadership by design product, which I'll link in the show notes, I have that in depth. With examples of habits that you might wanna create as a principal and what that looks like for each way to create a new habit. And then I have a tracking system for each way to create a habit, and that's what I wanna talk about next.
Tracking your habits when you're trying to create a habit. Tracking matters because what gets measured gets managed, right? If you think about that, when you measure something, it gets managed. If you think about weight loss, if you weigh yourself, that gets managed, right? If you're not weighing yourself, you don't manage your weight loss.
If you, , [00:13:00] wanna get in classrooms, you have to measure where are you at right now? Same with teaching, right? If we wanna know that our kids are getting better in reading, we have to measure where they are in reading. And so whatever habit you wanna have. You have to measure what that habit is now and continue to measure it to get better.
Okay? And it also creates accountability. It's exciting to see when you start at zero or nothing and how that can build, and it provides you with that data to see what's working. Is micro habits working for you? Is habit stacking working? You can find the exact system for adding a new habit that works for you, because that's why I give four ways.
To create a habit, everybody's different. There are people who can dive right in and do these big habits right away and stick with them. And then there are people who need the smallest habits to just start. So you have to know yourself and what works for you, but by tracking it helps you evaluate what's working for you.
It also can help you identify patterns in your leadership [00:14:00] and what you like about your leadership and what you wanna change. , so some practical tracking methods. For busy principles, every principal is busy. You could have digital tracking or paper tracking. So I have the option of paper tracking in my leadership by design product.
But you could also do this digitally. You could put on your calendar, your habits that you want and track 'em in your calendar. , you could track, maybe you have a planner that you already use. You could track them in the planner. Find ways that maybe you're already using that you could track your habits.
The biggest thing here is you just wanna make sure that if you are trying to start a new habit or be intentional about a new goal, you want those small action steps of how exactly you're going to do it, and you wanna make it as routine as possible. So eventually it becomes automatic. And tracking helps you do that.
Tracking is gonna help you measure it, help you assess how it's working, and help you see the habit become more automatic. So remember, leadership habits have [00:15:00] to be personalized. You have to take time to reflect on your specific context. The habits that you need, the habits that will work for you, your students, your staff, and experiment to find what works for you in your school.
Don't take somebody else's habit and try that exact thing. I mean, you could try it if you think it'll work for you, but I think so often we see people on Instagram with certain habits and routines and we say, oh, we should do that too, but it doesn't work for us. And then we usually feel bad when it doesn't work for us because we think, what's wrong with me that I didn't get that habit, or I can't do that.
Like that principle right? Every school is different, and so you have to know that as you're creating habits. And like I said, I have a product called Leadership by Design. It's the principal's custom habit system. There's so many templates for accountabilities and trackers that you can use. I also have the four different types of habits with examples of how to implement them in your school.
I go through all of those habits with examples. You also get trackers for self-care, routines, goal [00:16:00] setting and progress, classroom walkthroughs, staff, and student recognition.
If you need help in any of these areas, get my leadership by design, the principal's custom habit system, I will put the link in the show notes that could be really helpful for you. But think about what habits you wanna start implementing now. What habits are you going to implement and track in some sort of way, and create habits and routines that work for you and your school.
If you love this show, if you're listening on Apple, scroll down in your app and leave a review. Keep in mind you have the power to shape your life according to the mindset you choose. I hope you have a great week, and I'll see you back here next time.