The NEW School Rules 6 Vital Practices for Thriving and Responsive Schools

[00:01] SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to Principal Center Radio, bringing you the best in professional practice.

[00:06] Announcer:

Here's your host, director of the Principal Center and champion of high-performance instructional leadership, Justin Bader. Welcome, everyone, to Principal Center Radio.

[00:15] SPEAKER_02:

I'm your host, Justin Bader, and I'm honored to welcome back to the program Dr. Anthony Muhammad. Dr. Muhammad is an internationally known education consultant, former middle and high school principal, and the author of numerous books, several of which we've talked about here on Principal Center Radio, including Transforming School Culture, How to Overcome Staff Division. But we're here today to talk about his new book with Luis Cruz, Time for Change, Four Essential Skills for Transformational School and District Leaders.

[00:46] Announcer:

And now, our feature presentation.

[00:48] SPEAKER_02:

Dr. Muhammad, welcome back to Principal Center Radio.

[00:50] SPEAKER_00:

Thank you, doctor. I appreciate the invitation and appreciate your listening audience and your enthusiasm and commitment to making sure that you provide everyone with access to kind of the latest and the greatest. So I'm honored just to be invited.

[01:04] SPEAKER_02:

Well, thank you so much. And I'm honored to have you back on the show and to have your expertise, because I know you have personally helped so many schools and so many districts make the big changes that they've aspired to making. And you've gotten kind of a front row seat. You've been on the front lines of helping districts understand what it takes and then follow through on what it takes to make big changes. So what did you see happening in schools that were striving to make changes that led up to this book? What was the work that was being done, the struggles that were being encountered, and what was happening that led to this book?

[01:36] SPEAKER_00:

Over the course of the last 12 years, I've been a full-time consultant and had the opportunity to kind of leave the principal's chair and go to work with schools and districts to kind of duplicate the type of work and innovation that I was experiencing as a practitioner. And I noticed that in some schools, the practices that were innovative, like PLC, like formative assessment, like RTI and multi-tiered system of support. There were different levels of commitment, building by building, school by school and district by district. And the tipping point was leadership. There were certain things that some leaders were doing that built a commitment, that synergy for essential change. And in some schools, it was like pulling teeth with no anesthesia.

[02:21]

And it was basically because of a lack of skillset present in either a school or district administration and understanding how to take those practices and create the level of commitment necessary for them to really implement them. And we boiled it down to four very essential skills a leader possesses. You have the high probability of convincing people that what you're proposing is a good idea and that they would give their full and authentic commitment to the direction the school was taking.

[02:54] SPEAKER_02:

And I think it's essential to really understand those investments or those commitments, because as people who want to do the right thing and believe that everybody else wants to do the right thing, sometimes we think that our work is done when we've decided what change to make and then we've started to implement it, right? Like, okay, this is what we're going to do, this is the best practice, we're just going to do that. But you outline in the book very clearly that there are some very specific investments that we need to make if we want to see that through. What are those four investments that leaders need to kind of measure and weigh and then make if they're going to make a change successful?

[03:30] SPEAKER_00:

Great question. And there's actually three investments and then there's withdrawal. Human beings are very complex beings. We have emotional sides. We have an intellectual side. We have a social side.

[03:43]

There's a psychological side. We're a very complex organism. And what's amazing is that other professions devote their entire life to studying one small aspect of the human being, like a podiatrist. They'll spend their whole life studying the foot. Whereas an educator or educational leader, you have to have a deep level of understanding and skill to motivate human beings in several different capacities. You don't have to just be a psychologist.

[04:09]

You have to be an anthropologist. You have to be a sociologist. You have to be a politician. Because people have so many different dynamics. And one of the big mistakes is that leaders believe that those that they lead have the same motivations that they do. And that's a very poor assumption.

[04:26]

I may be attracted to change intellectually. You might need an emotional connection. Somebody else, it may be a capacity issue. They agree. They just don't know how to do it. So understanding that human beings have had different experiences and have different needs when it comes to motivation to change.

