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My first year teaching Pre-K was in a resource-constrained community. In addition to early childhood education, our work extended far beyond the classroom. We helped connect families to housing support, food access, and medical services. The role was never limited to instruction; it was about care, stability, and trust. Around the holidays, I expected absolutely nothing from families. I gave gifts to them. They owed me nothing. It was Christmas, 1992. On the last day of class

Hope is not a Strategy There comes a point in every leader’s journey when we realize that hope alone cannot close the gap between intention and impact. Hope is vital. It fuels our optimism, steadies us in uncertainty, and keeps us connected to why the work matters. Hope without a plan becomes a wish, not a lever for change. Innovation begins the moment we recognize that hope must be paired with action, that belief must be matched with design, and that momentum grows only wh

You Are Not Intimidating, They Are Intimidated. There’s a subtle but powerful difference between those two ideas. For so many women in leadership, confidence, clarity, and direction are mislabeled as “intimidating.” What people often perceive as sharpness is really precision. What they call intensity is focus. What they classify as “too much” is simply the right amount of vision. When Strength Gets Misinterpreted Women leaders routinely navigate a world where their decisivene

Innovation rarely begins with a breakthrough. More often, it begins with a quiet shift; an internal decision to step into the chrysalis and do the unseen work of transformation. A quote I encountered recently said, “You can’t have butterfly conversations with caterpillar people.” It echoed years of watching students raise caterpillars in the classroom: the energy, the uncertainty, the patience, and finally the moment of release. In leadership, the same is true. People grow at

In an old television series from 2011, a line cuts through the noise of conflict: “When did helping your neighbor turn into a character flaw?” It’s a question that still echoes in leadership spaces today. The remark arises from an argument between two people: one intent on helping a struggling family, the other convinced they had earned their hardship through poor choices. The exchange exposes a deeper truth about leadership in schools, organizations, and communities. We ofte

Innovation Mindset: Onboarding Is Not an Event; It’s a Relationship I remember sitting in a conference room years ago with my leadership team, surrounded by folders, post-its, and laptops, as we tried to outline what “onboarding” really looked like in our district. We started listing the immediate things new employees needed to know (ID badges, email setup, class lists, keys, curriculum documents, HR paperwork). The list grew quickly, but so did my concern. When we stepped ba

The Line Between Friendship and Relationships in Leadership The Human Side of Leadership Leadership is inherently relational. We spend more waking hours with our colleagues Monday through Friday than we often do with our own families. These shared hours naturally build familiarity, shared humor, and trust; the ingredients of connection. Leaders must balance connection with clarity. There is a critical difference between knowing your staff and being part of their emotional bei

We live in the age of the immediate. Groceries arrive in an hour. Movies stream instantly. Search engines feed us answers before we finish typing the question. Parents expect a call back at 7 p.m. because “it can’t wait.” The culture of now has become the measure of responsiveness, of care, of competence. What gets lost in this immediacy is the quiet wisdom of eventually. Art takes time. Composing music takes time. Writing an epic novel takes time. Learning takes time. Buildi

There’s a special kind of damage that happens when someone unready for leadership gains power. It’s not always loud or visible. Sometimes it’s whispered in group chats named “sabotage.” Sometimes it’s measured on a dry-erase board that reads, “Days since someone cried.” Sometimes it’s hidden behind a smile and a stolen credit for another person’s work. I have seen all of it. Leaders who weaponize control, who hoard information, who keep mental (and sometimes literal) files on

A few weeks after I left a leadership role, one of the principals I had supervised reached out with a simple text: “I miss the way you...

Choosing to work in public education is not simply a career path; it is a calling to serve entire communities. If you are entering public...

Dance as a Leadership and Team Journey Leadership is often described as strategic, structured, or systematic. Another way to think about...

Grace is often spoken of in religious contexts, but it is also a profoundly human value. At its core, grace is generosity without...

Fundamental Friday: Integrity at the Interview Table When educators and leaders pursue new opportunities, the unspoken tension often...

Educational leadership requires both responsiveness and deliberation. Leaders are constantly balancing the need to act quickly in the...

When Myth Becomes Mandate Political mythology is powerful. It shapes national identity, stirs collective pride, and offers narratives of...

To Be Credible, We Must Be Truthful Innovation thrives on trust. Trust has only one unshakable foundation: truth. We can talk about...

A former superintendent I once worked for told me (dead serious) and anyone who would listen, that Game of Thrones was their leadership...

The first day of school feels different depending on where you’re standing. For a brand-new teacher, Year 1 is a leap into the unknown...

Let’s challenge a myth: that great teams are built on mutual admiration, deep trust, or even basic fondness. Some of the most effective,...