Episode 288: Building Belonging Through Microinclusions with Tom Walls

Darrin (00:00)

All right, everybody, welcome into the Leaning Into Leadership Podcast. This is episode 288. And one of the things that I've learned over the years is that leadership isn't usually defined by the big moment. And sure, there are those moments that everybody remembers: the keynote, the difficult conversation, the big decision, the crisis moment where your leadership was really challenged, or even the celebration after a successful year. But more often than not,

Leadership is built in the moments that almost nobody notices. It's in the way you greet somebody in the hallway. It's the way that you begin a meeting. It's the consistency of your routines. It's those little things that you do over and over and over that tell people: hey, you belong here. Now, today's guest, Tom Walls, has spent more than 30 years as both an educator and football coach.

And he's built an entire leadership philosophy around those moments. He calls those moments micro inclusions, small, repeatable actions that help people feel seen and valued and connected. They're simple, they're practical, and perhaps most importantly, they're sustainable. Now, whether you're a classroom teacher, a school administrator, district administrator, or even an organization outside of education.

I think you'll walk away from this conversation with ideas that you can put into practice tomorrow morning. Now, before we jump in, I want to thank our sponsor of today's episode. Today's episode is brought to you by Hey Tutor. School leaders everywhere are being asked to accelerate student learning while supporting teachers who are already carrying full plates. That's exactly why I appreciate the work Heytutor is doing.

Their high-impact tutoring programs help districts provide targeted, evidence-based support that improves outcomes without placing additional burdens on classroom teachers. And whether your district is focused on literacy, mathematics, or closing the achievement gap, HayTutor partners with schools to create customized tutoring solutions that make a measurable difference for students. If you're looking for practical ways to strengthen student achievement this year, be sure to check them out.

Go to heytututor.com or hit the link down in the show notes that lets them know you heard about him here on the Leaning Into Leadership Podcast. Now let's lean into leadership with Tom Walls. I'll see you on the other side.

Darrin (00:00)

All right, everybody, welcome back into the show. Joining me here in studio is my friend Tom Walls. Tom, welcome into Leaning Into Leadership.

Tom Walls (00:09)

Hey Darren, thanks for having me.

Darrin (00:12)

Absolutely, man. I'm excited about this. We've, you know, we've certainly had a whole bunch of conversations and and talked a lot over the last, I don't know, almost a year you and I have been been chatting and visiting a little bit about the book that you're working on and and that type of thing. But really excited to have you here on the podcast to talk a little bit about microinclusions and I guess anything else that might come up. But before we do that for

my listeners, the the viewers on YouTube who don't know Tom Walls, tell them a little bit about yourself. give them give some background.

Tom Walls (00:46)

Sure, so I'll give you the elevator pitch on Tom Walls. I'm an American educator. I've been teaching and coaching since 1993. I'm originally from New York, but I married a Canadian girl back in gosh, we got married in 19, I think it would have been 1998. And after a few years of living in New York, she went back to Winnipeg, Canada.

on a holiday and came home and said, I want to go home. And I said to her, Well, I'm an American history teacher, and I'm pretty sure they don't teach American history up in Canada. And I'm a football coach. And I said, I think they play football there. Turns out they do, just with one too many people on the field and too many guys running around. And we decided to jump and find the net later.

And so we've moved up to Winnipeg, Canada. And I've been here since 2010. And you know, Winnipeg is no Garden of Eden. It can get to minus 40 in the winters, but it's been a really good home to me and my family. I have two children: a son who lives in Philadelphia, and a daughter who is at the university here. And my wife this year.

Because we've been here 15 years, decided it was time to make another startling announcement. And she announced that she had been offered a position with a Canadian corporation working in Columbia. And I told her I don't know if they teach Canadian history in Colombia. And I don't know if they play football. They do, but I did come up for retirement this year, and I'm taking retirement, and she and I.

are moving to Medellin, Colombia, where I actually am going to be coaching a football team, not like Ted Lasso, an actual football team. And starting my second career, which is starting to talk about some of the really unique and useful things that I've discovered over 30 years of teaching in a couple of different countries.

