The Principal's Handbook

The One Thing You Are Missing To-Achieve Greater Success
[00:00:00] In today's episode, I'm going to share one thing you're missing to achieve greater success. Stay tuned. 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 in a 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 the one thing you're missing for achieving greater success. Many times we're trying to achieve a certain goal, and we spend so much time focusing on the goal that we don't [00:01:00] celebrate our progress along the way.
Many times we're trying to achieve a certain goal. We spend so much time focusing on the goal that we don't celebrate our progress along the way to get to the goal. Think about a goal that you've had in your personal life. I always think of weight loss as an example. I never celebrate along the way on the path of weight loss.
I don't celebrate when I lose a couple pounds. I just wanna get to my final destination of the weight I wanna be. And until I'm there, I'm not happy. And it can be like that with school goals too. I see that with, you know, trying to change tier one. Instruction with students, right? I wanna see that 80% of our students have the skills in reading, and until we get there.
It's frustrating because you think we've been working on this, we've been implementing new things. Teachers have had a lot of professional development. Teachers get frustrated. We wanna see the progress. We wanna see our hard work paid off, and we wanna see it quick. You know, we're in a society that's very [00:02:00] instant.
Everything we can get on our phone right away and everything's instant for us. So. It's not uncommon that we want results right away, and when we have a goal, we want to get to the end right away, but the one thing you are missing on your way to achieve greater success. Is to celebrate along the way. It's common to gravitate towards negatives.
You know, our brain automatically goes to the negative. It does that to protect us. It's a good thing because it does it to protect us. However, we need to be able to focus on what are those positive things happening along the way. When we are so focused on just getting to that goal, we become really impatient for the desired outcome that we wanna have.
And we just wanna get to that goal, and we overlook what's happening along the way and the changes that are happening along the way. And so we need to make sure that we're acknowledging what those good things are. It's common to rush change. Instead of [00:03:00] allowing time for growth and development in certain areas, or it's common to focus on just getting to the goal and monitoring progress, but not celebrating because you're not there yet.
So just like my example of weight loss, you see that you've lost weight, which is great, but you're not to the goal yet. Or you see your students are making progress, which is great, but you're not to the goal yet. So you're just focusing on getting to the goal and you need to change your mindset. To celebrate those goals along the way instead of waiting to celebrate for the end.
So what if we embrace celebration? What if we celebrate it daily? I want you to think about that every day. If you're doing something to reach a goal and you're taking little steps and action towards the goal that you wanna reach, we should be celebrating that daily. Think of what you've achieved in just a day.
Recognize your staff and what they've achieved. People need that celebration that helps them feel significant, and it [00:04:00] helps people feel good about the things that they're doing. You wanna be encouraging teachers and your students and help them look for the wins and help them stay positive. So celebrating is so important and we wanna celebrate because it helps motivate us.
To keep moving forward. So when we see that there's progress, there's more motivation. So back to my example of weight loss, when I lose two pounds, it motivates me. I can lose another two pounds. Or if I notice my students gaining growth and reading, then I, it motivates me to keep that going. I know that I'm on the right path and I'm doing good things.
So seeing that progress is motivating and really stopping and celebrating it will help motivate you and keep you moving forward. You know, when we're celebrating it. Feels good and we're just acknowledging the good things that we're doing. It also keeps us maintaining focus on that goal and the purpose that we're working towards.
The more that we celebrate it, the more we're on that path to achieving the [00:05:00] bigger goal. It also moves your school forward in a positive manner. People feel like they're doing good things, the more you celebrate, you know that you're moving forward and you know that you're doing it in a positive way. So I wanna first talk about the importance of celebrating your own personal growth.
Celebrating our own wins is how we self validate and self validation is important for accepting ourselves for who we are and loving ourselves as we are. And so the more you celebrate your wins. You're acknowledging the good things you have going for yourself. You're acknowledging the good in you and celebrating your wins is also a form of confidence, and it's one of the confidence habits that I teach in my coaching practice.
You need to celebrate your wins along the way. That helps build up your confidence to know that. You are capable of great things and that you're making a positive impact. So some ways that you can celebrate your personal growth are through gratitude lists. Taking the time to just write out what you're grateful for [00:06:00] helps you stay in that positive mindset and you can see how much you've grown.
Another strategy is called the 3 3 3 method, which I love doing this every night, but you share your wins. So you take three gratitudes for the day. Three wins for the day and three wins for the next day. And you write them down and you journal. And I love doing this because I'm a huge believer in gratitude.
I think that the more you. Look at what you're grateful for, the more positive you are overall, and then you can better celebrate those wins. But when you're thinking about what wins you have for the day, you're celebrating yourself, you're celebrating the good things that you did that day, and I love thinking about what three wins I could have the next day.
