Episode 305: It’s the Start That Stops Most People

Darrin Peppard (00:00)

Hey my friends, welcome into episode 305 of the Leaning Into Leadership Podcast. This is a special midweek, mid-month edition, and it's one that honestly I'm recording on location. You see, I am back in my old stomping grounds, Omaha, Nebraska, and I spent the day today working with two of the schools that I have been working with for quite some time. Two principals that I've gotten to know really well and built a great relationship with. And one of them

We were having a conversation today that honestly sparks this episode. We were talking about his administrative team, and it's something that honestly will sound very familiar to most of you. They need to get into classrooms more. That's what they want to try and do. They know that it matters. They want to be there supporting their teachers. They want to see what it is that students are learning. And ultimately they want to have better conversations about instruction.

But getting into those classrooms consistently, that's been a challenge. And towards the tail end of our conversation, the principal said, You know, Darren, it's the start that stops most people. Man, I had to pause right there in that moment. Actually opened my notebook back up and I and I wrote that down. And it's been sitting with me for a few hours since. Actually just got back from a 30 minute

I'd love to tell you it's a run, but let's be honest, it's more of a jog walk. But the entire time that I'm out, I kept coming back to that phrase. It's the start that stops most people. And yes, in our case, we were talking about classroom visits, but I just kept going over in my mind, thinking about all the places that that shows up in leadership. And sometimes it shows up in the conversation that we just keep putting on.

Or the team agreement that we haven't revisited, or maybe it's the priority that we identified back in August that just hasn't received as much attention as it deserves. When all of these things are things we care about, we understand that they truly matter, and yet for some reason we just haven't started. So for this week.

I'm going to treat this just like a 60-second leadership reset. If you don't know what I'm talking about on my TikTok feed and on my Instagram and Facebook feed, I've been pretty regularly dropping these 60-second leadership resets. I want to go the same direction here, but instead I want to make it about a 10-minute reset. So here's what I want to do. I'll start with this challenge. I want you to think about one thing that you've been meaning to do.

in your leadership. And then keep it in mind as you listen to me over the next 10 minutes or so, because I want you to leave this episode with a clear place to begin. Like tomorrow begin. Now before we get there, let me take a quick moment to thank the sponsors who make our podcast possible. And let's start with Hey Tutor. Hey Tutor partners with K 12 schools and districts to provide in-person

High dosage tutoring that supports student learning. Now I could tell you a million great things about Hey Tutor, but I'm going to say this: the thing I love most is Hey Tutor does the recruiting, the training, the hiring, and the supervising of those tutors. Yeah, that's right. It is taken completely off your plate. They work in collaboration with you to support the incredible work that's happening in classrooms.

And ensure that the students get the extra work, the extra support that they need to achieve at the level they want to achieve. If your district is exploring additional academic supports for students, head to heytutor.com and learn more. Even better, go down to the link in the show notes because when you click on that, that takes you to Hey Tutor, but it also let them know that you heard about them here on the Leaning Into Leadership podcast. Another big thank you.

The Curriculum Leadership Institute. Now, I have worked with CLI as both a principal and as a superintendent, and I have seen the value of their partnership in aligning curriculum instruction and assessment. The great thing about CLI that I love so very much is they are focused on the whole system, not just this curriculum piece or this standards piece. It is how do we support the entire system, leadership.

Classroom level and at the curriculum level. Learn more at CLIWeb.org. Make sure you let them know you heard about them here on the Leaning Into Leadership Podcast because that will get you 5% off your first year working in partnership with CLI. Now, let's talk about why that first step can be just so difficult. Now, if you've spent any time with me, you've heard me speak, you've had me at a leadership workshop.

You've listened to this podcast multiple times. You have probably heard me talk about the cycle of chaos. The cycle of chaos essentially is this: you show up with a plan, you've got some things you want to accomplish that day, and then everything goes haywire. A staff member needs you. There's a parent on the phone, something happened on the bus, you're sure to substitute, a myriad things. You know what I'm talking about. And suddenly

Your day has a completely different direction. And it's not the one that you had intended. Here's something I want you all to notice. All of those things that derail your day give you a very clear place to start. Most of them are routine. You can do them in your sleep. The phone rings, you answer it. Someone walks into your office with an issue, you respond. There's a problem in the hallway, you go handle it. But the classroom visit?

Work on your leadership team, that important conversation, you have to create the starting point for those things. And if the plan is, hey, I'll get to that when things settle down, man, you are going to be waiting for a very long time. This is where clarity and intentionality become so important. You see, it's clarity that helps us name the work and decide what the beginning looks like. The intentionality.

That helps us get a place to begin, a starting point. Now, I want to walk you through three moves that I think can truly help you move away from the start being the thing that stops you. First, name the thing you're putting off. Get specific with yourself. When you say, I need to be a better instructional leader, what do you actually need to do?

When you say we need better communication on our team, what are the conversations that need to happen? When you say we've got to get back to focusing on our school improvement plan, well, which priority is it that needs your attention? Broad intentions can be difficult to act on. There's so many possible starting points that we end up spending all of our time thinking about the work instead of just beginning the work. So, name

One thing and be specific. Maybe you haven't been getting into classrooms consistently. Maybe you need to talk with someone about an expectation that they haven't been following through on and you haven't addressed. Maybe your administrative team agreed to something over the summer and you just simply haven't checked in to see how that's going or if they have even started. What is it for you? What is that one thing? Name it. Once you name it,

Ask yourself, what is it that's making it difficult to get started? Are you unclear about what you need to do? Are you worried about how somebody might respond or how you might be perceived? Have you made the commitment so big that you can't imagine fitting it into your day? That answer really matters. It'll help you figure out what you need to do next. Second move.

