As a school leader, it is so important to have clarity in your leadership journey and what it is going to look like. To know where you are going, the action you are going to take, the problem you are going to solve, and how you are going to empower and support others along the way is a powerful recipe to have you in your back pocket at all times. I also know that this is extremely hard work and that it is never as cut and dry or obvious as we would hope. Being hyper clear and intentional about the path you and your community that you lead are going to take, to the moment they start to subscribe to your messaging, take action, and beyond, is the best way to lead and boost your conversation rate for a growth minded culture and teachers who want to do the best work of their life.
Let’s start with a story. As a young girl, my family camped in a trailer at Madge Lake, SK and we spent all of our summers there boating and hanging out at the lake. We had a couple of families that came back every year to hang out with us and camp in the same trailer as us. We would spend a lot of time together in some pretty tight quarters, yet we did this year after year and they kept wanting to come back even though it wasn’t a five star resort. We loved this time together because we were super present with each other and we spent time planning how our days were going to look. We felt important to each other. The reason I am telling you this is because when you are intentional about crafting your leadership journey and recognizing the seasons that you and your community are in, it cultivates fond feelings and makes your community feel like they matter and are cared for. That is what kept all of our families coming back each summer, in tight quarters, to hang out with each other. Being intentional and present matters.
This post is all about how to recognize the season of leadership that you or your community may be in and how that can help you to craft your leadership messaging and find clarity in your pathway. I am going to walk you through the five seasons of leadership that I have found I go through each year. They come and go just like the four seasons of spring, winter, fall, and summer. After I determined these seasons, it helped me to respond more effectively and be more intentional and present with my planning and messaging once I realized which season we were in. It also helped me to determine where I would put my A+ effort and where I would put my B+ effort so that I could be more productive and efficient and I wasn’t always trying to do it all all of the time.
Before I dive deep into what each season is, here are the five seasons:
- Market and Message
- Nudge
- Nurture
- On-Boarding
- Administrative
These seasons are cyclical and they may come in different orders depending on how you craft your leadership pathway, however, they all pass through so it is important to prepare for this type of weather, so that when they do come, you have everything you need to shelter in place! The great news is that the seasons are not all important all of the time. They take turns and can sometimes overlap but like seasons, they come and go. Recognizing the season that you are in, can be the key to how you spend your time, where you are most present, and where you pour your efforts. After all, if you know what is coming you can tackle it with intention and clarity.
Season One: Market and Message
In this season, it can be daunting and a little awkward because this season is all about developing a clear and inspiring leadership message and selling it to your community to get them to subscribe and take action. I always think of this like marketing. You have to convince them what you think is important matters to them. They need to know what is in it for them and what transformation will happen if they take action with clear steps. Your marketing has to be on point and so when you are in this season of your leadership, that is where your A+ effort goes.
Let’s talk about how to perfect and be intentional about this season in your leadership. First, you must listen to what your community needs. Assessments are always effective in this area. Set up a quiz or have them fill out what is really important for them and how you can support them. Conversations are also necessary. Ask them what their pain points are and notice the patterns and trends. From there, build your messaging around the top pain point and develop a plan to tackle that ONE priority. You can’t solve it all at once so stop trying to do that and focus on one at a time. Our top priority one year was involving students in gathering their own evidence of learning. This meant that we focused on getting students to transfer the criteria/expectations into their work and then having them show proof and evidence that they did it. That was what we focused on all year long until it wasn’t a priority anymore. We did not jump around from topic to topic. That would only overwhelm your community and you.
Once you have your priority, that is where you develop actions to conquer it. Your messaging is built around that and so is how you support them in the classroom. This also becomes a part of your messaging and marketing it to your teachers. In your message, you are promising something that can help them get the transformation they’re looking for, something that’s irresistible to them, and something they just really need and want. Clear and intentional steps where everyone knows what to do and what transformation they are looking for is what your community needs to know and hear.
In this season, you’re also going to answer any objections they might have around investing in your messaging. You will also do a lot of this in season two and three. By addressing these objections, you will create a bridge that they can move across through your content and messaging and be ready to take action. By the time they get to the other side, which is phase four, they become another powerful leader in your community. You will bridge this gap by addressing their objections, their fears, their challenges and giving them a plan to start transforming and moving forward. You’re helping them build their confidence. You’re getting them ready. You’re giving them more steady footing so that they cross the invisible bridge and they’re ready to get results. Essentially, it’s the invisible bridge (as Amy Porterfield calls it) that will take your community from where they are now to where they need to be when they take action with your plan. You essentially are setting the table in this phase and it is in phase two where you will put this plan into action. In this season, you are perfecting this plan and delivering it to your community with intention and clarity.
Season Two: Nudge
In this season, you have already set the table because you usually start your year in season one, marketing and messaging. You have listened to their needs and you have developed a step by step plan to conquer their top priority. You have also developed a clear and inspiring leadership message and marketed it to them in season one so now you are moving into season two where you start to nudge them into taking action on that priority. In this season, you are taking what you have set in season one and giving them clear expectations with deadlines to start putting the plan into action. In this season, I always recommend co-constructing the action steps with them (but you will already have the steps in your head before doing this so you are ultra prepared…).
Once you have developed one to three clear action steps, this is where you set the expectations with deadlines. You have heard me say this before, deadlines create urgency and action so make sure you have set these. The nudging comes from setting clear expectations with a plan for follow through. The follow through comes with making a plan to reflect along the way and setting a path for you to nudge them along as needed. The whole purpose of setting a nudge season is to make sure the plan is put into action, progress and momentum are happening, and results are obtained.
