Episode 229: Start Strong, Stay Strong - 5 Intentional Leadership Moves for the Year

Darrin Peppard (00:00.532)

All right, my friends, welcome into episode 229 of the Leaning Into Leadership podcast. I'm Dr. Darren Peppered, and today we have a very special midweek, middle of August release for you, and I'm flying solo. And I want to talk about the momentum that we build when we kick off our school year and some ways that we can keep them going. You know, over the last couple of weeks, and I still have a couple more weeks of this work, I've been able to

be that opening convocation speaker for a handful of school districts and just seeing the energy and the excitement that teachers and classified employees and administrators come into the new school year. Man, it's just electric. But let's be honest, you know, we all know what it's like to start a year with big dreams. And then as leaders,

Oftentimes we will watch those big dreams just get buried under endless email, unexpected challenges, and just the constant pull of that urgent over what is truly important. But here's the good news, and that's what I want to talk about today. Momentum, it's not magic. It's something that you either have or you don't. Momentum is something that you build and

something that you can sustain through very intentional leadership moves that you make day after day, week after week, month after month. And today we're going to talk about five of those very specific leadership moves. They're not theoretical. These are things I've used myself, both as a high school principal and as a superintendent.

these are also things that I coach leaders to do across the country. So let's dive in to this conversation. Let's dive into this topic today. Let's talk about how do we maintain the momentum that we have. We're going to have that conversation right after this.

Darrin Peppard (02:12.45)

All right, here we go folks. We are talking today about how we can take the momentum that we've built, those intentional steps that we took to set ourselves up for a great start to the school year. And now what do we do so that we maintain that momentum and we don't get lost in just the minutia of the day after day and the week after week. So the first of five key steps that I want to give you today, and that's this.

anchor your year with regular check-ins. Yes, that's right, regular check-ins. The first way to keep your momentum alive is to make sure that you are checking in on regular basis. Now, I don't mean check in when something goes wrong. I mean put four intentional team-wide pulse checks on your calendar right now. So spread them out once per quarter.

and maybe just look for those key transition points so that you and your team can sit down and truly check in on where are we now versus where we wanted to be when we started the school year. Because very quickly, August is going to feel like a long, distant memory. You know, the kids will start rolling in the door and then things are going to happen. And again, we get stuck dealing with the urgent.

and we lose sight of the important. So why is it important for us to put these regular check-ins on the calendar now? Well, the reality is clarity is not a one and done conversation. Your team doesn't need to hear just the goals only in August. They need to see them, they need to feel them, and they need to revisit them throughout the course of the school year. Let me give you one example. When I was a principal, we had a year where

Our goals were super clear in August. I was so excited about what we had put together. And I was running around saying constantly, man, I love my team. I love my team. I love my team. But by the time winter break rolled around, half of the team was kind of working on side projects. The other half had just kind of lost track of where they were really trying to go. And what we said was important. We didn't stop caring, but we just stopped talking about it.

Darrin Peppard (04:36.801)

We stopped staying focused on what we said when we kicked off the year was going to be important to us. The next year, we blocked off four very intentional half-day sessions just for regular checking. We celebrated the wins, we revisited our priorities, and when something drifted a little bit off track, we caught it early. The result was we ended that year with the exact same clarity and unity that we had started with it.

In fact, probably we were even stronger as a team. So my challenge to you before this weekend is schedule those check-ins. It's not going to take you long. Just pick four days on your calendar and block that time. You don't have to do half days like I did, even if it's just a one-hour meeting four times this year. That's four hours. If I told you four hours would make the difference between you having a great year and falling short of your goals,

you would absolutely take it. You would say, 100 % Darren, how do I do it? So here's how you do it. Put those times on your calendar before this week ends. Even if you don't know the agenda, that doesn't matter. Set the time aside, get the dates on everyone's calendar, and then as you get closer, you can develop your agenda. All right, that's just number one. I got four more of these for you folks, four more ways.

that you can maintain the momentum that you have right now here in August throughout the entire school year. Here we go. Number two, the second way to maintain and sustain that momentum, empower your team with some purposeful roles. Yes, that's right. Momentum dies quickly when everything is on your shoulders. When you are trying to do it all, you lose all kinds of steam because the truth is you can't, nor should you, carry it alone.

Think about it, in every school that I have worked, there were these people who light up when they own a piece of the work. When they get treated like they're trusted, when they're really given something that they can take ownership of and go lead, typically they step up and they bring others with them. So here's a few examples of ways you can empower your team. The celebrations. Someone

Darrin Peppard (07:04.333)

who's always looking for moments to recognize staff and students. Let's be honest, you have somebody on your team. It might be you. It may not be. It was not me. But you probably have somebody who's really good at meaningful celebration. Celebrations, the staff are like, man, this was great. I'm so glad we're doing this. And then you probably have some people on the team, again, could be you. And in this case, it was me, who aren't any good at celebration.