I'm already celebrating what I'm going to do, and so I'm more likely to get them done because I've already celebrated I'm going to do this and it's going to be a win. Another way that I like to celebrate is I do something called my 1.0 self and my 2.0 self. So my 1.0 self is where I'm at now, and my 2.0 [00:07:00] self is where I want to be, but I use that in present terms.
So for example, if I want to be more confident, I would say my 2.0 self is confident and productive. And outgoing. So if those were a couple of things on my 2.0 self list and anytime I feel confident. Then I can celebrate that because I'm getting closer to my 2.0 self. So knowing who you are and where you wanna go is really important because you can celebrate those wins throughout the way.
Also, you wanna make sure that you're celebrating your staff achievements. We can model celebrating wins for the staff, so they learn to do it. For themselves. This is a great practice to model and when you model it for your staff, they can do it for their students as well. So you wanna model finding the things going well in the building.
And when we do this, we're creating more positive teams throughout the building. Staff need to hear positive things from you because you are their boss. When I give them positive feedback, then I can [00:08:00] actually see and get the feedback from them how much they appreciate it, because we forget how powerful our words are as the leader of the building.
I talked to staff and they tell me, oh, I told my mom about that thing that you told me. And I'm like, oh, wow. So something I said that I didn't think had such a big impact, it clearly had a big impact that they went and told their family about it. And so thinking about how can you celebrate your staff?
How can you tell them the positive things happening? Because when you tell them that. They're more likely to do that at staff meetings. Sometimes we'll ask questions and do a reflection sheet with my staff to just get an idea of how the year's going, and I remember the first time I did this activity, I asked staff to write three things going well, and a bunch of people left it blank.
They could tell me what needed fixed in the building, they could tell me what they needed to work on, but many people left it blank or struggled to say three things going well. In their classrooms. So it just goes [00:09:00] to show that we are so focused on the negative sometimes and focused on what we need to improve, that it is hard to think about what those small wins are and what is going well and what we need to celebrate.
So really model that for staff and making sure that you're pointing out what they're doing well and sharing that publicly and privately. So I wanted to share some ways on how you can celebrate your staff. So. First acknowledgement and staff meetings of things you notice, so you can share things you notice that are going well throughout the building and share those celebrations.
I like to start my staff meetings with celebrations where I'll ask if anybody has celebrations and the teachers love sharing their own personal celebrations, and I just think it's a positive way to start the meeting. I learned this from another principal and. It has been just a really great way to get the meeting off on a positive note, acknowledge the good things happening around the building and letting staff share their own celebrations.
Also, sharing successes through emails or weekly bulletins. You could do [00:10:00] this publicly or privately. You have to know what works best for your staff. I have some staff members who love the public recognition and some who like it more private, but just sharing good things You notice. Throughout the building, you know, maybe they are great about including kids in their class or they're helpful to other staff members, whatever that is, just share those successes and then people will see that that's recognized throughout the building and it's appreciated and they'll be more willing to do those things as well.
Also providing meals or snacks for the staff is huge. Staff love being recognized with food. I know my staff do. They love when I bring in bagels or some sort of luncheon where they are recognized for just the great things they do and know that they're appreciated. Also, writing personalized notes of appreciation, so giving positive feedback.
This is something I try to do. I usually do it in the form of a thank you note, but it's still. Showing appreciation and recognizing good things going on. You know, it could be to a teacher thanking them for helping [00:11:00] me with an assembly, or I notice that you did a really great job with a student and writing that in a note, and I've seen teachers hanging the notes up, so it just shows that, you know, those notes go a long way, and they like hearing that positive.
Also organizing group outings after school. That builds a good culture for the building, and it's just a great way to celebrate things happening, getting everyone together and going out to dinner or going to a paint night, whatever that is for your staff and whatever people are interested in doing, but just having time for people to have fun together and celebrate the good things going on.
Even outside of school can be really important and it creates that positive environment. So I wanna just recap the importance of celebrating wins in the school environment. It's motivating for you and your staff to progress forward. It brings greater achievement through that consistent celebration. It also keeps you focused on your goals and the purpose and what [00:12:00] you're working towards, and it moves your school forward in a positive manner.
So make sure that you're incorporating celebration into your educational practices for yourself and for your staff. This is so important and can be a game changer for just the confidence that you have for yourself and building confidence in your staff knowing that they're doing. Things well and that you see the good things happening in the building.
If you wanna take the next step in having less stress in your role as a principal, I'd love the opportunity to work one-on-one with you. I offer free consults to see if we would be a good fit to work together and in one-on-one coaching. I can help you focus on your mindset. We can work in depth about thoughts that you're having and what emotions and actions are happening because of those thoughts.
If you're interested, reach out to me on Instagram or at my website@barbedflowerscoaching.com. And if you love this show and you're listening on Apple, scroll down in your app and leave a review. Keep in mind, you have the [00:13:00] power to shape your life according to the mindset you choose.
So I hope you have a great week, and I'll see you back here next time.