[04:43]

So we found that there were three very critical investments. And the first investment is an intellectual investment, and that's communication. Before people have a level of enthusiasm about changing, they have to understand why what they're being asked to do is necessary. There's an intellectual vacuum there. What would often happen is that leaders would attend conferences where they'd be exposed to thought leaders like Robert Marzano or Mike Matos, or some other thought leader on a concept, Rick Wormley with standards-based grading, and they would fulfill for them their intellectual curiosity about why standards-based grading or RTI or high reliability schools really is important. And they take that level of clarity and that wasn't duplicated for the people that they have to encourage.

[05:34]

So they come back and they want to get into the do because their why has already been fulfilled. that leader has to duplicate that same level of intellectual clarity that the thought leader provided so that people can be engaged intellectually and say, oh, this is a good thing to do. And I understand why. So the ability to communicate the evidence, the urgency, the logistics, it's very, very important because a leader can make an assumption that people have the same vision that you have. And that's not true. Some may be there.

[06:08]

but others may need that clarity. And what happens is when leaders don't provide that, then they start to accuse the people who haven't cooperated as resistors, and then they start to use inappropriate tools like coercion to compensate for poor communication. So we found that communication makes up about 70% of the factors that make up commitment to change. If you're a poor communicator, then you may have a level of clarity in your mind that is not as clear in those that you lead, and you have to articulate that, whether it's in writing, whether it's verbally, you have to have a meeting of the minds intellectually. The second investment is emotional, and that's who, and that's a relationship. Some people are motivated because it makes sense.

[06:56]

I get it intellectually. Others are not moved by that, and one of the reasons is that they've been emotionally wounded. If, Justin, you are my fifth principal in three years, And others have been very clear in their articulation of research, data, pinpointing specifically where we need to improve. But yet when I make a commitment, my commitment is not justified with longevity or long-term implementation. I don't become apprehensive because you're not clear and articulate in your articulation of the why. I'm apprehensive because I can't trust you.

[07:33]

So when I'm emotionally wounded, there's a natural apprehension. I hear what you're saying, but I don't trust you. So the way you bridge that is through a deep implementation of emotional intelligence. A leader has to assess the level of emotional trauma in the people that he or she is leading, because no matter how intellectual you are, if my need is emotional, then more articulation of evidence and facts won't do it for me. I need empathy and I need you to be consistent. If you do that, I start to relax because my commitment is not because I think it's a great idea.

[08:09]

It's because I trust you. The third is how and how is about capacity. A person may know why they need to do it. They may trust you, but they may struggle because they don't have the skill set or the tools to actually do it. So I know why I need to work on a team. I trust you.

[08:27]

I don't know how to unpack a standard. I don't know how to develop a good formative assessment. I don't know how to collect and interpret data. Of the four, this is, from our assessment, the most simple and straightforward. It's just about assessing professional need, allocating resources. And this isn't a person who is deeply resistant.

[08:48]

They're apprehensive because they just don't know how to do it. Communication is about 70%. The emotional is about 20%. The capacity we found is about 8%, which leaves a last group, which is a very small group. That is a withdrawal. That's what we call the over my dead body people who just line in the sand.

[09:09]

And what they're saying is you can't make me. I know why. I know how. I'm in a trusting environment. There's evidence that it's working. I'm just making a choice.

[09:21]

It's just because I've always done it this way. I'm going to retire. I don't have some commitment for some other reason. And I just don't feel like bothering myself with it. The last skill is not an investment. It's a withdrawal.

[09:33]

And that's accountability. At some point when the investments have been made, a leader has to expect a return on that investment. And at that point, that's the small window where authority is effective. That's where if you've justifiably made all of those investments. Now you have to have the courage to say, I'm not asking you at this point, I'm demanding.

[09:55] SPEAKER_02:

Well, I really appreciate those percentages in that breakdown because it's tempting for us to lump it all together as resistance and say, you know, if we say this is the vision, this is what we're doing, this is the change that we're making. The people who are not fully on board with that are not all the same. It's not all one cause that's leading people to say, wait a minute, wait a minute. And I remember hearing, you know, as a new principal, having teachers come and say, well, I want you to understand, Justin, it's not that I don't think this is a good idea. I do think it's a good idea. It was an idea we had before you got here, so we're not resisting you on this.

