The EdLeadership Pair: Unfiltered Conversations for Today’s School Leaders
As two long-time school leaders, we discuss contemporary issues that today's school leaders face. We offer insights and advice for leaders, and share some of our favorite leadership experiences. You will also catch a few married couple jokes sprinkled throughout : )
The EdLeadership Pair: Unfiltered Conversations for Today’s School Leaders
The Leadership Work No One Sees | What Great Principals Do Before Summer Starts - Ep 20
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Hosts: Courtney Acosta & Mario Acosta
Bios: https://www.theedleadershippair.com/about-us
Podcast: The EdLeadership Pair – Unfiltered Conversations for Today’s School Leaders
🎧 Episode Overview
The school year may be winding down, but for principals, the work is not slowing down. While teachers and students are counting down to summer, school leaders are carrying the pressure of making sure August does not begin in chaos.
In this episode, Courtney and Mario talk about the hidden leadership window that happens between the end of school and the start of summer break. They unpack what principals should be thinking about right now, including hiring, reflection, prioritization, leadership retreats, staff confidence, and the systems that need to be clarified before everyone returns.
The central message is clear: a smooth August does not happen by accident. It is built through intentional planning before summer begins.
💡 Big Ideas From This Episode
• Principals don’t really shut down in summer.
• The end of the year is a hidden planning window.
• Don’t try to fix everything at once.
• Hiring still matters most.
• Choose the few high-leverage priorities.
• Confidence comes before change.
• Leadership retreats should build more than logistics.
🧠 Leadership Takeaways
1. Brain dump before you build.
2. Use three questions to guide planning.
3. Build the runway before summer.
4. Filter your priorities.
5. Decide what to own, shape, or delegate.
🔥 Powerful Quotes From This Episode
“A smooth start in August is not accidental.”
“Leaving ambiguity in June brings chaos in August.”
“A rushed hire might solve your vacancy problem, but it might create a culture problem.”
“Confidence precedes change.”
📚 Resources / Tools Mentioned
• Reflection protocols
• Running agendas
• SmartSheets
• AI tools for yearly analysis
• Leadership retreats
• 30/60/90 planning
• Hiring rubrics
• Episodes 15, 16, and 18
🎯 Final Thought
The leaders who enjoy summer most are often the ones who do the right strategic work before they leave. When principals use this time to reflect, prioritize, hire carefully, build confidence, and prepare their teams, August does not have to begin in chaos.
The work leaders do now becomes the runway for next year.
🔗 Connect With Us
📸 Instagram: @edleadership_pair
▶️ YouTube: The EdLeadership Pair
🎥 TikTok: @theedleadershippair
🌐 Website & Newsletter: www.theedleadershippair.com
Join our growing community of school leaders navigating today’s challenges together.
School year's winding down, and a lot of people think the principals are finally getting that minute to breathe. However, principals sitting in campus chairs right now, no, that is not what is happening. Principals are currently carrying all the pressures of making sure that August does not start in chaos. So look, the summer is supposed to be a break. However, principals who actually get to enjoy their summers are the ones who put in the strategic work beforehand. Because let's be real, doing the right prep work now saves you from the back to school chaos later. I'm Courtney. And this is the Ed Leadership Pair Podcast.
SPEAKER_00Well, welcome, welcome in. It is episode number 20. Can you believe we've done 20? This is 20 of these.
SPEAKER_01That's cuckoo bananas.
SPEAKER_00It is cuckoo bananas.
SPEAKER_01And we are in May, and the two of us super excited because while everyone around us is planning and executing their graduations, we have our last two kids about to walk that stage. They're the cutest.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Our kids don't listen to our podcast, so we can say they're the most adorable.
SPEAKER_00Also, we want everybody listening to know that Courtney and I want to celebrate that we've got all four of them successfully enrolled in a university. And not that that's the end all be all, but what it means is they're out of our house something productive with their lives, right?
SPEAKER_01College career military doesn't matter as long as you are as long as you are outside of our outside of our home and doing something productive for humanity.
SPEAKER_00That like you said, college, career, military, it's all good. But uh we can celebrate that the four of them are headed on to other things that are not in the walls of this of this home.
SPEAKER_01Yes. So now we just hold our breath that they don't go crazy when you sure sure.
SPEAKER_00We're not done. We're not counting any chickens.
