Five for Friday September 25-29, 2023

Hello Colleagues and welcome to another 5 for Friday episode of The Assistant Principal Podcast!

Today’s shout out goes to… Now + Next Cohort 2. Valori, Lisa, Paige, Gail, Jen, Kayla, Michelle, and Emily, thanks for making the program so wonderful. It is a testament to what can happen when inspired leaders prioritize working together, being vulnerable, and fostering interdependence. 


Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of September 25-29, 2023. 


Review the emails


Takeaway
As I’ve shared before, when the week’s messages aren’t specifically built around a theme, like this week’s, I’m always intrigued to come back after-the-fact and think about what the big takeaway is, and this week is no different.

In fact, wow. 

There is a profound message here. It’s not me being profound, as this wasn’t purposeful, but it is right here in front of us. Here are the five MVPs for each day’s message:
  • Sometimes making the same old thing better beats doing something new.
  • Sometimes something BIG doesn’t actually matter.
  • What makes one training more powerful than another?
  • Together, transformation, vulnerability, and interdependence can create something special
  • Being fully present is more valuable than having answers.

Time and attention are the scarcest resources. While the urgent – quadrant 3 – tasks are a big consumer of these precious resources, so are change initiatives. And too often we focus on the initiatives instead of the people. Nothing against Salesforce or LETRS, but how many lives have the transformed? We can lose focus on people. Improvement can become about ”the thing” instead of about people. And the changes and improvements we are trying to make can actually stop us form impacting people. The busier we are, the harder it is to be fully present. The harder it is to be invested in helping people grow in the direction they want to grow in. The harder it is to be vulnerable. The harder it is to be interdependent.

Do less, impact more. Create transformative moments by focusing on others as humans, not as cogs in a machine or rungs on a ladder.

And then think about your own leadership and what being present does for you. Here’s the rest of the story about the group hug episode…

I am not the perfect trainer, but sometimes I am able to help a group come together and do something magical, especially when I focus on serving them, not converting them into the leaders I think they should be. And when that happens, I am also rewarded in a way that cannot be measured.

My wish for you next week is to go forward and be vigilant about finding opportunities to be present, to learn how others want to grow, and to then be able to create the opportunities for them to do that.


That is this week’s Five for Friday rendition of The Assistant Principal Podcast. 

Thank you for including me on your leadership journey. 

I look forward to seeing you again next Tuesday when we feature my interview with Dr. Efrain Martinez on what it means to be a human leading humans. This is an inspiring and emotional episode and I’m so excited to share it with you.

Anyway, tune in on Tuesday for a great episode.

Please remember to subscribe and rate this podcast. As I record this, we have ZZ ratings and XX reviews. Increasing those numbers helps others find the show. 

I’m Frederick Buskey and thank you again for joining me on this episode of the Assistant Principal Podcast. Cheers!

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Five for Friday September 25-29, 2023
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