Episode 227: Leadership Starts with Clarity: A Joint Episode with Joshua Stamper

Dr. Darrin Peppard (00:00.918)

All right, my friends, welcome into episode 227 of the Leaning Into Leadership podcast. I'd like to ask you a question. What does it take to start the school year with clarity, confidence, and purpose? You know, for many leaders, the first weeks of school can feel like a storm of meetings, initiatives, and just endless to-do lists. But what if you could step into this year focused, intentional, and ready to lead with vision?

Well, today on the show, Joshua Stamper and I are teaming up once again for our annual Back to School Conversation, a joint episode of the Leaning into Leadership podcast and the Aspire to Lead podcast. We're talking about the real work that sets leaders up for success, building trust, modeling expectations, and creating the clarity your staff needs to really have an incredible year.

whether you're a brand new administrator or seasoned administrator, this episode is your reminder that leadership is not about doing it all. It's about doing the right things doing them the right way. So let's get started with my conversation with Joshua Stamper.

Joshua Stamper (00:01.278)

Welcome back everyone to aspire to lead and leaning into leadership with Darren Peppered and Joshua Stamper as we are doing once again. I think Darren, this is an annual thing now as we're kicking off the school year where we're doing a shared episode and talking about things that we need to be maybe focused on thinking about some aha moments for our admin as we looked at the calendar and realized that folks are already going back to campuses already getting involved with the counselors and other staff members as their

for the new school year. And I know Darren, you were just at a school and helping them. So do you want to kind of set the stage for the topic that we're going to be covering today?

Dr. Darrin Peppard (00:36.888)

Sure. Yeah, absolutely excited to do this again. Yes, this has become an annual event. I think this is the third time, fourth time, third time. I'm not sure. We've done this several times. I'll say that and always look forward to sitting down and having conversations with you and talking leadership with you. So, so yeah, what what we were talking about before we hit record and I think what would make a great topic for us today is yeah, it's time.

Joshua Stamper (00:46.1)

Maybe, yeah. Yeah.

Dr. Darrin Peppard (01:06.442)

and people are coming back in the buildings as we're sitting here recording this, a couple of schools that I have spent a tremendous amount of time with in Virginia this entire summer had their very first staff meetings with all staff back today. And I'm finding it in a way a little bit unbelievable that we're at that point.

Joshua Stamper (01:17.664)

Yeah.

Dr. Darrin Peppard (01:32.522)

you had shared before we hit record about the blog post that I did last week on clarity, know, what leaders should be doing now before the staff showed up. And I pushed out that blog on Friday of last week and Josh, it wasn't 10 minutes. And I got a reply from somebody who was talking about like my opening line is something like, hey, in the next few weeks, your staff will be coming back. And that person said, few weeks, try Monday.

Joshua Stamper (01:37.45)

Yeah.

Joshua Stamper (01:57.087)

Yeah.

Dr. Darrin Peppard (02:01.696)

My staff is here Monday. So I mean, let's do what we can to help those school leaders who either your staff is just coming back or maybe you've still got another week or two. think it'd be great to just kind of talk about some things that leaders can do to be best prepared to support their staff and set them up for success.

Joshua Stamper (02:04.178)

You

Joshua Stamper (02:23.934)

Yeah, I was just talking with the counselor. They just got back in session and they have a brand new principal and they've never been a principal before. And although they have a lot of knowledge as far as being an administrator, I know that they were working through some of the things as far as like, what are the, do I even do to begin with, with my staff? Like, and we can maybe start with this as far as like, you know, for our leaders setting up the school year, they were even thinking about like,

What's my vision as far as expectations on the campus? What are our goals for the year? And like, how do we measure that also, you know, within that goal? And I know some of these are kind of hitting on some of the blog posts that you had pushed out. It was well done by the way, Darren. So for everyone that's listening, make sure you go and find that. And maybe we can put it in the show notes too, Darren, as far as a link for folks. But I think it's a great reminder. doesn't matter if you're a new leader or a veteran leader.

Dr. Darrin Peppard (03:16.653)

Yeah, absolutely.

Joshua Stamper (03:21.472)

It's just a good reminder of things that sometimes we forget in the busyness. And then also that checklist, you know, one of the things with the ministers coming back is the district comes in right away and provides PD. But then they also say, Oh, these are all the district initiatives or these are the state initiatives and things that you need to comply with and get done. And I don't know about you, but I remember vividly of frantically looking at my PD two weeks with my staff going where on earth am I going to fit that in? Like,

Dr. Darrin Peppard (03:49.166)

Right, yeah.