SPEAKER_01We just know No chickens will be counted.
SPEAKER_00We've met one threshold here, which is we've got them, we've got them moving out.
SPEAKER_01All right, so that's where we are. We're right now this episode is taking place in the month of May. Everyone's starting to close it down, and we really want to talk about there's a lot of things that happen. People are thinking, oh, it's summer, and you're an educator, you get three months off, which really nobody gets nobody. Not teachers don't get three months off. Nobody's getting three months off. Principals, especially are not how many, how many weeks did we get off?
SPEAKER_00Maybe we were in some maybe two if you're lucky.
SPEAKER_01Two to get July 4th, and then either the week before or the week after.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01That was it. And usually you're still.
SPEAKER_00You're usually still hiring somebody or yeah, something, something, you know. Somebody one one year somebody broke into my school and they put the fire extinguisher powder all over the building. So I remember that week I was up there with the the officers for days helping them get that cleaned up, checking the cameras. So yeah, we we get it, right? All educators. Well, hey, uh, in the spirit of kind of ending the school year, as you said, this is May, and and congratulations to anybody that is done with this school year at this point that you're hearing it, or people that are just days away from letting their students release, congratulations on finishing another fantastic school year. But what we decided to do, you and I, is we reached out to you know, seven or eight principals that are practicing across the country that you and I know, and uh we just kind of checked in with them and asked them this question like, what are you thinking about? Right now, it's May, it's it's mid-May, heading towards the end of May. What are you thinking about? What are the things that are um, you know, your problems, your struggles? What are the questions you have? What are your biggest pressing issues? And what I'm excited that you and I have done is we've built a little series of episodes to close our very first season that is kind of like a just in time sort of thing. Here's what principals say they're thinking about right now, and you and I are going to provide support, ideas, resources uh for what principals are dealing with right here in the moment. One of the things we heard from from a principal that we spoke to was this a principal said, you know, what's going on right now in my brain is I'm managing the emotions of the kids, getting them out and getting them home to end a good school year. I'm managing the emotions of my staff because we know we're exhausted and we've run a good race. I'm managing the emotions of myself. I'm exhausted, right? We've run a really good race this year. I'm tired. This principal saying, look, I am just am feeling this near the finish line. But here's what's difficult: it's near the finish line because Courtney, what you and I know is that there's this hidden window right here. Before a great leader can leave for their summer break, however short that may be, their ability to plan for and lay down next year is absolutely vital to launching next year effectively. So let me ask you this really big question, kind of start our episode. What do you think principals should be thinking about right now as they end this school year?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's a great question. And the end of the school year is definitely really emotionally complicated for principals because everybody else is like counting down. There's this many days left of school, there's this many days left till break. And the principal and their administrators and admin staff are there basically throughout the summer. I mean, principal principals get very small breaks during the summer.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and you're hiring through all of that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it doesn't even you're you're off, but you're not off.
SPEAKER_00Never off.
SPEAKER_01Like you the work still has to get done.
SPEAKER_00That's right.
SPEAKER_01So if you're in the middle of your break and someone's like, I can interview right now for this position, and yep, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00You interview, yeah, because if not, you don't fill the position.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so everybody else is kind of in this shutdown mode. And for principals, I know at the top of my mind, we're like I said, hiring, you're looking at um the PD plan for the year and back to school PD. You're looking at the student needs, you're looking at how am I supporting my new teachers and what's that plan look like? What are our top priorities? How am I planning the leadership retreat? All of these pieces are things that are kind of in your mind or on your list of things to check off and get done and make sure you address. But I think one of the best things that you could do is in that moment when everybody leaves, and that next day there's this kind of collective sigh for everybody else that's left in the building when teachers are gone. And it's just this breath of, okay, now I can start to wrap my head around things. I have a hot second, nobody's coming in, knocking on my door because they lost their keys or ID shut off the passwords and they changed everybody's passwords a week before school got out or something crazy like that. Like it's it's a moment of quiet. And so, what I would recommend is I would have all my admin staff just go into their offices for an hour and write. And on a piece of paper, you are brainstorming everything in reflection about that year. What are things that you would do differently? What are things that you would add that you would drop, that you would refine, like just have them put it all down, not necessarily in order of importance or anything like that. Just get it, brain dump it. And then I would bring my admin team together in a room with a big dry erase board and put it all on the dry erase board so that throughout the summer, as you are planning and you're prioritizing and you're really looking at all the pieces on the board, you're very cautious and in protecting you and your team and your staff from overcommitting to too many changes, to too many things. Um, I think that's where you can really get burned is by overcommitting. We're gonna, we're gonna update everything, we're gonna change everything. Uh, and to be ready for all of that by August is a mistake.