[10:27]

It's just we need to establish clarity or we need to build the capacity. Pointing to the right problem and addressing it with the right solution, I think, is so key. And you said 70% is communication up front.

[10:40] SPEAKER_00:

With the Transforming School Culture study, we used the method, the five whys. So Transforming School Culture was a study of 34 schools. And when we address those who were resistant to change, the fundamentals, we'd go through the five whys, ask them why five times about, okay, why aren't you on board? And we got down to the fifth why. 70% of what we were able to identify was directly related to communication. They just didn't understand.

[11:07]

They weren't anti-child. They weren't anti-change. There just wasn't the same level of clarity. It was miscommunication. In the resistance in those 34 schools, which is a pretty decent sample, 70% of the reasons associated with why staff did not commit to change was communication. 20% emotional disconnection.

[11:30]

8% admitting, you know, I just don't know how to do this. And about 2% was this, they just can't make me. I'm just not doing it. So that's how those percentages were developed.

[11:39] SPEAKER_02:

Makes a lot of sense. And if we try to use accountability or authority to get people to take action when they really do have those big why questions and, you know, what is this? Help me understand it. And I could see how the natural way that new practices come into schools and districts changes. causes this situation as you said a leader or a small team of people might go to a conference or get some advanced training i remember going to probably the first time i saw you speak was at a plc event in seattle and this was definitely over 10 years ago but you know getting on board with plc is getting in that environment where everybody is focused on the same thing and getting excited about a vision and seeing schools that were really far along You know, when you're in that environment around other educators who have already done this work and who are farther down the road and you have direct access to expertise and you can raise your hand and ask you a question, you know, ask Becky Dufour a question and really get a sense of what this is, it's easy to forget that when you go back to your school, you were the one that was there and everybody else has no idea what happened to you.

[12:41]

They're like, where did you go? What's wrong with you? And And I think that's inherent to so much of the, you know, adopting practices, you know, because often we can't send everybody across the country to a conference. There's a big investment. And I know for a lot of the schools that have been the most successful with PLCs or with transforming their culture, it's not that they've sent two or three people to a conference and then those people just did a really good job of communicating. Often it's that they brought in the expertise.

[13:12]

And I know a lot of the people such as yourself who are doing that work of helping people make those changes. I have to feel like you help people get the message across better when you're there in person. So help us with that issue. How do we avoid giving like a third hand rationale when maybe we can't send everybody to the conference?

[13:30] SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, well, you know, part of being a leader, and we address this in the book, is your own personal scholarship. We should tell teachers that if you send a student to the office for misbehavior, you just gave away your authority as a teacher. Well, if you have to always bring in outside experts to articulate what you could articulate, if you would take the time to study, to read, to enlighten yourself. If you want people to look at you as an instructional leader, they have to see you as a source of enlightenment, inspiration, modeling the behavior. So I would even say, I mean, obviously I make a living going to people's schools and districts And doing that. But it's much more effective with implementation when the principal or the superintendent or those who are leading the process have a deep understanding themselves.

[14:22]

So I look at things like conferences like a fire starter. We get it going. But if you want an inferno, it's going to take that principal, that leadership team, that department chair or superintendent digging into the literature because every conference is a bookstore later. When I was a principal leading the PLC process, we didn't have all of the resources like learning by doing. We had one book, PLC at Work. I basically ate that book.

[14:48]

I mean, it was so, the binder was so disturbed. I read it over and over. So it just became a part of me. And if you're a principal or a school or district leader that feels that I'm not a good communicator, that's okay. Have a member of your team who could articulate it. You provide the background support, but somebody has to communicate.

[15:10]

Staff can't read the leadership's mind. The ability to translate your vision in a way that there's a level of clarity in those that you are leading is ultra important. If you bring me in to do it, they might fall in love with me, but they need to follow you. So I can help and others can help expand that. But ultimately, the leader is responsible for communication. That's why it's one of the essential characteristics of a transformational leader.