Darrin (02:42)

Mm-hmm.

And I think I think there's some really, really powerful stuff that comes from having the opportunity to teach in different countries as as as you've been able to do. I'm I'm sure that that there are some people who are listening, they're thinking, well, probably some of the things they were thinking was, do you mean Columbia, Missouri or Columbia, South Carolina? no, we're talking the country of Columbia. And they also might be wondering.

When you transitioned from one country to another, so when you left New York and you went to Canada, what what were some things that that maybe you experienced other than obviously the minus forty man? Ouch. I'm a Wyoming kid and that just man, that just it is.

Tom Walls (03:37)

It's brutal. It is so brutal. It is so brutal.

So that's really a great question. And here's how I would wrap it up kind of in a nutshell. There are more similarities with the Canadian system than differences, that's for sure. But one of the biggest differences that I had to wrestle with was that when I was in New York State, and I was proud to call myself a New York State social studies teacher, we did really, really good work, and I worked with a lot of great teachers. But

In New York State, you specialized in an area. I came out of university as a social studies teacher, grades 7 to 12, and that's where I was staying. No matter whether it was economics, government, or European history, I was in social studies. When you're a Canadian teacher, at least in the province of Manitoba, you don't specialize. You are a teacher. And one year you can be teaching English. The next year you can be teaching gym.

The year after that, you can be teaching grade nine social studies. And I found that Canadian teachers are super flexible, but I've also found that they're never in a position long enough that they really, really specialize. And because of that, lots of the instruction is what we did when I was a student.

it's lots of what would be labelled sometimes unfairly as stand and deliver.

And for me that was a struggle. Because for me, that was the antithesis of how I'd like a classroom to run. So I had some immediate challenges just with the system, but a really interesting anecdote to this to this is that my daughter went through the Canadian high school system, and she and I have talked about this at length.

And she had a math teacher in the same school that I taught in, because she went to school with me for two years. And I knew them and I knew every day was a work packet. And the second day was correcting the work packet. And the third day was a new work packet. And on and on and on throughout the year. And when I talked to my daughter about it, she would say, Yeah, dad, it it was pretty boring. And yeah, it was pretty rote. And but then she said something really cool.

She said, but I learned how to teach myself.

And she said in university it's been really useful. So, as much as I did feel and still do for the most part, all honesty, I do feel that the Canadian system has some challenges that are harmful to teachers becoming masters at their craft. I also have some anecdotal evidence that it works for the students. I was talking with a Serbian teacher just the other day.

And he says, was telling me, no, we should be lecturing all the time, all the time, all the time. And some of his arguments about how we've enabled students by not by by in his words, dumbing down the material. I didn't have a lot of really good responses. So that's been the biggest difference that I've seen. I think I went off on a tangent there, so I apologize.

Darrin (06:55)

Certainly an interesting

No, that's totally fine. Certainly, certainly an interesting difference that you see there. And you know, something something definitely to to to think about. And actually it really connects well with what we want to talk about here on the podcast, the the micro inclusions. Now, before we do that though, you said something to me before we hit the record button that I want to come back to and maybe have you expand on because

What what you just talked about with Canadian teachers, you know, you could be, you know, what one day you're teaching home ec and you know, in the next school year you might be teaching math or whatever. I think that while maybe you don't get the opportunity to perfect your craft as much specific to the content, I wonder if maybe it helps teachers not fall into a rut. now obviously.

The guy with the the the math packet, correct the math packet, math packet, correct the math packet. May maybe he was in a rut. But but you shared something with me, a a conversation you had with a superintendent recently who talked about like like around year seven is when teachers sometimes find their groove. So let let's go back to that. I want to have you talk about that a little bit and I don't know, maybe connect that to that that Canadian practice of non specialization.