SPEAKER_00The biggest potential trap for a principal is not things we don't see. We see a lot. It's that we see so much you might try and solve too many problems in one in one action plan. What what a really powerful uh thought. I think something that principals could be doing right away is get get a reflection, get it on a whiteboard or in one spot, and then say, okay, now let's start to prioritize this thing so we don't overdo it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, another thing that I might add about that potential idea is it's interesting because in obviously in ed tech, we have access to a lot of different technology tools. And one of them that we that I used throughout this academic year was Smartsheets. Smartsheets and smart sheets. And I loved it because I'm a I'm a sheets data kind of girl. Thanks. There we go. Thanks for that. Um, so anyway, every single thing we did our admin team did that was changing, updating, refining, um, adding whatever it was, it went on this smart sheet. And so we could track the progress of it and we would mark off, okay, this is 50% done, this is 75% done. And there's so many automations you can do with smart sheets. It's pretty incredible. But my eyes have been opened to the world of smart sheets, and I'm I'm a lover. I could take that whole thing, put it into a chat or a Claude or a Gemini or co-pilot, whatever, whatever AI, and have it start to kind of give me some data on what we accomplished, what we did not finish up, what we, you know, all of those pieces. If you didn't build out a dashboard, which we did, but you could also throw it into an AI and have it generate some really good data for you looking back over the course of the last year. And even if you don't use something like Smartsheets, I'm thinking about your team, your admin team that had this running agenda. Yeah, take the whole freaking running agenda for the whole year, throw it in, and you can get the same kind of analysis. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's that's something you and I never I didn't have as a principal. AI wasn't a thing then. And so nine years ago for me. Uh take your take the collection of agendas from the year, take whatever data you've been collecting, and then try and get a synthesis from from an AI so you can say, okay, what are we seeing? What trends and patterns? When you're building action plans, there's some really good reflective questions. First question is, where have we been? So there's that data collection. Where have we been? What did we just get done this year? Second question is stopped to celebrate it. Yeah, of course. There's your celebrations. Look at all the great things we've done. Second question is, where are we trying to go? And I think it's in this moment, in this moment of peace and quiet, where you can say, okay, for next year, where is it that we're trying to go? What are what are we trying to get accomplished based on where we've been? And then the third question was, how do we get there? Such a simple way to think through any kind of action planning. Where have we been? Where are we trying to go? And then you bridge that gap with now, how do we get there? How do we get there efficiently and effectively? And so I think what a great starting point for this quiet moment. You're tired, principals, you're ready to go home. But I think the key here is to understand that like a smooth start in August is not accidental. Next school year's success is not by happenstance, like literally right now, the end of May and the month of June, it's like, God, this is the time where next school year is born. So any leader who I know you're tired, I know you're done with this year and you're ready. Um, you know, I always thought of when my staff left and my kids left, I felt like McCulley Culkin in Home Alone when he realizes his kid, his parents disappeared. And I'd be like, I made my staff and kids disappear. And like it was a moment of excitement and run around like, yeah, we're done. And not because I don't love teachers or love kids. Like you said, that's why we do what we do, but it's just this moment of celebration, another year complete. But I think the trap would be to then leave the school year, not with the foundation of next year.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, leaving ambiguity in June and not having that planned out is definitely going to bring that chaos in August. Whereas if you can shut it down in June for whatever break you do get as a school leader, then it makes your August that much more smooth and being able to provide people with the clarity about where you are headed in the future. So I love that. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00Well, then let's jump into sort of our second little discussion piece here, which is if we're telling leaders don't leave without laying the groundwork for next year, then why don't we describe what are some of the things you and I laid in that groundwork? Um, I'm gonna use this little analogy of like, this is your chance to build the runway. And then, you know, you're laying that so that next year can take off. Like you said, if you leave in June or whenever your summer break is, and that runway isn't complete, then when you get back, you got to finish the runway before you can take off for next school year. Leaders, build a runway before your summer break. Let's talk about what are some of the practical things that you would build and and or I would build before we left. And in other words, what goes into this runway?
