Aligned Before the Bell: Setting Your Leadership Intentions Before Day One

0:03 SPEAKER_00: You already know what August feels like. The building fills up before you're ready. Staff meetings stack on top of each other, and your calendar fills before your intentions do. By the time the bell rings on day one, you're reacting, not leading. This episode is about flipping that. Before the bell rings, get aligned. Welcome back to The Road to an Effective Classroom Environment. I am your host, Dr. Lashonta, and this show exists for one reason. To help school leaders, district leaders, help build and cultivate classrooms and campuses that actually work.

0:50 SPEAKER_00: Today's episode is very personal. It's the episode I wish someone had made me listen to before my first new year. So let's get into this. Before the first bell rings, before the first staff meeting, and before the first student walks through your doors, leaders, answer this question. What kind of leader do you intend to be this year? Here's what happens to most instructional leaders. You walk in with good intentions, then the calendar takes over. You have fire drills, master schedules, angry emails, angry parents, compliance deadlines that eat your first six weeks alive.

1:39 SPEAKER_00: None of that is bad. It's just a part of the job. But if you don't name your intentions first, the job will name them for you. So the real question isn't how do I survive this year? It's what am I actually trying to build this year? Before you write a single agenda, before you touch a master's schedule, ask yourself these three questions. Question one, what does effective actually look like for me this year? Not for your district, not for your evaluator, but for you. Write it in one sentence. And if you can't, you're not ready to lead others toward it.

2:29 SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean you're not ready to leave.

2:42 SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself, where did I let the calendar lead last year? And be honest with yourself. Where did reacting replace deciding? And name it. You can't realign what you won't name.

3:00 SPEAKER_01: It's all about speaking it out and saying what is it that you were reacting to, and that reaction would replace deciding.

3:18 SPEAKER_00: And then the third question: What's one boundary I'm setting before the year starts and not after I'm depleted?

3:32 SPEAKER_00: Boundaries set in October are damage control. Boundaries set in August are leadership. Set your boundaries in advance to know what you accept and what you won't accept. So, what are some leadership intentions? So, I want to leave you with five leadership intentions that you should set before that first day of school.

4:03 SPEAKER_01: Lead with purpose, not pressure.

4:07 SPEAKER_00: Protect your calendar from unnecessary distractions, build relationships before solving the problems. Model the culture you want to create, and choose progress over perfection. Lead with purpose, protect your calendar, build relationships, model the culture, and choose progress. Those are your five leadership intentions. You should have those set and in place before you welcome your teachers back in and before the students come through the doors because they're coming ready, and we want you to be ready as well.

4:55 SPEAKER_00: Now, if you lead instructional coaching, this is where here is my coaching hat comes in. Decide now what kind of feedback culture you're building, not the one you inherited, but the one you intend to create. So if you've not heard the presentation, I gave a presentation and I've also talked about it a little bit on uh one of my episodes. Here is my coaching hat. If you need some strategies when it comes to providing effective feedback to your teachers and to your staff, that is something that uh will be shared in the show notes as well.

5:36 SPEAKER_00: If you're an assistant principal, this is gatekeeper protocol territory. Decide now what gets past you and what doesn't, and what earns your time and what doesn't earn your time. That's another protocol that I talked to assistant principals about a few episodes back. That'll also be available in the show notes for you to reflect back on. And if you're stepping into a new role this year, this is the mirror moment. You've got a new title, you're in a new building, but it's the same you. Alignment starts with knowing what you're bringing in with you.

6:20 SPEAKER_00: Know what you bring to the table, know what you're bringing into this new environment and into this new situation. None of this is about having it all figured out, it's all about deciding on purpose instead of by accident. So I want you to do a simple assignment right now, and it's a real quick one. And you should do this before you have your first staff meeting.

6:52 SPEAKER_01: One page and four lines.

6:56 SPEAKER_00: The first line is this year I am building and filled in the blank. This year I am building. The second line, this year I am protecting and filling the blank. This year I am protecting. This year I am done tolerating and fill in the blank. This year I am done tolerating. And then the last line is this year, effective leadership looks like, and fill in the line. This year, effective leadership looks like and fill this out, fold it up, put it somewhere where you will see it in October. And this is an important time for you to see it in October because when the calendar begins to start winning, you need to be able to go back to this page because this page is your anchor.

8:00 SPEAKER_00: This one sheet and these four lines, these are your anchor. It's not a to-do list, but it's an anchor, it's a reflection. It puts you back into your momentum. So those are the four lines that I want you to write down on a piece of paper and answer that. Once you answer, fold it up, put it somewhere where you know you're gonna see it in in your office, at your in your at-home office, but somewhere where back in October you can go back and read over these.

8:38 SPEAKER_00: So you don't need a new planner, even though I'm all about planners. But when I say you don't need a new planner, planners only work if you're going to do the steps that I just gave you. If you are looking at and reflecting on what you want your year to look like. You the reflection begins now. You have to put the vision in place. So planners are great. I love planners, I have more than one. And so you can write down everything that you're gonna do, but you don't want to have just task lists, you want to have a vision, a plan.

9:14 SPEAKER_00: What does effective leadership look like for me? What will it look like this year? And when you have that in place, then by all the planners you want, because you've already got it, you've got the knowledge that you need to have in order to move forward and to lead effectively. What you need is alignment, and you need this alignment before the bell rings. If this episode resonated, I want you to do one thing. Just take the one-page assignment that we just talked about and actually fill it out this week.

9:51 SPEAKER_00: Don't wait until next week or the following week or the first day when teachers come back. But I want you to fill that out, complete those four lines this week. And if you're ready to go deeper, if you want a space that's built for leaders doing this work all year and not just in August, that's exactly what the Lee Janes Leadership Room is for. And more information will be coming out about it. But if you're interested and you're hearing this, just drop me a line. Drop drop a line to me at dr lashonta at leejanesconsulting.org.

10:29 SPEAKER_00: That is my email address, drlashant at leejanesconsulting.org. That will also be a bit be available in the show notes. And I hope you have an awesome beginning. And you'll hear from me again before we get into the swing. I know there are some schools that have already started back, and then most are starting in August. But you're going to get some more information because what I love doing is talking to leaders, and teachers know that you are leaders in your own right. Got the episode. Go back to that and hear that about classroom and leadership lab.

11:08 SPEAKER_00: You all are leaders in your own right. But there's going to be more and more information that I bring to you because this is a passion, this is a love, and I want to make sure that we are all set up for success. So I'm Dr. Lashonta. This is the Road to an Effective Classroom Environment, and I will see you at the next episode. Stay aligned.