Tom Walls (08:15)

Yeah, the conversation I had was with a really close friend who's a very successful school administrator in New York State. And he talked about when we had first met. And I had been teaching for about ten years and he was brand new. And one of the things he expressed was that you were already ten years into the game and that you were still approaching every day as if your hair was on fire, which is one of my favorite football cliches about kids who practice really well.

He said, you know, it was year 10 and you were wearing costumes. It was year 10 and you were coming up with new lessons. It was year 10 and you were doing new ideas. Whereas what he's found as a superintendent and a administrator was that about year seven, most teachers settle into their routine. Their routine is either their groove that they found themselves in or maybe a rut.

And in talking about this, this is why he said that tenure was so important and that you need to know who's going to be into a place where they're consistent and good, and who is going to be in a place where they're really just punching in the clock. So his question to me was, you know, how come you never felt fell into that? And it got me to do some quick thinking. And it was funny how sometimes

Somebody will say something and you connect the dots right away. I think the reason why was because every day I felt like I was getting to be Robin Williams in the Dead Poet Society. Every day I felt like I was getting to be Sidney Poitiers in To Sir with Love, or every day I got to feel like I was Denzel Washington in Remember the Titans.

I was having those moments that we saw as young people in the movies that encouraged us to want to be teachers. And I was having those moments all of the time. And Darren, those moments are addictive. They're like drugs. Well, what I'm assuming it must feel like to be on drugs, where you want to keep coming back and having them over and over again. And here's really the crux of it.

Some of those moments I had were because of great lessons. I taught some really, really awesome lessons. I also had some awful ones too. But what I found about the great lessons is that not only were they labor-intensive, it took a lot of thinking. It took a lot of prep. There were a lot of late nights. But here was the worst part. That once I had taught it, it was gone. It was like the old Kansas song. It was dust in the wind.

And I had to wait till next year to have it again. And

As I thought about it more, the lessons were great, but that's not really what created this high that kept me wanting to come into work every day. The high was the connection that I got with the kids. And I've been fortunate.

That as I look back since 1993, every team, every classroom, I've had a connection with the kids that created that same high. And it's really only been within the last two years that I've been able to start to filter it and qualify it into this concept of microinclusions. And these are small, repeatable actions.

That take little or no preparation, that you can do tomorrow to create that buy-in from your students.

Darrin (11:51)

So talk a little bit more about then the micro inclusion. So I know I mean the concept of your book is teach like a coach, coach like a teacher, but that and that microinclusion piece is such a core element. Let's let's dig in a little bit more. Let's let's give it maybe a little bit more definition and then maybe even share some examples because you know, so many of our listeners right now are thinking, you know, okay, Tom, you've got me hooked. I I'm curious, but

I'm like what you just said. I'm the teacher who, you know, puts in so much time really planning and preparing my lessons. I don't have time to do a whole lot more. But when I hear the word micro, that tells me there might be some hope for me. So let's let's give it a little bit of a definition and let's give some examples.

Tom Walls (12:37)

Sure. let's start. Yeah, let's go with the definition. So again, microinclusions. These are ritualistic. And the ritualistic part of it, you say that most people want to back away because it sounds like you're getting into a cult. The ritualistic part is important, but they are small, let's say small repeatable actions you can do tomorrow that will create buy-in from

your classrooms and your teams. I've used these in both my classroom and I've used these in both my football teams. I've used these in the United States and Canada. I've used these overseas in Korea. I'm going to be using these in Colombia. And what I have found is just what you said. These are things that you can do tomorrow. But if you do them repetitive

Repeatedly over a course of time, you start to build connection, community, and identity without your kids even knowing it. And one of the, you know, I've gotten these from a bunch of places. In fact, I'm not sure any of them are my ideas, but like all teachers and coaches, I'm a great plagiarist. And easily, easily the most impactful one.

Darrin (13:55)

Yeah.