SPEAKER_01Um, I think like I said before, the biggest thing is make sure making sure you get your hiring right, making sure that you have the right staff in the right places, doing the right things. That is probably one of the biggest pieces that you gotta solve early, as early as possible. And really, people start hiring in April, March, April. As soon as you get your allocations, you're like, okay, get me teachers.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the problem is though, like hiring never ends. There was once upon a time, I remember the race was like go home in June and be fully staffed. That used to be the goal. And now people like would laugh at us just saying that out loud because you there's just not enough depth in the Canada pool. Again, uh, anybody listening, Courtney and I dedicated an entire episode. That is episode number 18. It is harder than ever to hire educators. So if you want us to talk more about that, go go press play on that episode. We spent a long time on that. I think the only thing I'd like to say is this the later it gets in the summer, the more pressure you have to hire quickly. So, do you remember that feeling, especially in a post-COVID environment where you're like, oh my goodness, the later this gets, the less this shallow pool has anybody in it. So the pool went from shallow to whatever is less than shallow. And I think the only caution I want to put in the minds of people still hiring right now is remember that hiring quickly can be dangerous because hiring is one of the ways you influence your school's culture the most. If you hire quick, a rushed hire might solve your vacancy problem, but it might create a culture problem. Absolutely. So I just want to remind folks that in this moment there's a danger. The later we get, the more desperate we feel. And I would caution you don't let desperation let you make a bad cultural hire. Hiring for culture will win in the long run. In the short term, if you don't pay attention to that fit for your culture, I think you're just opening up um, you know, big problems.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you got to consider their beliefs, their habits, their professional behaviors, and make sure that they are all in alignment with what you are trying to build within your campus culture.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So important. It's important, and I want to put a few principal quotes in here. So, as we said, we talked to some practitioners. Here's some things the practitioners are saying right now. Right now, hiring is my biggest priority and making sure we get the candidates that fit us best. So, kudos to that principal who who sent that in. Here's another quote from one of our principals that we reached out to to build this episode around is I'm trying to plan right now on how to streamline my systems for new hires. So I think that's really powerful. Why don't we just take a second on this? Because let's say, you know, you remember in the summer you're operating on a skeleton crew. Your admin assist might be gone, your assistant principals might be gone, it might just be you. So as you're hiring, streamlining your systems, especially when it might just be you, I think is a really important thought right here. And so I appreciate that thought. Do you have anything you could add, any tips for people? How can they be quicker systems-wise when it comes to hiring?
SPEAKER_01Let's say you do, God forbid, a principal takes a vacation and you're not there. Unacceptable. Somebody else has to go through the pro like, is it clear of what you're looking for? And if if that's something that you're delegating, the importance of your rubrics, having your rubric solid before you go into that hiring process, then making sure that um everybody knows how those decisions need to get made.
SPEAKER_00I think the only other thing that I would offer logistically for streamlining is HR departments are different across every district. And every HR department requires a different form and a different way and a different, you know, documentation process. So I would say what we got really good at was we had a spreadsheet that checked off every step of every hiring process, and we had it shared amongst everybody who was participating.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you can do that in smart sheets.
SPEAKER_00You and your smart sheets. Yeah. So a spreadsheet, a smart sheet. The point I want to make for leaders to hear is that I would make sure that the process from A to Z is spelled out and spelled out in a way that's like in a spreadsheet, in a smart check boxed. So that way you have this form, it goes in the folder. You had these signatures. Did we get all the signatures? Yep, did we? So I think streamline that way too, because uh as we said, the later you get, you get on a skeleton crew, you know, just you and maybe a couple folks, if you're lucky, and then you're in this rush, you're trying to find good candidates, and so you're trying to slow down to find fit. And now the last thing you want is that HR's like, hey, we can't process this person until you send us these folders.
SPEAKER_01That's the worst.
SPEAKER_00And yeah, and and or HR calls you and says, Hey, we can't put this person through because you're missing this, you're missing.
SPEAKER_01And then the teacher gets cold feet and they're like, peace out, I'm gonna go to the house. They're ready to hire me.