Joshua Stamper (03:49.428)

It would have been nice to know earlier that that was going to take up some of my time. And then you're scrambling to kind of reshuffle the deck as far as, know, what the schedule looks like for staff when they come back. But yeah, where do you want to start with like, our, our starting point for not only a conversation, but where administrators should be looking at when they're coming back to the office.

Dr. Darrin Peppard (04:08.588)

Well, I think, I think you bring up a really interesting point and this is true of both new leaders and also returning leaders, but let's maybe lean a little bit further into those brand new leaders because when, know, when you first get the keys to the school, our, our mutual friend, Todd Bloomer would say, you know, spend five minutes, put your feet up on the desk and say, yes, I made it. And then after five minutes, get your feet off the desk and get to work because there's a lot to do. And sometimes.

you're not sure where to start. know that was true for me and I had been in that building. It's not like I came from a different building, but I think first and foremost with all of what you shared and here comes these district initiatives and here comes all these other asks and this kind of thing. Just try to define what success might look like in the coming year and maybe just think about what do you see as possible this year?

when you're brand new to a school, I don't think you can look at data or those types of things and accurately say this is what I think is possible. I think the what is possible for a brand new leader in a brand new school might be, I want to focus on relationships. I want to focus on ensuring that everybody on the staff feels that, you know, they're part of this. One of the schools that I work with,

their number one big what's possible this year is staff inclusion. They want every staff member to feel like, hey, you know, I'm welcome here. I'm valued here. What I do here matters. So I think just figuring out what success could look like for you instead of going to a list of tasks, because I can give you a list of tasks. I can write 200 for you right now, but those aren't going to necessarily

Joshua Stamper (05:41.267)

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Darrin Peppard (06:05.844)

set you up for success or do anything to move the needle.

Joshua Stamper (06:09.053)

Mm-mm. No, it's hard coming in. I can think of plenty of campuses that I went into and you assume like every role is going to be the same and to a degree there are tasks and procedures that are the same, but every district is different. Every school is different. Every student body is different. Every teaching and staff is different. And so when you come in, you obviously as the leader want to have a voice, but at same time, a of times you don't even understand what the culture is, what

they've experienced prior to if it was a positive experience or a negative experience with the previous administration and how that is going to impact you because it will if if they had a wonderful and glowing relationship with the last principle well obviously they're gonna miss that right and you're going to be compared to that person if it was someone that they were glad to see leave well you're you're gonna get the benefit of doubt you know so it might look nice at the beginning you'll still be compared

Dr. Darrin Peppard (07:03.406)

Yeah, you'll still be compared just in a different way. Yeah.

Joshua Stamper (07:08.607)

So all that being said is like you don't have that historical data piece like you may have the numbers as far as like student scores and whatnot, but you don't really truly have like that historical component of like what happened prior to you and so it takes some time to get that from all stakeholders the parents the community the teachers the parent or the students and so, you know, I Always felt comfortable probably about year three. I know that sounds really really long

And it is, but it takes some time for you to not only understand what's going on and where they've been, but then also taking that information to then construct a goal that's obtainable and moving toward your vision. So I think just patience, grace to yourself of taking that time to, you know, yes, you celebrate that, like you said, put your feet up, celebrate, but also like the work is more about what you're talking about as far as building trust and.

building strong, healthy relationships with those that you're working with, but then also getting an understanding of what's happened in the past to make an informed decision moving forward.

Dr. Darrin Peppard (08:16.278)

I think that's a really important point. Understanding what has happened in the past, understanding both the successes and maybe the shortcomings that have transpired over however many of years that you want to collect that information. And I think some of that depends on how long your predecessor was there. So if you're coming into a building like when I became a high school principal, my predecessor had been there for 17 years as the building principal.

And yes, I worked with him for five years. So I knew a lot of that background. So my schema was pretty strong in that building. If you're coming into a building where you're going to be the fifth principal in three years or sixth principal in eight years or something like that, you probably don't have to dig as deep because there's probably a lot of that same thing. And a caution I think I might share. And I think I've shared this on my show before.

here in the last few weeks, if you are brand new, don't jump and go running after the first thing you hear from the first person who comes into your office, because the first four or five who come in your office were probably the ones who were the first four or five in the office for the last person. And they have, let's say a motive. Let's say they have a purpose for being the first ones there.

doesn't mean you shouldn't trust them, it doesn't mean you shouldn't build a relationship with them, but it does mean don't just go chase the first thing they tell you.

