Fueling School Culture With Growth And Recognition

We challenge the idea that growth means titles and argue for growth as trust, feedback, and purpose. We show why recognition must highlight effort and progress, not just results, to build durable school culture that lifts students.

• defining growth as psychological before positional
• the three growth questions staff ask
• feedback that builds and trust that expands responsibility
• recognition as fuel and what to celebrate
• the danger of outcomes-only praise
• leader prompts to align strengths with stretch
• culture trickling down from staff to students
• simple checks to see if staff feel seen and growing

Email me to get the free Building Bridges culture survey.

www.EdwardDeShazer.org

Transcript

Why Growth And Recognition Matter

SPEAKER_02 0:00

When educators feel both culture shifts, they feel valued not just for what they produce, but for who they are becoming. And here's what happened when growth and recognition are strong. People stay longer, teams collaborate better, morale stabilizes, leaders earn trust, students benefit. Putting teachers first is putting students first because culture always trickles down.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

If you're an educator that's passionate, but you're tired and you're burnt out and you're wondering what to do next, this is a show for you. We're gonna learn together, we're gonna recharge together, and we're gonna grow together so you can be the best you and serve your students and your community to the best of your ability.

Show Welcome And Review Ask

From Posters To Practices

Growth As Psychology Not Position

The Three Questions Of Growth

Feedback, Trust, And Purposeful Stretch

Recognition As Fuel Not Flattery

SPEAKER_02 0:45

Welcome back to the Teachers Ed Podcast. I am your host, Edward Estaser. Teachers Ed Podcast is the place where the best and the brightest in education come to be inspired, to connect, to learn, and to grow. If you're tuning in right now, what I'm gonna ask you to do is just pause this episode for a second, head over to Apple, head over to Spotify or wherever you're listening, and just leave a star review. You don't have to write it out. I don't need all that. But if you could just leave a star review, that would be incredible. That helps these episodes get in front of more educators, uh, just like yourself. And last episode, we talked about growth and recognition and why those are absolutely essential to school culture. And today I want to dive just a little bit further into those. Um, because here's the truth it is not enough to say that growth matters. It's not enough to say that recognition matters. If we are not intentional, those words turn into posters on the wall, not practices in your building. So, today, what I want to do is I want to challenge school leaders and I want to challenge educators to think differently about growth, about recognition, and how they directly impact engagement, retention, uh, culture. And I'm not gonna say um, and well, I am gonna say something early that may make people uncomfortable because it's the reality of being in education. If your people don't feel like they're growing, they're halfway out the door. And I want to take a second to um unpack that today for you all. So when schools think about growth, often we think about growth structurally. We think about the promotions, we think about the new roles, we think about the administrative pathways. But most educators, I guess I won't say most, because someone's gonna be like, not most. I know how people try to pick apart your words. There are a good amount of educators who are not looking for a new title, they are looking for more meaning in the work that they're doing. Growth is psychological before it becomes positional. And it answers, there's three internal questions that educators are looking for when we're determining growth. Number one, am I improving? Number two, am I trusted? And number three, am I becoming better at what I care about? And if the answer to those questions are consistently no, then that is where disengagement is gonna begin. And here's where most schools, in my opinion, miss it. You can send someone to PD and still not make them feel like they are growing. Growth isn't about attending something, growth is about applying something. It is not um, it's not about going to the developments and getting those credits. It's about being stretched in ways that feel purposeful. A growth requires feedback that builds, it requires opportunities that align with your strengths, it requires trust that increases responsibility. And when educators feel stagnant, it's rarely because they don't want to grow. It is because no one has been intentional about helping them grow. So if if if your people don't feel like they're growing, they're already halfway out the door. If your people um, if your people feel like they're stuck in the same place, even though it's like spinning rims, they're stuck in the same place, even though it looks on the outside like they're moving, they're halfway out the door. Growth isn't about titles, it is about trajectory. Educators want to know am I improving? Am I trusted? And am I becoming better? When those answers are no for too long, engagement disappears before resignation letters ever show up. So let's just take a second and go a little deeper on recognition. Recognition is not flattery, it is fuel. Flattery says you're great at what you do. Recognition says that I see your efforts. And those are not the same thing. When educators feel unseen, it doesn't just hurt morale, it impacts performance because efforts that go unnoticed eventually decrease. Excuse me, I want you to think about it for a second. When someone consistently stays late to help students, whether it's at practice or just staying late in general, like a lot of teachers do, when someone supports teammates quietly, um, when someone maintains consistency during chaos, and when someone carries emotional weight without complaining, and no one acknowledges it, they start to question themselves does this even matter? Recognition reinforces behavior. If you want to build culture, you have to recognize what you want repeated. I'm gonna say this again because it's so important. If you want to build culture, you have to recognize what you want repeated. Recognition is not flattery, it is fuel. Flattery says you're great. Recognition says I see your effort. And effort that goes unseen in a school eventually decreases. If you want strong culture, recognize the behaviors that you want repeated. Here's the mistake that I think a lot of schools may make. We only recognize outcomes. We recognize test scores, we recognize data wins, we recognize like the big wins that are trendy, but culture is built long before outcomes show up. If we only celebrate results, we accidentally teach people that effort doesn't matter unless it produces visible success. And I know if someone's like, we don't need participation trophies, you know, there's always that energy of like, if you're not winning, you're losing. If you're not first, you're last. Ricky Bobby. And I get it. But that creates a pressure. A healthy culture recognizes consistency, improvement, uh, courage, patience, growth, and progress. Recognition should not wait for perfection. Um, it really should just celebrate progress. Because even if you're getting a half percent better every single day when you're talking about 180 school days, that's a lot of percentages. Um, so if you're a leader that is listening to this, I want to challenge you today with something simple. How often are you asking your staff, what do you want to grow in this semester? Not what are you struggling with, but what actually excites you? What strengths do you want to develop? What leadership muscle do you want to build? Growth conversations can shift morale because they're gonna start to communicate that I'm invested in your future here. And maybe I'm not invested in your future here because at certain schools you can't grow higher than the ceiling of the school because maybe you're at a school there's 20 people. So maybe I'm investing in your future wherever it is that you end up because dynamic educators want to grow and expand and lead. Um, but when people feel invested, they invest back. Um when leaders feel invested in they invest back. When when staff feel invested and they invest back, when support staff feel invested and they invest back, mic fell over.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