SPEAKER_00And so I think that's the only other thing. When when this principal that we talked to said, hey, I'm just trying to make sure I s see streamline my systems, that little piece there I think is important.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and then I think moving on to the next piece after hiring, because that's I think that's top of mind for a lot of people, is considering this idea that I was saying, put it on a dry erase board, all the ideas of things that you are gonna change, refine, edit, add, delete. The next piece of that is choosing your most high-leverage priorities that you are gonna focus on and then get really clear about what is gonna happen, what the direction is with those high-leverage priorities. You cannot, you cannot do everything. You can't make everything happen. And so I think deciding what and what are the triggers that tell you it's gonna be a high leverage? Like, does it improve the daily experience of kids and teachers? Does it strengthen a system the school um currently depends on and it already exists? Does it connect to a clear student learning behavior climate or culture need that you have? Um, can it be implemented with the capacity that the school already has? Or is it something that you have to go beyond that and ask for extra resources, which is always difficult? And does it protect something that the staff already got better at this year and you're honoring the work that they already did all throughout this year and making sure that that continues throughout the next year? I think those are some ways that you can identify your highest leverage priorities is looking at does it improve the daily experience? Does it strengthen a current system? Does it connect to a clear student learning behavior, climate, culture need? Does it um have the ability to be implemented with a capacity of what you already have? And does it protect something that you've already been working on?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, those are fantastic advice points. And I want to tie some principal quotes to them because some of the quotes that came in from our colleagues was this like, I'm trying to sift through what would be the most high-leverage initiatives for next year. There's so many things I want to change, but I can't do it all at once. And so, again, great principal uh that that sent that in. And now you've given those sort of filter points. And so, um, you know, anybody listening that's like, how do I sift through and decide which are my highest leverage? You just gave those five that I think are really powerful. Um, for I know if I I wish I had those because now I'm gonna sit there with my whiteboard that we all brain dumped on, and I'm gonna start to put those five filter uh over the top of it and start to maybe rank them. How many of you get different colored stickers for each one of the five and then start color dotting and the ones that have four or five dots on them, three or four or five dots, those are my highest priorities. So I love that. I would take that right now. If I was a principal, uh heck, even a district office leader, I would do that right now. Also, another thing a principal said to us was I'm also really pondering what we do next year as a focus, because I don't want to let go of the things we did really well this year. And so I'm trying to find the balance between what do we need to do better and different next year, but not let go of what we've done well this year. Another really great quote that came from a principal that I think your your five-point filter lays over the top of that really, really well.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it it does.
SPEAKER_00All right, so let's move this on. We're talking about building the runway. So far, we've covered a couple of leadership moves. Move one, hire well. Move number two was to choose the few high leverage priorities. All right, let's jump into this third move, this third leadership move, which is really to understand that whatever it is you're going to install next year, you've got to understand that confidence precedes change. So we've got to understand. As leaders, not only to plan for the logistics, but also to prepare for that climate component. How do we help people feel ready? How do they feel confident? How do we communicate transparently? How do we make sure that the things that are coming at them are given to them well in advance? Here's one of the things I learned over my many years. The sooner you tell teachers what to expect for next year, and really you should do this if possible before they leave on summer break or as close to that as possible, so that teachers have those eight weeks or whatever to get their minds and their emotions around what it is they're gonna be expected to do. So this third leadership move is you got to build confidence before the change arrives.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, if you're able to develop that confidence, then that is what is also gonna decrease that anxiety. And it also um releases some of those, yeah, but and what about this and what about that? And like the punching holes and everything. If you can come at it with a really um solid way to help people understand the path that you're about to go down for that next year, then it really minimizes the chaos of August. And that's that's the goal, right? Is to have a really smooth start to the next year because everything was so well planned throughout the summer. And that, and it's not just teachers, it's also students and parents. For sure. And how are you making sure that they are educated on whatever changes are coming and whatever adjustments that you're making, and how soon do you need to communicate those things? And and at what point are you getting feedback and input from them throughout the summer if necessary? And you know, are there focus groups that you need to build out? Whatever that may look like.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, leaders, we're talking about these leadership moves you can make. And this third one is to not only think about your logistics. So you built your whiteboard, you got your dots, what's priority, you know, and now you say, okay, how do I lower anxiety for the people that this is gonna impact? If it's gonna be a change, if it's gonna be new, if it's gonna be different, then what are the things that I need to consider to lower anxiety? That's gonna be communication, that's gonna be input and collaboration, that's gonna be professional development and clarity. So, you know, again, this is the hidden part for a lot of leaders that you go into logistic mode right here in summer, you know, all right, I'm writing the calendar out, I'm writing up the new bell schedule, I'm writing up the new bus schedule. I mean, it's easy to get into the logistics because we're all trying to go home for summer, you know, a little break, and you can forget, all right, who is this impacting that is going to cause anxiety? And how do I bring that anxiety down right now so that when we get to August? Because, like you said, a lack of communication and a lack of preparation in June will cause chaos in August, all right? And it'll be too late. It'll be too late, it'll just hit you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Can we move on to one of my favorite things?