Joshua Stamper (09:54.057)

Yeah. Well, and I had a superintendent that came, he was brand new, wasn't from the district. And there were a lot of folks that were worried because like, he doesn't know what's happened before. It's like that whole tradition and legacy that has been built over time. You're an outsider coming in. But to his credit, he always said like, don't knock down the fence until you know why it was built. Right. And there's plenty of examples of administrators coming in, brand new.

and not knowing the situation, not knowing why things are in existence, and then making a rash decision to put their stamp on it, to say, you know, I'm the leader, this is my call, this is the way want to move forward, and then regretting that quickly once they get information from other folks. And there's plenty of examples of that, but I think what you're saying too is like, you know, don't just listen to a couple people and then make your decision making, like you actually got to take some time, which is hard.

I'm gonna say that firsthand, it was extremely hard to be patient and to gather as much information and data as possible prior to making some decisions. But to that fence analogy, like you knock it down and then there's a bunch of crazy wild dogs on the other side of that fence, well, you're gonna be regarding that decision pretty fast.

Dr. Darrin Peppard (11:10.648)

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. think, I think in addition to, you know, just identifying what success might be is, you know, you've got to maybe just figure out two or three things at most that you're going to try to focus on during that, that particular year. You've mentioned relationships quite a few times. I think, you know, I've relate mentioned relationships. I think that's certainly something no matter how long you've been a part of your school, whether you're brand new or you've been there for 20 years.

you should continue to focus on relationships. Obviously your students are new, they're not the same students that were there 20 years ago. So you should continue to lean into those relationships. But then maybe find two or three other things that at most you're gonna say, look, these are gonna be my big rocks, if you wanna use that phrase, or this is gonna be my focus, or as a team, this is what we're going to really lean into in terms of doing that work.

What might be a couple of things Josh, you can think of that as a newer leader, you could still say, hey, these are the focuses for the year without having a ton of that schema like we were talking about.

Joshua Stamper (12:17.554)

Yeah.

Joshua Stamper (12:25.682)

Well, so for instance, I was hired as an assistant principal in one campus because they wanted student behavior protocols to be completely redone and changed. And so they knew the work that I had done in previous campuses and wanted me to implement that. So that was easy for me. Like, because I had already done it, it was successful. I was very confident in that.

So yes, the relationship building was key because I'm trying to implement a new system. And if they don't know who I am, don't know my motives, don't trust me, obviously anything that I say is gonna fall to the wayside, right? So I had to really do that kind of quickly, if I'm being honest, because I did make some pretty drastic changes in the sense of what student discipline looked like. Now the matrix too, like student matrix had to be redone and...

I had to like try to have a collaborative way of doing that to get other stakeholders involved with that so that they understood like, you know, this isn't just me top down dictating this onto you. Let's do this for the best, you know, best for the students. And so that was an easy thing. But even saying that I knew what my goals were, I knew why I was there. I agreed with it. But at the same time, it took a really long time.

to massage that idea and to make those changes where it was universal for all staff. even by saying that, like, that was an easy answer to state, but as far as the process goes, it was a long runway. It took years for me to get it to the place that I felt like we were all on the same page. We had all the same language. We had all the same procedures. We were in agreement.

Dr. Darrin Peppard (14:08.166)

Yeah.

Joshua Stamper (14:18.234)

I had plenty of data to show that it was working. We didn't have repeat offenders. We had more time in the classroom. We saw a correlation between student behavior and grades. So like there was a lot that came with that, but it also took time, it took experience and took a lot of teaching and relationship building with that to make it occur. So that was the first thing that came to mind.

