School administrators regularly engage with students, staff and families who are in crisis, are experiencing depression, anxiety or a host of other mental health ailments. However, the pandemic and recent social unrest have secured trauma and mental health a place at the top of the leaderboard. As a result, it is more important than ever …
Continue reading Self-Care for (School) Leaders (and anyone reading this)
I was recently talking with some colleagues about climate and culture, and how to build or maintain it when so many people are working remotely. Climate refers to how people feel about their job or their work, their sense of purpose in an organization, and their happiness or satisfaction. Between climate and culture, climate is …
I’ve learned a ton about leadership by making mistakes. One in particular was around twenty years ago. I was very early into my career as a school administrator and the district was working to pass a high stakes referendum. As a member of the administrative team, one of the volunteer/community service roles I had was …
Continue reading Admit mistakes before someone exaggerates the story.
I’m probably the last one person who should proclaim to understand race, equity and bias. I’m a middle-aged white guy, who grew up in a middle-class mostly white neighborhood, went to a middle class mostly white school and most of my acquaintances are middle-class white people. Sure, I have friends who are black, friends who …
For the better part of my adult life, I’ve asserted to everyone I encounter that there’s always a gray area. What I am referring to is a belief that there are always multiple “right” answers in nearly every situation. I’ve written about it, I’ve led with it and I’ve tried to live it. However, as …
We all have people in our lives--past and present--who we considered “leaders.” And if you’re like me, you have likely spent years striving to be like those people you have admired. But what IS leadership? And how do we know it when we see it? Better yet, what is GOOD leadership, and how can we …
The following is a message I shared with my team recently. I thought it also appropriate to share here. There’s really no easy way to start this, other than saying that we’ve seen a dark side of humanity in the past couple weeks. Helplessness, outrage, frustration, hate, and other words seem to be commonly understood …
I started taking photos consistently about seven years ago. On an iPhone. I dabbled in photography prior to that, but digital camera technology was still pretty new, WIFI wasn’t as accessible and having the right software and wires made the process clunky and, frankly, a bit of a hassle. Everything changed for me, however, when …
This is the fourth in a series of posts written collaboratively by Dr. Michele Andorfer and Mike Haynes. In previous posts, we explored ways to ensure productivity doesn't suffer because of a remote work environment. We also shared strategies that we learned from others regarding ways to build and nurture relationships when working remotely. In …
At the beginning of the pandemic in the US, I wrote a post suggesting that we seize the opportunity of what appeared to be additional time that educators had, given schools were closing and students were staying home. Shortly thereafter, however, it became clear extra time was not necessarily available, as most educators, administrators and …