Tom Walls (14:00)

I got from my friend Coach Hugh Wyatt out in Washington. And this technique has done wonders for creating connections. And it's as simple as this: it's handshakes. Every day, whether it's my classroom or my football team, we start with a handshake. Now in the classroom,

I don't let the kids come in until we've shaken hands and they come in. On the football field, it's a little different because kids are getting there at various times. Kids are getting taped up. Equipment is coming in. But I know every kid at some point is gonna run over and they're gonna shake hands with me. Now it's a regular handshake, right? We don't dap, we don't slap hands. It's what you would do at a business meeting. And you would be stunned at the amount of parents.

Who have commented on this and have actually gone out of their way to thank us. And it's not just me. They shake hands with every member of my staff. And it's it's it's habitual. It's a relationship we have. Now, here's where the magic happens in this.

At the end of practice.

When we get done with our housekeeping announcements, when we get done with whatever we're gonna do that I'm gonna talk about in a second, I'm gonna talk about our football clap in a second. I'm gonna talk about our room 31 clap in a second. I'm gonna talk about what we call our US history clap in a second. we get the kids to line up and they shake hands with the coaches. This is a little more formal, right? This is like a wedding receiving line, but here's where this gets really useful. And this is what Coach Hugh taught me. If I've had to get on a kid at practice.

And I've had to raise my voice, because I am not above doing that. During that handshake line, I will hold on to that kid's hand and I will pull them out of the line.

And I will say to them, Are we still okay?

Because for my coaches out there, you know that when practice is going on, life is far too hectic for you to stop and make sure you're good with a kid that you had to get on with. But at that moment, I can make sure our connection is good. Now.

I had a kid in a class, and I write about this in the book. He was six foot eight. He was 300 pounds. His name was Dave. Although he was huge and as big as a door frame, he was anything but an intimidating kid. When his fight or flight kicked, it was flight all the time. Because of the program I taught, we had to do a lot of what we called work experience, where we had these kids go off and

They would volunteer at a job and I would have to go visit them. And whenever I visited Dave, he would hide from me. We used to call my work visits to him Dave and Go Seek.

Darrin (16:54)

Ha ha ha.

Tom Walls (16:55)

We had him

at Rona one time and he hid from me behind a stack of two by fours. Now remember the kid's six foot eight, three hundred pounds. He stuck out. I told him you're gonna have to get some more lumber if you wanna hide.

here's the story. I'm and I'm really giving you the reader's digest version. Dave eventually graduated, he eventually moved out, and he got a job at the Winnipeg Airport.

A year ago I was taking a red-eyed flight to see my son in Philadelphia. As I walked down the gangway and I passed that corner where they keep the oversized baggage that people try to get past the airline, but they have to pull back out. there was Dave, all six foot eight of them. Darren, without saying a word, I passed by him. He reached out his hand, we shook hands, and I got on the plane.

Darrin (17:39)

Powerful.

Tom Walls (17:39)

Handshak

handshakes work.

Darrin (17:42)

Yeah, yeah. You you're taking me back to my time as a high school principal when we developed our career academies and in our energy resources academy, the the teacher who was the director of the academy, his name's Ted, one of Ted's absolute musts, and he was a business teacher, was the handshake. And you know, when you stepped into

Mr. Schroeder's classroom in room 324, the kid who was closest to the door stood up, turned around, shook your hand, and then told you, hey, here's what we're doing in class today. you know, and and you know, the compliments that we would get, you know, because obviously as the principal, anytime we had, you know, a visitor or something like that to the building, I was along for, you know, for that tour or whatever it was. And I always made sure we went to room three twenty-four too, because I knew that would be, you know, what would happen, right?

Tom Walls (18:13)

Ha.

Awesome.

Darrin (18:33)

But

but it but it was one of those things that people always came back to how powerful that was that we were not only expecting but intentionally teaching our young people how to shake hands. It's just it's an unbelievably powerful thing. And to think about that is something everyone can do in a classroom. It doesn't take prep time, it doesn't take planning, it just takes being intentional. I I just love that one.

