Overcoming your own anxiety to become an effective K-12 leader

Leadership skills require people to look inward and find self-confidence that will not only guide them toward successes but focus them through failures—an inevitable part of all leadership positions.

Educational leadership is a career wrought with deep stress, pressure, and expectations. It’s a challenge for the healthiest and most experienced of administrators. But in the 21st century, as the stigma of mental illness begins to fade and we see the incidents of illness among our students rise, so too do the rates of illness among ourselves and our staff.

The Anxiety and Depression Association of America estimates that 40 million adults in the United States over the age of 18, or just over 18 percent of the population, are suffering from a clinical anxiety disorder. With anxiety being so common for so many people, we can no longer support educational leaders with general lists of characteristics and skills necessary for success. Rather we must angle our guidelines in a direction that considers the personal challenges of our 21st-century leaders in the face of an increasingly more anxiety-inducing profession.…Read More

Want to improve your leadership development? Use simulations!

American schools are facing a crisis in the lack of professional learning for school leaders.

These leaders are required to be licensed, which usually entails a two-year program at a university or college. However, once they actually begin their careers, most of them will tell you that any further professional learning comes on the job. This vacuum of professional learning among principals and superintendents means many have to stub their toes by learning from mistakes, leading sometimes to grave consequences and almost certainly to less-than-optimal outcomes.

In my research, I’ve worked extensively with simulations that help our school leaders continue their professional growth well past their licensing requirements. Effective simulations present relevant scenarios that offer leaders the opportunity to listen and learn from their peers and to gain experience without risk.…Read More

All (or most!) of your district leadership questions answered

A leader is someone who has a certain amount of expertise in a field and actively shares their insights with those around them through writing, speaking, and acting. Leaders take pride in teaching others how to apply knowledge and reach their full potential.

I believe a school leader has two main responsibilities: ensuring students have the best education possible and that students have a safe school environment (both physically and emotionally).

Becoming a stronger leader

Becoming a better leader takes time, patience, hard work, and a lot of dedication. For the last 25 years, I’ve had the good fortune of being a school and district leader. My experiences include director of digital learning and innovation and school principal. These experiences have led to nationally published articles and speaking engagements at state and national events. I want to take these experiences and answer all your leadership questions.…Read More

How to think like a leader

Schools are experiencing a dramatic shift from how they’ve been run and structured for over a century. Leaders must establish direction, influence others, and initiate sustainable change as they navigate the ever-evolving landscape of education. Such leadership requires a dynamic combination of positive mindset, influential behaviors, and effective skills. Stepping into a leader role requires a change in thinking from “How can I be the best for me?” to “How can I be the best to help my people do their jobs more effectively?”

School leadership, which is the process of enlisting and guiding the talents and energies of teachers, students, and families toward achieving common educational goals, is about thinking differently, not just acting differently. If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.

All too often, we focus on what we’re comfortable with—the strategies and methods we’ve used for years. But as education evolves, we must be willing to modify or update our approach. As hard and uncomfortable as this may be, we must think about our approach to think like a leader.…Read More

#9: 9 common leadership missteps to avoid

[Editor’s note: This story, originally published on September 10th of this year, was our #9 most popular story of the year. Happy holidays, and thank you for tuning into our 2018 countdown!]

The role of school administrator is evolving from a building manager into an instructional leader. This shift is not easy, and all leaders strive to be the best they can. Being a school leader isn’t easy and you are not going to make the right call all the time. However, you can learn to avoid common missteps.

There are countless articles about being a good school leader, but we also need to learn how to recognize and avoid missteps. Although making a misstep can be a learning opportunity, taking the time to learn how to recognize and avoid common mistakes can help you become productive, successful, and respected by your staff. Here are some examples of decisions or actions that can become a problem for you and your school. Understanding the misstep is the first stage in avoiding it.…Read More

Looking for ways to become a stronger educator?

The Better Leaders Better Schools podcast is for school and district administrators, emerging leaders, and educational influencers. In each episode, Daniel Bauer, a self-described “connector,” interviews school principals and industry leaders who share their insights, experiences, and mistakes. Learn how to build relationships, use data, and maximize your influence by practicing a growth mindset. Each show includes helpful educational resources shared to improve your leadership skills at school. As Bauer says, “This podcast was created to make your commute, workout, and even the chores more enjoyable!”