[15:39]

not a transformational consultant, a transformational leader. And part of being able to communicate is to enlighten yourself. I can't tell you, Justin, how many schools I go visit who spend a lot of money on training and consultants, but yet the leadership team hasn't even bothered to open up the literature from which the presentations come from. This stuff is accessible to everyone and you can't be intellectually lazy and then expect to be a good communicator as a leader. You're going to communicate what you're communicating is going to contradict the message you're trying to implement. So inform yourself, leaders.

[16:17]

That's also a part of trust because if a person can't trust your credibility, then they won't follow you.

[16:23] SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely. Yeah, I was going to say, I think that's a great segue into trust because if the leader has really done nothing more than shop for a solution, if I go to a conference and I hear about PLCs or I hear about some approach to assessment or grading or whatever. I think it's a great idea. And I say, okay, I found it. I went to the conference. You know, I made good use of our school funds and going to this conference.

[16:45]

Here's the thing. Here's the strategy we're going to pursue. People are not going to trust me that that is the right thing to do if I don't really know how to do it. And what I hear behind a lot of complaints that we might chalk up to resistance is I hear that questioning of, do you really understand as a leader or what you're asking us to do as teachers, as departments, because if you don't, then we're not going to be successful. You know, if you are pushing us to do something that you don't understand, you will not be able to support us in that process. And I think about one of the examples from when I was a principal, my school was in the midst of moving to Readers and Writers Workshop, Lucy Calkins.

[17:23]

And I was not the expert on that. I had never been an elementary teacher, never probably would be an elementary teacher, but I knew I had to help people make progress in this area. So I went to the training, got some great access to expertise that way. But what made it work for my school was not me. It was not that I was personally able to help them because I don't think my staff ever could have developed that level of trust in me. What it had to be and what it was, fortunately, was that there were teachers who had that expertise and who could answer the tough questions.

[17:57]

So for leaders who know that maybe they are not the person who is going to be the go-to, what's the best way to work with those people who have that frontline expertise? You know, I had a teacher who had been teaching Readers and Writers Workshop for more than five years before I came on the scene. What can we do to work together to kind of build that brain trust that gets into the literature, that understands what this is about, and then earns or deserves that relational trust from staff?

[18:23] SPEAKER_00:

The same way we want teachers to work on a team, leaders should work on a team. The premise of a team is that the goal we're trying to accomplish is bigger than any one person's ability to reach it. So teaching. It's hard for one teacher to be everything to 30 kids in four subjects. It's just very difficult. So we have them work as a team.

[18:43]

Three third grade teachers sharing 75, 80 kids. Their collective expertise is always greater than that one teacher's expertise. You may have a new teacher, veteran teacher. The new teacher may be indoctrinated in a lot of the new content because he just graduated. The veteran may be a pedagogical specialist. Do students get the benefit of both?

[19:04]

Well, if you're a leader, you want a leadership team. Often call it a guiding coalition. a group of folks who have different leadership capacities around your school. Counselors, principals, teachers, paraprofessionals who work together to guide the work of a school. And it's just about distributed leadership at that point. If you're a better communicator, but your instructional coaches are your instructional experts, then they would be the people who would take on that task.

[19:31]

But I would say as a principal who is the ultimate person who's responsible, You might not have to be an expert in Lucy Calkins, but you need to have at least a working knowledge. If you don't have at least a working knowledge, then you just seem like a manager. If a teacher approaches you with a question, you should at least be prepared with the verbiage, with the conceptual framework. If you're totally, that's not, instructional leadership is not something you can totally give to someone else. You have to have some working knowledge. But a deep knowledge, absolutely, a person's been teaching reading for 25 years in elementary, you come over from the middle school, yeah, your learning curve is going to be steeper, but you should have some level of understanding because you're going to be responsible for the resources and the training.

[20:20]

You're going to be responsible for monitoring and accountability. You can't give that responsibility to another teacher. They can provide a little expertise, but you still as a leader have to have some working knowledge that allows you to be respected intellectually when it comes to that practice as well. You don't have to be the expert, but you at least have to have a working knowledge of it.