Make the first action clear and manageable. Let's go back to classrooms. I need to get into classrooms more. Now that leaves a lot of decisions unfinished. Which classrooms? When? How long? What are you hoping to learn? What are you looking for? Try this instead. Tomorrow, after arrival, I'm going to visit two classrooms on my way back to the office. Now you've got something you can act on.

when you're gonna go. You know where to begin. And you've given up work and you've given the work a place in your day. Here's something I really want you to hear. You can take the work seriously without making the first step enormous. Think about that. On the way back to my office, I'll stop in two classrooms. Every day you can do that.

And you just maybe choose a different starting point on your way back to your office. That's not enormous, but you're taking the work seriously. I mean, you don't have to solve the entire classroom visit schedule before just popping into two classrooms. You don't have to redesign every team meeting before you focus on that one neglected agreement. You can just simply start with one useful action.

This is what just kept playing in my mind over and over and over. One useful action. Maybe it's the difficult conversation. Maybe the first action for that is just putting it on your calendar and then getting clear about the concern that you need to address. Right? Maybe, maybe with the school improvement plan, maybe if that's the one you're struggling with, it might be just simply open the document, choose one priority, and then ask: okay, what evidence of progress?

Do we have? That's a starting point. Make the action small enough to begin and meaningful enough to move the work forward. Now, I also want to acknowledge the reality of the job. Yes, chaos will come. That's why I've named the cycle of chaos, right? Start by naming it. At least then you can embrace it. Sometimes getting started though.

Is going to require that you change the conditions around you. Because you can't simply say, hey, the chaos is going to go away. That's not realistic. But maybe there are conditions that you can change to help you manage that chaos so you can actually take this step. Think about it. If every issue in the building comes straight to the principal, then protecting classroom time might require a conversation about roles, coverage, and

What truly needs your immediate attention. And by the way, that's still leadership work. Have the conversation with your secretary. Talk with your assistant principals. Talk with your counselor. Make sure people know where you're going to be and what does and does not warrant interrupting that time. Your intention needs some support. Third step.

Give the start somewhere to lead. And getting started creates an opportunity. Following through helps that opportunity become part of how you lead. So after those first two classroom visits, decide when you're going to go back. Or in the example I gave earlier, decide where in the building you're going to be after that initial entry and arrival takes place so you can hit two different classrooms on the way back.

So just simply make a decision. When am I going back, or which rooms am I going to hit tomorrow morning? And think about what you'll do with what you notice. Here's what I noticed in these classrooms. Here's what I want to do about it. Is there a teacher you want to follow up with? Was there something that you were curious about? A question that maybe you want to bring to your administrative team? The point of being in classrooms is to understand.

Teaching and learning, building relationships, and being better equipped to support the work that people are doing. Give that first action a next step. For your administrative team, this could be a very simple conversation. When are each of us getting into classrooms this week? And when will we come back together and talk about what we're learning? And maybe another question that could go in there is who might need coverage to ensure they can get into those classrooms?

Right? Then follow through on the conversation. If someone didn't get into classrooms, get curious about what happened. Was this a realistic plan? Did we bite off more than we can chew? Or again, does somebody need coverage so that we can ensure that this happens? Was there something urgent that just completely derailed us? And what know, what do we need to change when we go and do this next week?

That's an opportunity to build the practice together as a team. And that applies well beyond your classroom visits. Classroom visits is just an easy example because that's what this all began with. Maybe it's again revisiting a team agreement. Decide when you're going to check in on it again. Keep it at the front of mind. When you have the conversation, make that next expectation clear. When you review your improvement plan, identify the action you'll take and when you'll be looking.

For evidence that it's helping. Clarity and intentionality need to show up in our follow-through. That's the bottom line. so let me bring you back to the thing you identified a few minutes ago as here's that one thing for me. What is it you've been meaning to begin? Now, before tomorrow gets here, finish the sentence. Tomorrow.

At this time, I will take this first action. Say what you're going to do, put it on your calendar, let someone know if their support will help you protect it. And decide when you'll return to the work. The cycle of chaos will give you plenty of opportunities to respond tomorrow to that chaos. You already know that's going to come. But somewhere in that day, there's work that connects to your purpose as a leader.

Work that helps you create the conditions where other people can do their best work. Give yourself a clear place to begin. Again, I go back to that principle's words. They just stay with me. The start is what stops most people. What's one thing you could begin tomorrow that would move you closer to being the leader that you intended to be? Hey, that's what I've got for you this week, folks. Thanks so much for spending a few minutes with me here on this special midweek.

Mid-month edition of the Leaning Into Leadership Podcast. You know, if a leader on your team came to mind while you were listening, share this episode with them. It might give you something useful to have a conversation together. As always, rate, review, subscribe. Thanks again for listening to me here on the Leaning Into Leadership Podcast. Get out there and have a road to awesome week.