Dr. Darrin Peppard (14:39.702)

I think though that's a really important point because if we're not going in with the right mindset and understanding, hey, this is going to take some time, know, things aren't going to just change overnight. Behavior is a really great example. And it's something that I think a lot of schools, a lot of individuals are, they're challenged with that right now. They're, trying to find better ways to not just manage behavior, but

you know, to set expectations, to, you know, help teach students about how to self-regulate and, you know, how to understand, you know, their own triggers and all of those types of things. And that does not happen overnight. I'll go with an example from the instructional standpoint that very, very similar, you know, a lot of schools will ask me about, you know, frequency,

of time that administrators should be in the classroom and how, you know, how administrators should be coaching and growing their teachers. 100 % very important role as a school leader. That's a big part of what you should be doing. But how do you build that culture as especially as a new leader? If you come into a situation where teachers aren't used to

administrators coming in the classroom on a regular basis. One, you've got to just simply build that culture so that they understand when you come in the classroom, you're not coming in with a got you mentality that you're coming in with a, want to support you. I'm here to learn. I'm coming in to be curious, not judgmental. That takes time, but it also takes from the front end.

what is it, and this is work that you should be doing right now, what is it that I want to be looking for when I go in? You know, I remember when I very first started as a school leader, myself and one of the other assistant principals, about two Fridays a month, we would find that, you know what, it's Friday afternoon, things are kind of, you know, winding down.

Joshua Stamper (16:43.131)

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Darrin Peppard (17:02.388)

let's go pop into classrooms. And that's what we did. He and I just went and popped into classrooms and just sat high and visited with teachers and visited with kids. And the teachers loved that. They really did. The kids loved it. We didn't really have an agenda at that time. A couple of years later, we finally got around to, all right, when we come in the classroom, we're going to look for this, we're going to look for this, we're going to look for this.

If you want to begin with that, that's fine. Just make sure you really are clear with your teachers from the beginning. If you want to focus on improving instruction and maybe it's through engagement or, you know, maybe it's, you know, rigorous instruction, or maybe it's, want to see student interaction. You know, we really want to, you know, see collaboration happening with students. Whatever the thing is that you say, this is what we want to focus on.

Then when you go in the classrooms, look for that and give feedback specifically on that give ways that they can continue to grow. When you see exemplars share that out. So right now I would say it's definitely important to be getting that clarity around what do I want to see in the classroom and how am going to give feedback on that? If that makes some sense.

Joshua Stamper (17:59.56)

Mm-hmm.

Joshua Stamper (18:21.191)

my gosh, yeah. I think that's something that's like you were talking about. I can think of plenty of opportunities that I went into classrooms and felt great about it. But then when I walked out, I was like, was I strategic? Was I intentional with that visit? Did I provide any feedback? You know, and there were a lot of times that that didn't occur. You know, I was just, you know, trying to make sure that my presence was in the classroom and that I maybe got a quick.

you know, thing in the computer system to say that I went in there and, you know, check that box. And so I think if there is an overarching topic, theme, initiative that you're trying to implement on the campus that it is, you know, like you talked about in your blog as far as that clear communication, what does it look like? What is that example of exemplary? How should it be executed in the classroom? What is the evidence of that? And then, you know, of course,

Dr. Darrin Peppard (18:48.954)

Right. Yeah.

Joshua Stamper (19:14.843)

We used to do it as sometimes like a backwards design. So like, you know, if that was like an overarching topic and fill in the blank as to what you were talking about, you know, what if it's, you know, student collaboration and what that looks like in the classroom? Well, if that's the overarching thing, you know, what is it about that? Would you like me to come in and view and provide feedback, right? Because sometimes the topics are just this huge umbrella. And so,

Let's scale it down. Let's get a microscope on it. And then once you identify what it is that you may feel like is a weakness or something that you want to practice, well, then I know exactly what I'm looking for when I'm in there. So I don't need to be in there for 45 minutes. I can be in there five minutes and I can still see what you want. You're dictating when I'm coming in. And again, it's not a gotcha. It's just me coming in, viewing it and giving a different perspective on what's occurring in the classroom. And as you know, as a teacher, Darren, I mean, we're doing a thousand things.

in a very short period of time. And sometimes we don't see everything that's happening, right? We might not see, you know, Johnny and Sally in the back, you know, not paying attention to what's going on as far as collaboration. Maybe everyone's on task, but they're in the back or they're off task. Well, as far as administrator, it's not like I'm getting on the teacher and saying, you did a terrible job. But I still can highlight the fact that not everyone was on task during the collaboration piece of that. And that's my feedback, right?

So I think it's part of that trust too of allowing the teacher have control over the situation. They're dictating what I'm looking at. They're dictating the time. They're dictating, you know, as far as what it is that they feel like they need to grow in. And then they're also of course, getting the feedback that they want specifically. So I can think about the strategy too, but that came to mind when you were talking about, you know, trying to, you know, support, but then also I think you can also allow them to

have more of a place in that process where they feel ownership in it. And I think that's powerful as a new leader.