To recap, in the nudge season, your focus is primarily focused on:
- co-constructing clear expectations
- setting deadlines
- determining a plan to reflect along the way and teach them how to gather evidence to share with others
- the leader creating a structure for reflection and noticing progress
Season Three: Nurture
Now that your community knows the priority they are focusing on, they have clear expectations with deadlines and have learned how to reflect and notice progress, it is time for season three, Nurture. This season usually starts to overlap with season two. As a leader, now you have got to build that steady relationship with them and let them know that you are with them to support every step of the way. This season is crucial and when you are really pouring your A+ effort into how you will move through this season, you need to know that some teachers may take a really long time before they are subscribing to your messaging. Consistency and time will eventually convert them because they see you are in it for the long haul. They will notice that you are not just giving orders and then leaving them high and dry, but rather this season promotes your nurturing side to your leadership and sends the message that you are learning alongside them. In this season, your primary focus is building a steady relationship with your community through action taking.
Your support needs to happen through many different ways. This is the season where you are generous and giving. And like the camping story I told you at the beginning of this blog, you are present and intentional with supporting them to make them feel important. I always like to reflect on how can I add value to each conversation or visit.
The vehicles I like to use for this phase are:
- setting a schedule to visit or team teach with a few teachers in the classroom
- modelling the expectations
- celebrating proof and evidence of work teachers are doing
- setting up meetings to give feedback or check in on progress with small groups of teachers or individuals
- giving them support pdfs or step by step frameworks to go with mini lessons in meetings
- providing space in meetings for them to reflect and do the work rather than filling it with housekeeping
- team building and fun activities
It is important to realize this season overlaps with all of the seasons and you don’t get there overnight. You may feel that you are always catering and not getting that much in return. However, it is one of the most important pieces of crafting your leadership journey. Stick with it, don’t rush it. The key is to give before you ask for anything in return. It is so important to do the work alongside them. Invest the time and energy when this season comes around to provide wow-worthy resources and support that will soon help you to automate things so that it is not always you doing the work. More on that in the next season!
Season Four: On-Boarding
This season is where you start to build your teacher leaders, celebrate the decision that they made to step up to leadership, and walk them through the transformation you promised and the accomplishments and momentum they are achieving now. It’s also the phase where you elevate your reach by teaching them how to lead in order for them to set up their own plans of action to conquer priorities. In this season, you start to delegate with support and automate the plan so that your teacher leaders are the ones leading it within their teams and reflecting back with you on the results they are achieving. In our school, we do this through a monthly ed council meeting where we focus on teaching our teacher leaders how to lead. We then give them time to present their reflections on the work they are doing with their teams and we take the time to coach each other and give feedback. We also give time in each staff meeting once a month for all teachers to bring evidence of the work they are doing to conquer that top priority. In these meetings, the teachers partner up and coach each other on the progress they are making and showcase some evidence of the growth they are making towards that priority. This also builds community and helps to onboard leadership.
In the on-boarding season, it is all about building, teaching, and empowering your teacher leaders. You goal is to show them how to build their own roadmap of action to conquer a top priority with action steps, how to reflect on it and how to measure progress and results. It becomes teaching them how to lead with clear and inspiring messaging so that you are on-boarding more and more leaders with a common framework so that you do not have to do it all. When you are in this season, your A+ effort goes all in to your teacher leaders and whether or not they are following through on their plans and getting the results they want.
Season 5: Administrative
I think this is a season we are all very familiar with! As administrators, a big part of our job is to keep the ship afloat and dot all of our i’s and cross our t’s. There are multiple times in the year where this season takes priority…..but not all year long. For example, at the end of April is where we close our office doors for a day or two and really dive deep into plans for next year. We do timetables, staffing, budget, etc. in this time and it is our main focus. We hire an acting admin for that day or two and we go all in to administrative duties. That still needs to happen but it is not a season that is lasting all year. You still have to fit in the administrative stuff in every day but it only gets your B+ effort when the season is not a priority. When it is a priority, your A+ efforts kick into full gear!
Now that you know the five seasons, let’s take some action on them! Get a pencil and paper and ask yourself the following questions:
Season 1: Market and Message – How are you going to attract your teachers to your messaging? What platforms or strategies are you going to use? What is a top priority that you anticipate your teachers wanting to conquer? Write out your main area or areas of expertise that you’ll want to highlight in this phase.
Season 2: Nudge – What actions and expectations are you going to set for your community to accomplish? How are you going to make sure that the steps are clear and inspiring? How are you going to get the teachers to cross over that invisible bridge? Write three actions that you think your community will come up with to conquer a top priority and how you might set the expectations for that.
Season 3: Nurture – How are you going to support your teachers in and out of the classroom to build that relationship with your community and ensure action is being taken? Remember, this is where you can make them feel special and important, like you’re reading their mind and you know exactly what they want and what they need.
Season 4: On-Boarding – How do you plan to onboard your teacher leaders so that you can expand your reach, grow more leaders with leadership knowledge and skills, delegate with support and start to automate some things? Set up a time at least once a month to start to pour into your leaders to on-board and inspire them.
A great way to lay out your leadership journey is to imagine what kind of path you’d like to be taken on. What things would you want or need to go from where your community is now to where you want to take them? Use that to guide you as you craft the perfect leadership journey that considers all five seasons.
All right, friend. You’ve got some work to do, so let’s get to it!
For more tips and tricks and ideas to put into action right away to improve your leadership, download my guide called Cultivating a Thriving Culture Through the Three Bucket System.
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And…check out my website for more info and our podcast called Even If You Miss – a wellness podcast for kids by kids!
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