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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,...

It’s easy to hang a “Portrait of a Graduate” on the wall. It’s bold. It’s visionary. It captures the kind of human we want to send out...

Leading in Education by Lifting Others If you’re in educational leadership (or aspire to be), remember this: you didn’t get here alone....

Care is the Catalyst: Rethinking Leadership for Innovation and Trust In the field of education, where the stakes are human, not just...

It takes longer. We do more. We get less. When we stumble, the drop is steeper. This is the reality for women in educational leadership:...

Let’s do the math. From birth to age 18, a child lives roughly 157,680 hours. Even if a student attends school 6 hours a day, 180 days a...

After 34 years in education, serving as a teacher, leader, consultant, and most recently as a district director overseeing an...