Dr. Darrin Peppard (21:13.9)

I like that a lot and I want to just build on that just a little bit. So yes, and I think allowing maybe a small menu or it's one thing for us as administrators to say, this is what I want to see in every classroom every day. But giving the teacher also the latitude to say, Josh, I would really love it if you came in three days in a row, different class periods and

help me with how I'm opening the class. So five minutes, three times during the week, let's just talk about what I'm doing for an opening activity. just don't really feel like I'm starting strong, or maybe it's the opposite. Maybe it's, know, hey, can you come and help me with my closure? And then let's work together and brainstorm ways that I can, you know.

get a little bit of feedback from my students at the end of a lesson, or how can I do a better job of setting success criteria for students to start the lesson, or whatever it is, right? But when teachers have an opportunity to say, you know, I kind of think I need a little help here, or I'd love to get your feedback on this, man, all of a sudden you start to open that door, and instead of you're going in the class and it's, boy, the administrator's here.

It's, yeah, I'm glad you're here. You know, exactly. Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah. Fall out of your chair. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. But no, I think, I think that's big. And I appreciate that, that, that you went there because I think the more that we give teachers voice in that, again, it's one of those things that I think leads to modeling in the classroom. If we're modeling for our teachers,

Joshua Stamper (22:39.132)

Jump off from your desk and go help a kid real quick.

Joshua Stamper (22:46.831)

You

Dr. Darrin Peppard (23:08.482)

hey, I want to help you in an area where you feel you need that support, then they should be doing the same thing with their students when they see us doing that. I just, I think that's really, really cool. And, and I want to circle back though, to something that you had touched on in there that, that I think is something most administrators struggle with. And that's the communicating expectations. You mentioned the blog.

Joshua Stamper (23:35.9)

Hmm.

Dr. Darrin Peppard (23:38.304)

said something in the blog like you cannot over communicate your expectations, but you touched on it. So, so maybe I'll just throw it back in your direction. But, but, talk about that. Cause again, I see that as something so many people struggle with.

Joshua Stamper (23:57.437)

Well, I think as, especially if you're a teacher and you've now are moving into administration, I think you just assume too much. So for instance, you just think like common knowledge is common to everyone and it's not always so common, right? So like for instance, going back to that initiative with student discipline, the word consequences, let's just use that as an example. I assumed everyone had the same definition for the word.

Dr. Darrin Peppard (24:07.662)

Well said.

Joshua Stamper (24:26.364)

consequences or the same terminology in regards to discipline. Well, what I quickly found out was that it was drastically different from teacher to teacher to teacher to teacher. So we actually had to like, and this is not only in elementary, but we literally had to break it down to, when I use the term consequences, this is what it means. Moving forward, when anyone uses the word consequences, this is what it's going to mean, right?

because we had what it seemed was a warped view of what those words were. And so let's get back to the true meaning of it and understanding that we're not getting the guillotine in the middle of the hallway when a student makes a mistake, right? So because that's what we're getting at is I never want to see the student again, you know, kick him out of school. And sometimes it was like just multiple days of low level infractions. It's like, okay, let's back it up, right? So

Dr. Darrin Peppard (25:18.424)

Right.

Joshua Stamper (25:24.612)

All that being said is like my Achilles heel there was that I just assumed too much as an administrator and so especially as a new leader. don't assume for one. Second of all, define what things are even if it seems simple. And then third, as far as expectation moving forward, like what that is for all people and having some accountability with that too. It may come down to having some crucial conversations that are uncomfortable.

But they need to occur because you need to have all staff doing the right thing for kids. so for myself, yeah, there were some really uncomfortable conversations that needed to happen that, you know, some folks were like, I don't agree with this part. Let's work through this as far as why I don't. And then I could, you know, have a rebuttal and have a dialogue with them that was respectful and coming to the end result of this is what's.

what's best based on what I'm providing as far as data, what I'm providing as far as research, past experiences, and why maybe it went sideways and if we would have done X, Y, and Z, it would have made a better product and a learning environment for that child to make better decisions in the future. So I think all those things need to occur both at a grander scale as far as the campus, but then also you might have to have those one-on-one conversations to reiterate the expectations and how we're moving forward too.