Let's get those remaps set up.

Celebrate Progress Not Just Outcomes

SPEAKER_02 9:30

So when people feel invested in, they will begin to invest back in the culture. Sorry about that. Um, and and it's important because people will invest in what invests in them. So as I think about this pillar in the uh Building Bridges Blueprint, we're actually we're doing an entire reband rebrand on the Building Bridges Blueprint. It's gonna have an entirely new name uh in about a month. We'll work through that rebrand behind the scenes right now. So if you have not gotten that survey, feel free to email me if you're listening. You're like, wait, what is the survey? I'm new here. Email me and I will send you the free survey so you for you to get data on your culture. Um, but if I could simplify this entire pillar into two words, it would be this I see.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

What do I mean by that? I see you.

Leader Prompts To Invest In Staff

SPEAKER_02 10:30

Growth says, I see your potential. Recognition says I see your effort. Uh, when educators feel both culture shifts, they feel valued not just for what they produce, but for who they are becoming. And here's what happened when growth and recognition are strong. People stay longer, teams collaborate better, morale stabilizes, leaders are in trust, students benefit. And this is one of the things I I said this in an article putting teachers first is putting students first. Because culture always trickles down. It's one of the few things in the world that actually trickles down. So if you're, you know, as you're as we're getting ready to wrap this one up and as you're reflecting on this pillar, the question I want I want a school leader to ask themselves is if someone walked into your school today, would they feel like they are growing? Would they feel like their effort is seen? If the answer isn't clearly yes, that's where the work is. Growth and recognition can't be extras. They are not extras, they are retention strategies, they are engagement strategies, and they are culture builders for any school and any organization. And when we get this right as school leaders, school just schools don't just operate, they thrive. And our goal is to have staff that feel safe, staff that feel cared for, and staff that are striving and thriving, not just surviving. So it's important as school leaders that we model the things we want our staff to do, that we make sure they feel safe, they feel seen, they feel supported. Um, and that growth and recognition is an incredibly important pillar in school culture. So that's what I got for you in today's episode. Nice short one. Um, I'm trying not to make them too long because I want to, I know sometimes people just listen on their way to work. Um, but that's why I try to break them into bite-sized episodes week after week. So definitely appreciate you tapping in. Uh, if this resonated with you, share with someone else. Again, if you have not gotten the Building Bridges survey, uh, you can go on like the podcast little thing in the info. Shoot me an email and I will send it over. Message me on Instagram and I will send it over because my goal is to help as many schools improve their culture as possible. It is one of the things that they don't teach you when you get your uh school leadership, master's in school leadership, or what you know, whatever those degrees are, they don't teach you about culture really. They just kind of teach you how to teach and how to do all the data things. But culture is the data, it's the most important data in a school, if you ask me. So if you need that survey, it's free. Uh send me a note and I will make sure I send it over to you. But again, I always appreciate you all for tapping in. If it resonated, share it with someone. Please, if you have not, give me some star reviews on Apple, on Spotify, or wherever you may be, whatever podcast you may be listening to this on. And as always, uh take care of your people, take care of your students, and most importantly, take care of yourself and keep building bridges. Love y'all, appreciate y'all, and I'll see y'all next week.