Tom Walls (19:00)

Yeah.

Intentional and Darren, here's the thing of why I call it the ritualistic aspect of it. You have to commit to doing it all the time for it to work. It is small, it is easy, but small and easy is only two of the three parts. You have to commit to making it your ritual. And it will work, but you've got to put in the long-term application. And please, it's a handshake. It's super easy.

Darrin (19:30)

Yeah. But it's something that I I believe, and maybe maybe expand on this a little bit when I say it, but every single kid, every single one of your coaches, every single one of your athletes, they feel like they're included because every one of them is doing it.

Tom Walls (19:46)

Mm-hmm. And, you know, that's that's one of those parts about the inclusion movement, right? Is the people need to feel valued, people need to be seen, people need to feel like they have a part. And you know, I say those things, and as I say them, I feel like I'm the HR department. with the new initiative from the superintendent. And I've been that teacher in in the meeting, right? But my God, there's truth to it.

Have you ever been in a group where you didn't feel you felt like you were doing busy work?

You're you're eventually going to not perform. And gosh, you know, Darren, this is a whole subsect, but I can't speak for what's going on in your listeners' worlds, but in the Winnipeg School Division, there is a huge push for inclusion and pronoun usage. Huge. And you know, I'm 55, so there's a lot of my colleagues who struggle with this. I don't give a damn if calling

Him, her, they, them makes a kid buy into my program more. I will call them whatever they want. Because the logic makes sense. If people feel seen and heard, they're gonna do more. I'm good with it.

Darrin (21:04)

Yeah, a hundred percent. Me too. I I completely agree with you. it's I mean again, you're t you're talking about relationships. You know, you you know one hundred percent. You're talking about the power of that connection and the power of that relationship. So so you kind of alluded to it. I I wanna make sure that we get to it. you talked about your team clap, your classroom clap. Let's let's talk about that one a little bit.

Tom Walls (21:21)

yes, yeah.

Okay, so here's where I got this one from. I got this from the UR US Marine Corps. And and they know something about building community. They know something about it. Okay, so it's really as simple as this. I've been doing this since nineteen ninety-four. And we have a specialized clap we use in the classroom.

Darrin (21:31)

Yes they do.

Tom Walls (21:44)

We use it to begin the day after I've done announcements. We use to end the day to signal we're moving to classes, you know, and my gosh, I am the guy who says the bell doesn't dismiss you, I dismiss you. I am still that teacher. but we use it for transition points too. So let's imagine

Darrin (21:55)

Yeah.

Tom Walls (22:03)

this is how I would be doing it and you know every teacher has got their own way so because I suggest this is how I start the day doesn't mean that you have to do it.

Kids are coming and I'm greeting them at the door with handshakes. They're sitting down. Our entrance task is on the screen or on the board. They're at various levels of actually opening their notebooks to start on it. I'm going to come in, I'm going to hit the bell, I'm going to say it's on the board. I'm going to take attendance. Let me know when you have your answer written down. Kids are writing down their answer, then I'm going around and I'm putting my initials next to it. Every 10 or 15 of those that they save is worth a point on the report.

That's not what I'm talking about, right? That's just teaching stuff. And that may work for you, may not. Whatever. But when we get to that point where we're going over the day's agenda and we're talking about what we're gonna do, and we're about to transition into the first actionable item. I'm gonna say, all right, that's what we got going on for today. Everybody good? Give me a room 31 clap on three. One, two, three. We'll hit three claps and then the day starts.

If we're on the football field, I've got all the kids on a knee. I'm going over the practice plans on the whiteboard. We're talking about what our goals are going to be for this week, what our goals are going to be for today. And I'm going to say, all right, everybody good? Give me a football clap on three. One, two, three. And we move on. Now, this works to signal the beginning, to signal the end. It's a visceral action. There's a palpable moment. You can feel the clapping.