Give the celebrations to somebody who's really good at it. Somebody who will generally enjoy it and who will genuinely stay focused on it throughout the course of the year. The same thing is true of your progress tracker. Somebody has to be the person who gathers and shares updates on the specific goals that you have. Again, maybe it's you, maybe it's somebody else on your team, but if you can delegate that tracking of the goals,

Then, not only when you're in your meetings talking about where we are, and it doesn't have to come from you, you've got somebody else in the room who has taken ownership of that and has taken on that accountability role for the whole group. So figure out who your progress tracker is. And then, maybe you need an initiative champion. The one who owns a very specific project from start to finish. I'll give you a simple, quick example. When we developed

our career academies at Rock Springs High. I was actually the assistant principal. And yes, it was mine to fully lead the development. However, I also had somebody on board who had been part of that project from the beginning, who was our career coordinator. And Jana ran point. It was her work to really champion that initiative. And certainly in that case, we had a lot of people.

who were on board and wanted to see this be successful, but having her really take the lead so that I didn't have to make every decision, schedule every meeting, check in with everybody made a huge difference. You have somebody on your team who you can put on as that initiative champion, let them take it and run. Then when you're in those meetings, they're reporting back the information of what's happening on that particular project.

Darrin Peppard (09:23.085)

You know, when I, the more I started to do this as a principal, by the way, I noticed two things. Number one, my load got a whole lot lighter. I was able to spend a lot more time in classrooms, focusing on professional development, professional growth, and not having to deal with all these tasks. That was number one. But number two, the commitment of the team just went through the roof. I mean, they, they weren't just helping me. They were leading.

with me. was shoulder to shoulder with them. I was truly leading from the middle, which I think is one of the very best places for you to lead. Now, one important note, empowerment is not the same as dumping tasks on people. Keep that in mind. Don't just unload stuff you don't want to do. What I really think you should focus on here is empower your team. Give them autonomy. Give them trust.

and give them the full authority to make decisions in the space that you are giving them. That's truly when the magic happens. If it's just you telling them, go do this and do it exactly this way, you're just assigning tasks. Allow them to take the lead on stuff, give them the autonomy, give them the space, give them the support, and let them run. All right, let's move on to the third thing you can do to really maintain.

that momentum. It's very simple. Keep the main thing the main thing. And it might seem like a simple phrase, but it's really more a powerful guardrail. Because one of the biggest threats to momentum is what I like to call the shiny object syndrome. It's a new program, a new idea, a new initiative. It's tempting to jump on them. At some point during the year, you're going to go to a conference somewhere and you're going to hear an idea.

and going to say, wow, we have to do that right when we get back. Don't. That's dangerous. Because every time you say yes to one thing, especially something new, you risk losing the focus on what matters the most. As a principal, I learned to identify just one or two high impact goals for the year and make them impossible to ignore. And we talked about them in every meeting. We measured progress. We asked ourselves,

Darrin Peppard (11:49.793)

How does this decision move us forward towards our main thing? Likewise, we ask things when people brought things forward, ideas or what if we did this? We would ask questions like, does this take us closer to our main goal or will this pull us in the opposite direction? It was pretty simple. If the item, the idea, the initiative that they brought forward brought us closer to our goal,

great, let's talk about, but if it's not going to, we either said no, or we put that in our consider group. Remember, start, stop, continue, consider. If it's a great idea, that's wonderful, but it doesn't have to happen right now. Let's put that in our consider group for right now.

That was such an important thing for us. And it was that discipline that not only kept us focused, but it also made it a whole lot easier, I think, for the entire staff to understand what we were doing and why we were doing it. I think it made us better as communicators because we kept the main thing, the main thing. And when you do that, when you model that for your staff, what do you think happens? All of a sudden,

they start keeping the main thing as the main thing in their classroom or on their bus or in their shop or whatever their workspace might be. This isn't just about you staying focused on the main thing for keeping the goal in place. It's also a really powerful modeling tool. All right, let's move on to number four. The fourth way to sustain momentum that you have as you kick off your school year.

build in moments of celebration and gratitude. Sometimes we underestimate how far a simple thank you will go. I remember a teacher once telling me she'd never gotten a handwritten note from her principal before. And all I had done was write a simple thank you for her trying some new instructional technology in her classroom. That note was on her bulletin board next to her desk the entire rest of the year.