Dr. Darrin Peppard (26:49.728)

Yeah, no, I think I think you're spot on with that. And it it takes me back to something I said a couple of minutes ago with you have to model what you expect. And when you make the assumption, I said it once, they should know it. It's no different than what we don't want our teachers doing in the classroom, which is I taught it. They didn't learn it. So how about as leaders, we take some of our own advice and.

Communicate, communicate, communicate. Find multiple avenues to share whatever it is that you expect. You shared some great things on the behavioral side. I'll stick to it on the instructional side. Maybe there's something that you have in terms of an expectation around lesson plans. Maybe there's something you have around an expectation of.

cooperative work with students. Maybe there's an expectation you have around how your PLCs will meet and work and utilize data. If you only say it on your opening staff meeting and you never talk about it again, I promise you, they don't know what you said. You've got to go back to it. And again, like I said, have multiple avenues. It's one thing to do a presentation, maybe you don't have a printed

Joshua Stamper (27:55.354)

Yep.

Dr. Darrin Peppard (28:12.608)

staff handbook or a digital staff handbook. Have those meetings in your PLCs where you're going back through and checking for understanding to make sure they know what it is that you really expect of them and how you expect them to function. If there's something very specific that you are working on, say, I mentioned it a couple of times, let's go with engagement. Maybe you say, hey, I want

better engagement in classrooms. That is a very weak statement. Instead, talk about engagement, give very crystal clear examples, model what you expect that engagement to look like in your staff meetings. So don't stand and deliver and then tell them, don't go stand and deliver. You've got to make sure that you are modeling for them what you expect them to do in the classroom.

and just continue to check in. Don't just do it in your opening staff meeting. Come back to it, come back to it, come back to it, come back to it. Because here's something that I learned, Josh, over many, years as a school and district leader. Your staff, they're watching. They watch everything you do. And if you model the things you want them to do, odds are pretty strong they're gonna do it. Maybe not right away, but over time.

they start to emulate the behavior of the leader that they believe in, that they trust, and that they respect. A simple example. Many schools this year will open up the doors to their staff, and in their opening staff meeting, they're gonna say, I expect my teachers to greet students at the door. And in some of those schools, the administrator will be in their office when the school day starts.

Why? What are you doing? Get your butt to the front door. If you're going to tell them, I expect you to greet students at the door, then you better go greet students at the door. This was a shift for me when I first started to school year. didn't, I didn't greet kids at the door. You've heard the story that my audiences heard the story, your audiences heard the story. So I don't need to tell the story of two roads. But when I started showing up at the front door, it didn't take very long.

Joshua Stamper (30:09.691)

It's

Joshua Stamper (30:19.493)

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Darrin Peppard (30:39.126)

And I started having other staff show up at my front, at the front door of the school with me. And you know what? They did a lot better job of greeting kids at the door of their classrooms. Because not just because I modeled it, but that was a part of it, right? You build it into your culture. So whatever it is that you're saying you expect, if you just say, do this on opening day, and then you never talk about it again, they're not going to do it. And I can give you seriously like,

easily 10 examples of me doing that wrong and those things never happening in my building. So fortunately I can give you a lot of good examples of me doing it right and it happening in the building. But I just, I just think that the whole over communication piece isn't always about what you say. A lot of it is about what you do.

Joshua Stamper (31:18.223)

Hahaha

Joshua Stamper (31:28.643)

No, and I think just to, you know, add on like you did earlier is the checkpoints. You know, we had strategically placed certain communication and that could be a lot of different ways. You know, we would try to utilize email and send out videos and having our different meetings and popping in at our, either our leadership meetings, popping into our...

PLCs popping into our subject matter meetings, whatever, to just highlight things like don't forget, right? And as the year goes on, Darren, you know this, things start to slip, expectations start to slip, people get tired, they're stressed, or maybe they just forget. And so it's just a...

reintroduction of like, these are the expectations. Remember, this is our goal. Remember this procedure. Remember, you know, because we're starting to see things slide and that could be for anything. It could be instructional. could be in regards to behavior, fill in the blank, right? But it's just, if it's important, it needs to be continuously brought up in communication. And I would say in everything that you do, right? If it's something that's, it's a part of the culture that you want, then it needs to be in every touch point that you have with your staff as like you were talking.

on either modeling it or bringing up a new strategy or bringing a guest speaker to talk about it or having, you know, in every email communication, you know, just a blurb about it.