[20:42] SPEAKER_02:

Well, and I think that's a great segue into the capacity building and what you call making functional investments. Because if I am conversant in something, you know, I might not be the person that my teachers want to lead the training. You know, they might want the third grade teacher who has, you know, those five or 10 years of experience to be the one who leads the training. But I need to be able to go in and kind of see where people are and figure out what they need in order to move things forward. You know, especially for people who are a little bit stuck, I need to be conversant. I need to know how to provide the support So talk to us a little bit about that functional investment.

[21:14]

What does it look like to actually teach people or build the capacity for how to do things?

[21:18] SPEAKER_00:

And you want to be very pragmatic about it. So having that leadership team is very important and make sure that leadership team is representative democracy. Anybody who is responsible for that task should have representatives. So if you're elementary, you want every grade level represented on that guiding coalition because the needs of the kindergarten teacher will be different than the needs of the fifth grade teacher. If you're in secondary, you need department chairs. Why?

[21:42]

Because I don't know how the math department, you need that person to be that mouthpiece. Because as a leader, you have access to the budgets. You have access to time and allocating time. So you need them to help you make those decisions because they're more of the content experts. The second thing to help you with assessing needs is the effective use of analyzing data. Often people can give you opinions about what they need Use your evidence.

[22:12]

If the evidence is really clear, then in reading, informational text comprehension is of much greater need than narrative text comprehension. And a teacher's telling you, these kids are having a real difficult time with fictional novels, but the data doesn't show you that. You don't have to be an expert, but you can look at evidence. And using evidence to say, you know what? Our kids with disabilities are really struggling in informational text. this is where we really need to put our funds.

[22:40]

Here's where we need to put it. Because if we were doing well and you really knew it, the evidence would show that we're making an impact. So surrounding yourself with people who can give you intel from several different segments of your organization. And if you're in a district office, bring your principals together. Just don't use your district leadership meetings for announcements and to hear yourself talk. Get feedback from the principals.

[23:04]

What do your schools need? And you might find in a large district, the needs of some schools are going to be very different than those of other schools. And also just like a principal, use your data to allocate instructional coaches. If this school is doing really well in reading, they don't need as many reading coaches as the school that's really struggling, but they might need more math interventionists or coaches. So getting feedback from people who are actively engaged in the process is important because you can't be everywhere at one time. And using data, evidence, impact.

[23:37]

To make those decisions is very crucial in being good at providing capacity and support for people professionally.

[23:45] SPEAKER_02:

And I love that team approach, but also highlighting the leader's role. And I think we said earlier, you were saying that about 2% of what's left, you know, the 2% of making the change happen is that accountability and is that you know, that dealing with people who just say over my dead body. So in terms of collecting the return on investment and making sure that people are following through, you know, if we communicate well, if we build trust, if we provide training, we provide support, you know, we're going to see a certain amount of success from, you know, a certain percentage of people. What are typically the remaining gaps? Even before we get to that tiny percentage of people who say never, what are some of the maybe hard conversations that we need to have in order to make a change really sink in?

[24:28] SPEAKER_00:

Well, when you're at the investment stage, you're just gathering intel to figure out how you can support. I would assume when I go into a new endeavor that everybody wants to be successful. And if they're not committed or not successful, it's because there's a need that hasn't been met. They don't understand. They don't trust yet. They don't know how.

[24:46]

So my intel gathering was all about how do I as a leader provide them with that intervention or that support that they need? So I wouldn't assume in the majority of the process of change that people are resistant. I would look at it with the eye that there's a need that hasn't been met yet. And as a leader, I'm gathering intelligence to figure that out. Only when you've exhausted that and you have a very strong majority, it's very clear that we're moving in a progressive direction and that there is a small percentage of people at that point who are outliers. who are not responsive to support.

[25:26]

You've done everything that you can. A couple of things happen when those people become isolated. Number one, they've lost their political influence. Their behavior now is an outlier to the majority or the vast majority of the faculty. They're clear outliers. Critical mass has already developed, and now you're outside of that critical mass.

[25:48]

Now your behavior becomes annoying. A leader should listen for things like this. Justin, we need you to do something about Anthony. We try to bring him on board. We come with our formative assessment data. He'll tell you in your face that he's engaged, but in a team, it's something very different.