SPEAKER_00Let's do it. Leadership move number four.
SPEAKER_01I love a good leadership retreat. Whether it was my admin team or whether it was my leadership team of teachers, they just they're so fun.
SPEAKER_00A lot of fun, good, good opportunities.
SPEAKER_01Leadership retreats tend to be a little bit later sometimes. I remember ours was always in August. You've done some leadership retreats that are smack dab in the middle of the summer or even in June, which is fascinating to me because if you could do it early, then you can really start to plan for the rest of the year before August.
SPEAKER_00I always thought of leadership retreats in in two forms. One was with my teacher leaders, and I used to like to do that as close to the end of the year as possible because everybody's mind is on what just happened. Then later in the summer, I'd like to go away, go on vacation, come back with my administrative team and have that retreat closer to the start of the year. So we kind of we kind of took that leadership retreat and we did it in two parts on intentionally, because I think we could leverage the timing of the year differently with the different people that we had around the table.
SPEAKER_01And and I think it the danger is that a leadership retreat becomes super logistical and like this marathon of calendars and schedules and duty and handbooks and PD plans and all of that, and you don't take time to build relationships and you don't take time to get to know each other. Because then when the stuff gets hard during the school year, if you don't have those relationship built relationships built that you can lean on each other, then you're you're missing out. Like it's it's so much harder to go into the foxhole with somebody that you haven't built that relationship with.
SPEAKER_00So that's right.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I loved a good leadership retreat.
SPEAKER_00Me too. Yeah, I think you're right. Um, it it is so much more. Yes, are you gonna get some logistics done? Yes, are you gonna make sure everything is ironed out and ready to go on that side? Yeah, but it is that opportunity to build quality relationships. And look, some of it can be fun in games. We used to, I used to take my guys and we'd do a different activity every year.
SPEAKER_01Bowl over the competition.
SPEAKER_00We never did a booze cruise. That was not allowed. A boo cruise was not allowed in our district. I don't know. Bowl over the competition. No, but we'd do a lock room or we would do a what is it, an escape room, and we would do uh, you know, uh one year we did axe throwing. That was fun. Um, so yes, is some of it just have some fun together? Absolutely. But beyond that, like you said, it is building those meaningful relationships. Let's throw in some of these principal quotes. People we talk to, what are you thinking about right now? Here's some things principals are thinking about. I'm trying to best utilize my admin team this summer so we start off smoothly next year. Another principal said, I'm thinking about how to plan for and make our summer retreat meaningful. And finally, I heard from another principal that said, How do I balance the idea of teaching my leaders the things they need to know for next year's work? Yeah, while at the same time ensuring that they buy into the work and help me align the new initiatives to our existing culture. So I think that was those are all really thoughtful. That quote was trying to say, like, there's things I need to teach them for next year, could be logistic, could be initiatives. And then I've got to make sure I'm listening to them to like, how does this work well? How do we do this right? What would that look like? Who do we need to involve early on? Who are the scouts that we're gonna grab? Who are the sentinels we need to be careful with and not engage them too quickly? So I think as you're planning your leadership retreat, leaders, here's advice I would give you. You gotta think of it in two veins. There's two veins. One is what are the things that we need to think about and build? And then what are the things that I need to hear as the leader to get input, to get buy-in, and to make sure that we do these things in a way that is culturally gonna fit inside of our school. And if you will go back to our episodes on supporting veteran teachers, that's gonna be episodes 15 and 16. We talk about these people, scouts and sentinels, and go back and listen because in a leadership retreat, I darn sure we'll be talking about who my scouts are, who my sentinels are, because when you're implementing new initiatives, the whole lesson is start with your scouts, let your sentinels see it work before they start. And so in a leadership retreat, I'm sure going to be talking about hey, when we do this thing, who are our scouts for this thing? Who are our sentinels for this thing?