So I just think that you just need to have a lot of touch points and the more that they see it and the more that it's communicated, the more they realize that it's important. And to go back to something you said earlier, you if you're on a campus where they've had principal in, principal out, principal in, principal out, and it's just this revolving door, well those folks...

Joshua Stamper (33:16.506)

Unfortunately, based on that experience, they're going to say, well, this person's not going to be here very long anyway, so I don't have to do anything that they're telling us to do because they're out the door and then we're going to get a new initiative, right? But if you're trying to really like put down roots and have a culture that's positive and healthy and obviously for student success, then you need to make sure that they understand that you're there for the right reasons. This is important. And they're going to obviously see a benefit on the other end of it if they do everything that's laid out for them.

Dr. Darrin Peppard (33:22.445)

Right.

Dr. Darrin Peppard (33:46.382)

No, I think that's think that's a hundred percent spot-on and I might I might just give give one more little piece here based on what Josh what you just said Those touch points that come back to it to come back to it if you really Really want to be great Don't wait until you're starting to see that bubble up and say man I better I better have a conversation with my staff about this put it on your calendar now

Joshua Stamper (33:53.786)

Let's do it.

Dr. Darrin Peppard (34:15.032)

Put it on your calendar for late October for that staff meeting to bring this up again and put it on the calendar for January and put it on the calendar for March. Do it now, then you won't forget. Yeah, well, yeah, February. Yeah, so do it in January, February, March. Yeah, every month, maybe every week. You might need to. But yeah, I love that idea of, you know, hey, just a reminder or hey, know, hey, get this on your radar, folks, you know, or don't forget about this.

Joshua Stamper (34:25.566)

I was gonna say February. Yeah, Yeah.

Dr. Darrin Peppard (34:44.546)

But in order for you to do that, you need to be proactive and get that on your calendar now so that you're being intentional down the road with, yeah, that's right. I remember hearing Darren and Josh tell me back in August, I needed to do this. That's right. I do need to get to each of my PLCs and remind them whatever. Whatever it is you might need to remind your PLCs or your.

Joshua Stamper (35:12.954)

Hahaha

Dr. Darrin Peppard (35:13.326)

or content area teams or whatever. I don't know, I just went blank there for something. I didn't have something that you can remind them of, but I'm sure there's tons.

Joshua Stamper (35:16.14)

sure. No, that's right, but the calendar is an a-

The calendar is an admin's best friend, so you gotta utilize that. All right.

Dr. Darrin Peppard (35:23.222)

Yes, yes, yes. Many administrators would maybe say it's their biggest enemy too. again, if you're intentional with it, it is your best friend. Yeah, well, that's true. I understand that one.

Joshua Stamper (35:30.362)

I think email was my biggest enemy. I could do a whole keynote on that one Darren as far as email is the devil but we won't go there. As we're winding down is there any other things that popping up in your head Darren as far as folks that are starting to lay out the school year and you know maybe are preparing their staff coming back?

Dr. Darrin Peppard (35:38.967)

Yeah.

Dr. Darrin Peppard (35:52.288)

Yeah, I guess the big thing I would tell you is, you know, you don't have to do this alone. You know, no matter what your school is, you know, whether, you know, you're the only administrator and you have 200 kids or you're the leader of a leadership team of 12, you know, in a really large school or anything in between. Lean into your team, whatever that team might look like. You know, if you're in a little bitty school,

your team might be your secretary and your counselor, you know, that's fine. Your team needs to be aligned. So don't feel like you got to do this all by yourself, but spend the time and be intentional to walk through your expectations, walk through the, the focus areas, walk through how you're going to speak to these things in the meetings so that, you know, you can get some feedback. I don't think there's anything wrong with, with

take it a little bit of a practice run at, know, here's what I think I want to talk about in this particular topic and have a couple other people listen to you and tell you, know, Hey, I like this. I don't like this. Uh, this is not going to go well. If you say that to our staff or whatever, right? So lean into your team because you know, clarity is clarity. It's not a one time thing. It is a, it is a, you know, continual process and your team, your team will be your best friend in that.

particular instance.

Joshua Stamper (37:20.919)

Yeah, definitely. would say too, and maybe we've talked about this before Darren in previous episodes, but just the fact that what you're talking about as far as like, you can't do this work alone, obviously. And we have, me and you Darren have tried to do things on our own and seen the negative effects of that, right? And we've, I think we've talked before about systems in place to make sure that we're creating boundaries so that we don't get to that point, but just realize that how you feel right now is the best you're to feel for the rest of the year because you've just had...