But here's the cool aspect of it. I have been doing this probably for 25 years, and I changed the name wherever I'm at. Because I'm at a self-contained classroom right now for at-risk kids, it's room 31. When I taught American history, it was an American history clap. When I taught economics, it was an economics clap. But when I finish our football banquets, and I've got a room of about 300 people.

And we're getting through our last things, and then we call them coaches' thoughts. And I say something like, All right, we're gonna pull the curtain now on the 2025 season. And I'm gonna welcome all of you back this time next year. So we'll look at the 2026 season. And I am sure we are gonna find ourselves just as pleased as we are right now, because that's what we do as a football community. And I'll say something like, and as a football community.

Let's go ahead and end this sentence with a football clap on three. One, two, three. And I will have a room of three hundred parents, players, and coaches. Clap their hands and then they'll get up and start leaving.

It works because we do it all the time. It's ritualistic and it's spread beyond the players, to the coaches, to the parents, maybe even to our community.

Darrin (24:58)

I love that so much. I'm I'm like half emotional over here listening to you tell that story. just just really, really powerful things. Folks, what Tom is saying is these are things that you can do. They're simple, they're repeatable, but most importantly, you gotta be intentional, you gotta create that ritual. And I think as you know, as as this episode is coming out, a lot of you are getting ready to.

Go back and start your new year. You're you're starting to think about, hey, I can't wait to get to my classroom, or I can't wait to, you know, start working with my team. Think about what those microinclusions can be for you. How can you take this work that Tom has shared with us today and go be intentional and start to build something as powerful as what Tom has done during the course of his career? fantastic stuff today, Tom. I love this so much.

our time has flown by. So I want to make sure and get to the the last question that I ask everybody here on the podcast. man, so many great things that you've shared. but this is the Leaning Into Leadership Podcast. So Tom Walls, how are you leaning into leadership right now?

Tom Walls (26:04)

Yeah, so what a good question. And what a good question to pose a teacher and a coach. I saw somebody write once a year or two ago that leadership is influencing people. And even if you are not the CEO, even if you're not the superintendent, even if you're not the president or prime minister, if you influence somebody, you lead them. So to our teachers out there.

You are leaders, and it's beyond just the classroom, anybody you influence. And for me, what I have discovered, and it's also part of the thesis of this book, is I'm leaning into leadership by making sure I allow myself to embrace finesse as a leadership style. Now by finesse,

I mean moving farther away from the traditional football coach commanding through control or the teacher commanding through control, but rather being able to influence people without directly telling them what to do. And this is hard. This is wicked hard because.

As leaders, our default position, being a teacher and a coach, is do it this way because I'm the big person in the room.

But what I'm finding is you create more ownership and you create more buy-in if you can allow finesse and sometimes that silence or a lack of reaction to cause people to follow your your ideas. And my leaning in idea or my leaning in example.

Was this is a conversation I had with my wife last night. She is a business consultant and she's taking us to Colombia. And right now she's having a challenge with another member of the team as to who's right and who's wrong. And the other member of the team is saying, I'm going to the boss. And my wife was quite concerned with this because we're making a big move.

And my thought was, after we talked this through, hun, let

Let him go to the bus. Don't try to force him into your way. Say, and again, you know, and I'm not good at telling her what to do, but I, you know, something along the lines of maybe there's a voice here of do the things that you have to do. However, these are our priorities. And I understand that you're upset, and I'm not going to tell you not to be upset.

But I'm also not going to react and get and make this worse. And for me, leaning into the idea of finesse-based leadership is not trying to force the issue with the person because what I've found is that typically works in the beginning, but does not cause buy-in.

Darrin (29:19)

Absolutely. I love that. Man, that's that might be one of the best answers we've heard here on the podcast. Almost three hundred episodes in, man. That's one of the best answers I think I've heard. I love that so much. wonderful, wonderful stuff. Tom, people are gonna want to follow you. They're gonna wanna, you know, learn more about you. I mean, I I know you're writing on Substack. I follow you on Substack. what are some places that people can get in touch with you?