SPEAKER_01And I think there's also a lot of extra thought and care that needs to be taken when you have had a lot of turnover in either your admin team or your leadership team. Yeah. And I would err more on the side of relationship building and team building if you've had a lot of turnover versus a really well-established leadership team or admin team that's been together for a while. You can you can do things a little bit differently, but still making sure you build in time for the fun and relationship stuff. But if you've got a new leadership team or a new admin team, then you gotta start with the relationships first, I think.
SPEAKER_00I think you're right. If I had to err on the side of relational versus logistical, if I've got any new people, we're gonna be heavy relational and making sure that our team culture is right. And I know again, we get picked on online that oh, culture, culture, but it really does. Culture is the key to all uh success in an organization. So if your team's culture is well cultivated, then you can handle the logistics. If your team culture starts poopy, then your logistics are gonna be sunk no matter what.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So can I talk through a few um ideas about retreat structure, things you can do within a retreat? So, number one, I think we've talked a lot about this reconnect the team or connect the team if it's not currently connected. So using the time for team identity, trust, building reflection, getting to the point where you can be honest with each other and have some real conversations. Um, and I know that sounds cheesy, especially for my high school friends out there. Um, sometimes it gets a little painful, but it really is so beneficial. Um, but yeah, I I know, believe me, believe me, I've been in the meetings. Um, I think another one that you want to do is make sure that you name the reality of where you are with that team. Like look honestly at your staffing, at your student needs, your family concerns, behavior trends. If there are data points that you can pull in to look at those pieces, find your instructional gaps, um, culture issues, staff morale, all those pieces need to be laid out on the table so that you can be honest about the situation that you're living in going into the next school year. Um, then I think the idea of prioritizing, choose a few. Like just choose the high-leverage things, either use those five elements or whatever elements you decide are gonna be your important things to lay over the brain dump of problems you could choose to solve and figure out um what are what are the few things that we're really gonna dig into. And then I think the fourth one would be to clarify ownership. It's really important to consider how things are delegated and make sure that you know what are the things that the principal owns, the admin team is gonna own, the leadership team of teachers, counselors, department leads, all of that is who owns what pieces and how do they get monitored? Who is monitoring? Who's making sure to check up on all those things? Um, and then the last one that I would say of a leadership retreat is building out with clarity the first 30 days. Like you could do a 30, 60, 90 plan. We do a lot of those in my work. Yeah, but even just starting with the first 30 days, what are the actual things? Yeah, let's get through mid-September, depending on God. There are schools that start in July. Sure.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Which is crazy to us in Texas. It's almost like you say, build out that first quarter. Build a quarter, make sure you have that. That would be amazing. Right? Make sure you have a solid first quarter plan.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and just have that clarity that is going to reduce anxiety and make sure that everybody understands where you're headed and what that full picture is. Those are those are five elements that you could have in a leadership team or admin team retreat.
SPEAKER_00I love that. I want to add in then, if I can, because one of our principal friends who sent us in feedback, you know, to build these episodes, is here's a quote. It said, as I finish my first year being a principal, I'm trying to determine what can be delegated versus what do I need to keep my hands on directly. And I know that's a newer principle thinking that way, but I bet a lot of principals still feel that way. Is like, what's okay to let go of, and what do I need to hold on to? So in your fourth uh element of a good retreat, you talked about clarifying ownership. What does the principal need to own and what can the admin team own? So I want to offer this, Court, because here's here's this sort of three levels of ownership that I used to think of. And so, so here it was. Number one is the category I called, like in my mind, this was like, I have to own it. The principal must lead this directly. So a lot of that for me was shocking. Our culture work, our communication plans, um, the the interfacing with the community, um, final staffing decisions were all gonna be me. Those are some some things that I said for my leadership style, category one, I own it. I gotta own it. Okay, so that that would be the first thing. My second thing would be the things I needed to shape. So these are things that, as the principal, I wanted to frame the expectation, sort of the larger box, and then let others build what goes in the box. I used to love to do this principles, especially when you're sitting here building the runway and you're trying to decide, okay, how do I delegate? What do I have to keep my hands on because I just can't let go? Second, what can I shape? There's a lot you can shape. I didn't have to do it all. I would set the frame and then say, okay, guys, go build inside of this vision, right? Uh a PD plan. I used to love involving my assistants in the PD plan, my teacher leaders in the PD plan. The PD plan is going to be way better if it's not just me building that out. Um, onboarding new teachers, um, the behavior systems, things like that are really good. So we lay out a vision, we say, here's the box, now go fill up the box. Now, the final category in my head was full delegation. Hey, team, build it. This is yours. Um, handbook updates. This was a really good one. For me, we had a really detailed handbook. Guys, you go build it, go fix it. Where are their holes? What have we heard from teachers? You got it. Fix it, let me know what you need, but I want you to go make that work. So you either own it, you shape it, or you delegate it. But when you're like, what do I decide about delegation? That that would be some advice I'd give you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I would add to that, I love those three things. I love the idea of own it, shape it, delegate it. I think that's great. But I would add, I'm assuming that you also saw your role, no matter if it was own it, shape it, delegate, delegate it, that you still were monitoring all of it.