Dr. Darrin Peppard (37:37.89)

Yeah.

Joshua Stamper (37:50.892)

at least a month off, hopefully doing some fun things with family and friends and getting away and having some relaxation. So just understand that if you don't start now thinking about the construct that you're going to put in place to help your mental health, maybe your physical health, maybe some other things that need to be put in place for you to be your best version every single day for those who you serve.

then you're going to find yourself at some point in the year, similar to what everyone was talking about before, is like waiting until you see the negative effects. Well, the same goes for you as an individual. So start thinking about the plan, start getting your secretary involved, start getting your admin team involved. Like what are some things that you need to put in place to make sure that you're gonna be your healthiest version for the entire school year? And start making those plans and maybe trying some new things out this year that maybe you haven't tried before. If you're a brand new leader, sometimes

you don't know what those experiences are going to look like and so you have to live through that to then put those boundaries in place. But for those who are maybe in the field for two, three, four, 20 years, whatever it may be, you already know what those battles are. You know what needs to be put in place and this is the time to start that plan.

Dr. Darrin Peppard (39:06.252)

Outstanding stuff, man. This was so much fun. I look forward to this every year now, and it has become a tradition. And so I think we'll just continue to be doing these, but always a lot of fun to hang out with you, to be a part of, aspire to lead and to have you on Leaning Into Leadership.

Joshua Stamper (39:23.575)

my gosh dude, I feel the exact same way. Darren for my audience, I know you're traveling all over this country, supporting leaders, educators, schools, districts. So if they want to get in touch with you, what's the best way to do that?

Dr. Darrin Peppard (39:36.93)

You know, probably the best way to get in touch with me, go to the website, road2awesome.net, or on social media, I'm Darren Peppered on literally every platform. Josh, same thing. For my audience, if they want to get in touch with you, you're doing a ton of great work all over the country, really focusing right now, especially on the work you did with Charlie Peck with language behavior. How do they get in touch with you?

Joshua Stamper (40:05.005)

Yeah, I'll say the same thing. So joshstampard.com is my website. If you want to email me, it's very simple. It's joshua at joshstampard.com and then on social media, it's typically joshua double underscore Stamper because I just want to make it a little difficult for you to find me.

Dr. Darrin Peppard (40:21.408)

Awesome stuff, man. Hey, get out there and enjoy some of your beautiful Colorado summer. know you're heading to California here this coming week. as always, man, just so much fun to hang out with you.

Joshua Stamper (40:23.353)

All right.

Joshua Stamper (40:34.723)

my gosh, the same for you buddy. And I can't wait for next year to kick the school year off again and do a joint episode. And I just appreciate you so much and all the amazing work that you're doing and just your friendship. You are amazing person and I just value you as a human being so much.

Dr. Darrin Peppard (40:52.408)

Well, thank you, man. Definitely goes both ways.

All right, folks, as always, really appreciate Josh joining me here on the show. We always have so much fun together and certainly get down there in the show notes. Check out all of this stuff with Joshua Stamper. If you have not connected with him before, I'll also add this plug. My course that I teach through Fort Hay State University, advanced classroom management course, this past semester that just finished the summer semester that just ended a couple of days ago, we

went a little bit different direction. And the two books that I used for this summer semester were Culture First Classrooms, my book with Katie Kinder. But then I moved away from the classroom behavior book that I had been using, which is a fantastic book, and used Josh and Charlie's brand new book, The Language of Behavior. And I am telling you what, my students absolutely loved it. And they took so much away from it. So please,

Dr. Darrin Peppard (02:10.614)

Check out that book, Josh and Charlie, amazing human beings, really good friends of mine, and I'm super proud of the work they're doing. So make sure you check that out. We'll put a link in the show notes so you can grab a copy of the language of behavior. And now it is time for a pep talk. Folks, I'm to make this one short and sweet. Josh talked about it. I talked about it. And actually, I just kind of referred to it in talking about Josh and Charlie. Relationships are what our business is all about.

relationships are what truly drive success. So as you prepare to dive into this new year, whether your role has changed or not, I want to challenge you to really invest in relationships because there is nothing more important, nothing that will last longer, nothing that will be more impactful than you building a relationship with the people that you're around. That's what I got for you this week, folks. Thank you so much for joining me here on Leaning Into Leadership. Get out there.

Have a road to awesome week.