Here are three of our favorite episodes:…Read More

7 tips for making your principal your ally

Librarians, you cannot afford to have an adversarial relationship with your principal. You cannot even afford a principal who is an “agent of benevolent neglect.” You need an administrator who actively supports you and your program.

Your principal needs you as well—as a cheerleader and co-conspirator for change efforts. As a staff development resource for new programs. As an educator who can positively affect the learning environment of the whole school. As a researcher for best practices information. How exactly does your principal rely on you? Are you important enough to be listened to?

Principals and librarians need to be firm allies in helping their schools change in positive ways.…Read More

7 ways to be a more visible leader

Today’s school administrator has an overabundance of duties and responsibilities to balance with the mandates from state and national reform. As an instructional leader, you must guide teachers to align learning experiences with objectives and create learning activities to optimize student achievement.

Leaders should monitor instruction and develop a clear and well-defined curriculum while ensuring quality instruction, promoting best practices, monitoring the implementation of the curriculum, providing resources, and examining assessment data.

How can educational leaders do all that? My answer: By having a pulse on the building.…Read More

How to retain great teachers: Start with leadership opportunities

Finding and retaining effective teachers is one of the surest ways to improve student outcomes, according to research published in the Elementary School Journal and the Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education. But tight budgets take obvious solutions, like increased compensation packages and aggressive recruitment campaigns, off the table. So what options remain that won’t break the district budget?

At Colonial (DE) School District, we’ve focused on offering our most effective teachers clear, cost-effective opportunities for various leadership roles and paths for advancement.

We recognize that not all great teachers want to become administrators. They may, however, make great leaders in other roles. Providing leadership opportunities and options for these educators allows us to build a leadership pipeline to meet a variety of needs.…Read More

Introducing the EdLeader Personality Test

Personality tests are fun.

Some people derive valuable insights from them. Others simply use them to validate what they already know about themselves. Most just like to see which category they fall in so they can compare, contrast, and laugh about it with others.

That’s kind of the idea behind Advancing K12’s latest experiment: The EdLeader Personality Test. We identified nine recognizable archetypes from various levels of school and district leadership based on years of observation, then came up with a way for you to find your closest match. The logic behind the 40-question test has undergone thorough testing and validation. We’ve even provided some recommendations based on common pitfalls encountered by each archetype.…Read More

9 common leadership missteps to avoid

The role of school administrator is evolving from a building manager into an instructional leader. This shift is not easy, and all leaders strive to be the best they can. Being a school leader isn’t easy and you are not going to make the right call all the time. However, you can learn to avoid common missteps.

There are countless articles about being a good school leader, but we also need to learn how to recognize and avoid missteps. Although making a misstep can be a learning opportunity, taking the time to learn how to recognize and avoid common mistakes can help you become productive, successful, and respected by your staff. Here are some examples of decisions or actions that can become a problem for you and your school. Understanding the misstep is the first stage in avoiding it.

1. Trying to be popular.
Too often, leaders think they must please everyone. And worse, please them all the time. Yes, you want to be well liked, but it is more important to be respected. Respect is gained by a leader when he/she is consistent, has clear communication, sets expectations and clear boundaries, and makes tough (and usually necessary) decisions. Sometimes, those tough decisions are not popular. I’ve found that if you keep students at the core and are consistent, most staff accept unpopular decisions if you communicate the reason. Not asking your staff (when you can) for their input before the decision is another misstep you want to avoid.…Read More

It’s another year of change: Can you answer these questions?

[Editor’s note: This is the 13th installment in Jennifer Abrams’ ‘Personal Development’ column for eSchool News. In her columns, Abrams focuses on leadership skills for anyone working in a school or district. Read more about the column here.]  

Here we go: another opening, another show. The school year has started. The new ideas are ready for rollout. The excitement is present.

Are you ready? The roll out of new curriculum, the alignment of assessments, the instructional strategies that we will do with more fidelity, the intentional overlays of social emotional learning practices, the opportunity for something new… the list continues.…Read More