SPEAKER_00So 100%.
SPEAKER_01You were asking questions, you were checking progress, you were making sure it was aligned to the vision, your culture goals, and all of that, that you you lived in the monitoring of it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yes. No matter what kind of decision it is, if you've owned it, shaped it, or delegated it, you better, you better check it. Because at the end of the day, it's coming back to you. It's like a boomerang. You you can give it away to somebody if you want as a principal, but that sucker's coming back. Um, the output is coming back to you, so you better be monitoring it all along. So I just wanted to throw that in. I I appreciate and I took some notes here. Let me make sure I heard you right. So, five things to think about when I'm planning for a retreat. Thing one, reconnect the team. Thing number two, you said was name our reality. Thing number three is choose the few, prioritize the things we said we really got to focus on. And then you said clarify ownership, and then finally you said build out that first 30 days or first quarter plan. Did I hear you right that those are the five sort of things you'd want to put in your mind when you're planning out a leadership retreat?
SPEAKER_01You absolutely did hear me right. And you know what? You could tell some of those things on a smart sheet, check them all, build the first 30 days. Did we do this in the first 10 days? Yes, we did.
SPEAKER_00Check, check smart sheets. So like Monica, check passport, check, check, yeah. We need everybody to know we are not sponsored by Smartsheets. But if Smartsheets is hearing this and would like to like to become a corporate sponsor, we are open. We're open to corporate sponsorship at this point.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, you gotta minimize that chaos in August.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I guess that's the goal then, right? Is the goal is use this time, even though you're tired, run around like Macaulay Culkin and be happy that you have a little bit of some quiet in your building, and then be like, okay.
SPEAKER_01Just take that moment. Risky business.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, risky business.
SPEAKER_01Maybe maybe keep your pants on.
SPEAKER_00You probably keep your pants on. That's better if you want if you want to come back in August.
SPEAKER_01Because yeah, socks okay.
SPEAKER_00Pants, pants are required in all schools. That is uh that is a non-negotiable. Well, good episode. I hope our leaders listening feel supported. These ideas are coming from people in buildings right now. So we're grateful to the principals who took time to respond to us in May and give us some of their feedback. So thank you to everyone of you who gave us some of this feedback. And please continue to listen as we close our season. We've got a couple episodes left to go, and we're gonna address what our principals are thinking right now. If you haven't subscribed and you want some of this written out, we build out some frameworks and some things for people, please subscribe to our newsletter at www.theedleadershippair.com. Also, if you would follow us on YouTube, we're on Instagram, we're on TikTok. And if you're a leader listening, I'd love to see more leaders chiming in online. We get a lot of teacher voice, which we love. Teachers, thank you, thank you, thank you for your followership and for your comments. But we love a few more leader voices in our comments because Courtney and I sometimes get attacked. So we'd love to have a few more folks with the leadership.
SPEAKER_01We trigger some teachers sometimes because they haven't watched the full episode and then they hear something that's in a in a clip. Little do they know, keep commenting because it just keeps the algorithm going. So we love them.
SPEAKER_00Teachers, we love you and we love it. But admin, we'd love a few more of you commenting in our in our uh comments online. We appreciate you tuning into this episode.
SPEAKER_01I'm Courtney and I'm Mario, and this is the Ed Leadership Pair Podcast.