Tom Walls (29:41)

Substack is really the best best venue because every other week I'll write on something about teaching and coaching. And in the beginning, it used to be things like handshakes in the room 31 clap. And then it started to become things like last week I wrote an article on gaps we don't know that are there. And it was things we don't know our students don't know, and things we don't know our players don't know.

And I've come and so here's another micro inclusion. Not really a micro inclusion, but super easy thing you can do. I've come to the conclusion with my football players, if they can't say it, they don't know it.

And I have to question them all the time to find out what they don't know. And here's where I learned this, Darren. and again, you talked about learning something just the other day. I learned this just the other day in that working with my team in Columbia.

I have a football team in Columbia that I'm coaching through Zoom and honest to God, this is crazy. They didn't know that there were different positions on the offensive line.

Darrin (30:40)

No way.

Tom Walls (30:41)

I know you know this, Darren. I know that most Americans

know this. I know this, all Canadians know this. I didn't know that the guy who was coaching the Colombian team didn't know that the guard really isn't interchangeable with the tackle. And so the article I wrote, and it's really pretty cool, are those gaps that we don't realize aren't there. It was a gap. I had no idea. Darren, I was trying to teach them.

Not a complicated to me, but a very complicated to them offensive play. And they didn't know that the same guy had to play the same position every practice.

Darrin (31:19)

Amazing. It is. Yeah. But but but it underlines your point so well that, you know, w there are gaps that and I I enjoyed that article, by the way. but there are those gaps that you're right. We we don't know what our kids don't know or what our athletes don't know unless we unless we ask, unless we really dig in and pay attention. So super fantastic stuff.

Tom Walls (31:19)

How crazy is that? How crazy is that?

Yeah.

Yeah, the

the phrase I like to use is digging up snakes. We've got to dig up snakes and kill them. to answer your question, LinkedIn is also a great place to find me. Yeah, I've got a Facebook account, but that's just for Philadelphia Eagles memes. And Simpson memes mostly.

Darrin (32:01)

There you go. Awesome. Well we'll make sure we link both your Substack and your LinkedIn in the show notes so people can come and find you. Man, this was so much fun, Tom. Thank you so much for coming to join me here on Leaning Into Leadership.

Tom Walls (32:11)

Yeah. Yeah,

you're welcome. Please. It talking about teaching and talking about coaching is easy. Teaching and coaching, that's hard.

Man, what a fun episode that one was. I've gotten to know Tom over the last couple of years, and we've had some amazing conversations. So it certainly was time to have him here on the podcast. So

Make sure you get down there in the show notes and click on the links, get connected with Tom, check him out on LinkedIn and on Substack. You will absolutely not regret it. Tom's an amazing follow. And now it's time for a pep talk. So today on the pep talk, I want to keep this fairly short, or at least I'm gonna try to. Earlier in the week, I was in North Carolina and had the opportunity to work with an entire district leadership team, roughly a hundred people.

Before my portion, the assistant superintendent, two of them actually, did some presentations for the entire leadership team. One piece was on kind of setting them up for their new strategic plan, and the other piece was a full rollout of the strategic plan. And while that probably isn't unique, we see that happen frequently. What stood out to me was how these two leaders

We're very intentional to go about their work, to increase the engagement in the room through activities, through strategies, honestly, leading like a classroom teacher. If you want people to do something, you need to model it for them. The leaders in that room now have these incredible models for ways to go and lead in their staff.

They're going to have the same expectations. They want their teachers to be engaging. They want students to really take ownership of the learning. And that started right there at the top with those two leaders. I think they did a fantastic job, folks. So that's what I have for you today. Just remember, you modeling what you want to see is absolutely critical and truly makes a difference in your leadership. Thanks for listening here.

in the on the Leaning Into Leadership podcast. Thanks for listening to the Leaning Into Leadership Podcast this week. As always, rate, review, and subscribe. Make sure you share this with somebody else who might enjoy this episode. Have a road to awesome week.