Darrin Peppard (14:11.048)

Celebration's not fluff. It's not just about, let's have a party or let's have a rally or those things are fun and they're important, but it's the day to day. It's reinforcement. You know what you expect. You know what you want to see. So when you see it, say something, do something to say thank you or to reinforce it. It's a culture builder. You know, it's telling your people,

what you're doing matters to me. I see it. I appreciate it. And I want you to keep doing it and do more of it. So here's a quick pro tip. Keep a recognition list. Write down names of things that you're seeing that are good in your building. Maybe open a notes app on your phone or if you're a paper and pencil person, carry a small notepad. For me,

I'm very addicted to my cell phone, to be perfectly honest with you. So the notes app in my phone was a great place to just open it up, pop in a quick note. Hey, I saw so-and-so doing this. You know, I want to make sure I follow up with them, you know, and reinforce the things I want to see. Every week, pick a couple of people you want to have celebrated, you know, and not just the obvious high achievers, but those that are quietly moving the needle. Again, back to number two.

delegating certain roles have that person who's in charge of celebrations. And maybe you share that document with them of the things you're seeing. Or maybe you have a collective shared team document that that one person is constantly going back and referring to so that you're working collectively to ensure that you have celebrations and moments of gratitude throughout the course of the school year. People will do amazing things when you let them know.

that you appreciate them, that you see them, that you value them, and you trust them. All right, folks, let's bring this thing home. Number five, the number five thing, the fifth and final strategy to maintain the momentum that you have as you kick off this school year. Guard your calendar like your culture depends on it. Because it does. Your calendar will tell the truth about your priorities.

Darrin Peppard (16:38.346)

I've talked about this numerous times on here and maybe eventually here, not too far down the road, I think I should do a solo episode simply on the calendar. How you really leverage that calendar. Yeah, I'm going to make a note of that. We'll come back to that in a couple of months. We'll do an episode just on the calendar, but for the purposes of this episode, let's really focus on how we can sustain momentum utilizing our calendar. The number one thing here,

You have to protect time for the things that you say really matter most. Being in classrooms, building relationships, working on your strategic goals. When I worked with my leadership coach, this to me was one of the biggest shifts. I gave my secretary full access to my calendar and the authority to defend my time. And man, did she defend my time. I mean, she fought for my time.

I think there were even times she told the superintendent, nope, I have that time locked in for Darren and he is not available. We were really intentional to block times for classroom visits, for leadership teamwork, for even just time to think and reflect. I've told this story on here a few times, I believe, but one of the most powerful pieces about guarding my time and allowing my secretary to have full access to my calendar

was for that specific reflection time. I called it balcony level leadership. I would go and stand on the balcony overlooking our gymnasium. And in my mind's eye, my six things that were so important to me as a school leader. Those six things, I positioned them down on the basketball court. Well, once my secretary knew what I was doing, she started intentionally putting that time on the calendar for me so that I didn't go too long in between times.

reflection because it allowed me to keep coming back to my priorities. Get back to getting focused on what matters.

Darrin Peppard (18:46.495)

It was a huge shift. And to be honest with you, it moved me from being reactive to proactive. It wasn't just that I was less stressed. was our school was more focused. We were more aligned. And frankly, we had a little more fun at work. When the principal is really focused, when the principal is leading a school with positive energy, with that clear focus,

It's amazing how everybody else kind of falls right in behind that and behaves the same way.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, when the principal is running around frantic, when the principal is chaotic and is giving off negative energy or busy energy, that was me my first two years. Guess what happens? The exact same thing. People feel the exact same way and you see it. And schools are not as successful. So you have five very important leadership moves.

you can lean into right here to really stay focused to capitalize on the strong start and to simply stay strong throughout the course of the year. One more time through them very quickly. Anchor your year with regular check-ins. Get those four check-ins on the calendar now. Make that your first action step. Four dates on the calendar before the end of the week.

get it done. Don't worry about the agenda. Just get them on the calendar to empower your team with purposeful roles. Don't just dump work on them. Give them something meaningful and give them the space and the autonomy to make it theirs. Number three, keep the main thing, the main thing. As long as you stay focused on those things that truly matter, you're going to continue to stay in that lane.

Darrin Peppard (20:50.591)

and you're going to continue to work toward achieving those goals. You're not going to get yourself lost in the weeds. If you keep the main thing, the main thing, number four, build in moments of celebration and moments of gratitude. You know, if all we do is put our head down and just grind, grind, grind, we're to lose sight. Celebrate along the way. As you do that, more opportunity for celebration will come because people will continue to work.

toward having that recognition and that celebration. And then five, guard your calendar like your culture depends on it, because it does. So here's my challenge to you. I know this is five different strategies, and so I'm not saying go do all five, although I really think number one, everybody should go do by the end of the week. But pick maybe two strategies total and take action on it.

Get those dates on the calendar. Have a conversation, hand off a role, whatever it is, go make it real. Put this into action because folks, it will make a difference for you. It genuinely will make a difference for you as soon as you start doing these works. You've got this. Thank you so much for joining me today on Leaning Into Leadership. I hope you found this helpful. Share it with a colleague if you did.

somebody else who could use a little extra August energy in October. And if you're ready to take your leadership and your leadership team to the next level, reach out. I'd love to work with you. I'd love to support you. I'd love to have a conversation with you. Thank you again for joining me here on Leading Into Leadership. Get out and have a road to awesome week.