[26:03]

When colleagues are willing to snitch on their colleagues, that's a sign to you that this person needs to be reeled in. That means that everybody else understands, they've committed, and I don't want any leader to interpret accountability as malicious. All accountability is is gathering information or feedback on the implementation process. If I'm already doing it, accountability is not an invasion of privacy. If we're part of a team, Justin, and we're highly collaborative, and once a month we have to turn in our notes and our artifacts, we don't mind that because we're already doing it. It only affects people who aren't doing it.

[26:45]

Now that accountability becomes a change mechanism because now you're aware of those who refuse to do it Because from the evidence you've gathered, they're not doing it. Now we need to have a conversation. Do you not understand? Is there a trust issue? Do you not know how to do it? Because the evidence would show everybody else is doing it.

[27:05]

Did I miss something? If the answer is not logical, then you have to have the willingness to say, here's how I'm going to monitor you because I can't accept your explanation. You will be at your team meeting on time. You will do your formative assessments. And here's how I'm going to gather that evidence. And I'm going to continue to do it until you either change or you become so uncomfortable that you choose to leave.

[27:31]

That's that small window where accountability is effective. Accountability is always effective, but it's only effective for change for those who choose to disengage on purpose.

[27:42] SPEAKER_02:

Right, because otherwise it's not what they need. They need the communication. They need the trust building. Absolutely.

[27:47] SPEAKER_00:

And the other 98% of the staff doesn't have a problem with giving you that information because they're already doing it. So accountability is always necessary, but it's not a tool for change except for those who just refuse to do it.

[27:59] SPEAKER_02:

And in the book, we should say in every chapter, you highlight a number of different scenarios. And if we're at that stage where we're talking about collecting the return on investment and really making sure that people follow through, you have some different scenarios about maybe a whole team that has a bad attitude toward the change, someone who is a veteran educator who's just digging their heels in, or someone who's refusing to just use the practice that you've adopted. What are some of the considerations that leaders should have in mind when going into the that conversation so if i let's say i have a veteran educator who says you know no i'm not doing it i know everyone else is but i think they're wrong or my thing works for me it's worked for me all these years and i'm going to retire in a year or two anyway which always seems to be five years or seven years the kids who are exposed to you this year don't care about what you're doing five years from now they need help this year to make sure that you've made your proper investments those are all hyperbolic exaggerations if it was working for you we wouldn't need to change

[28:59] SPEAKER_00:

And if part of communication is the effective usage of data to prove that the reason we're doing this, the why, is because what we were doing before is not working. If it was working, I would leave you alone. I have contradictory evidence that shows it's not or it could get better. So we disagree on definition of working. We've addressed those issues through our dialogue with trust. I've given you an opportunity to express your apprehensions.

[29:30]

You sat through six months of training. I didn't hear any of that then. This is just a matter of will and authority. And I have more authority than you. So by the time we get to this stage, I am ethically, professionally, and morally sure that you've been given everything you need to be successful. And it's as simple as understanding the labor provisions of your environment.

[29:56]

If you're in a non-union state, learn the labor laws for discipline. If you're in a union environment, learn your union contract and let that person know your retirement plans are not my business. Here's our contract or the labor laws. Your behavior is unacceptable. This is not a debate. Maybe you misunderstood.

[30:17]

I'm going to start with a verbal reprimand. I'm going to move to a written reprimand. If you don't, I'm going to move to a short-term suspension. Be very clear that at this point, I'm making a withdrawal. This is not a negotiation because I am so certain that I've done everything in my power to give you the best opportunity to be successful. Your refusal to do so is not a bargaining chip.

[30:45]

If your challenge is authority, I have more authority than you do. And a leader has to be willing to use that in the proper context. It's not a good response for poor communication or lack of trust. or lack of investment. It's only effective with the over my dead body, drawing the line in the sand, you can't make me. That's all that works.

[31:06]

Wish I can give you a more exotic tool, but that's it. Good old fashioned authority when it's necessary.

[31:13] SPEAKER_02:

Well, it makes sense because at that point, the wind is at your back as a leader, right? You have the momentum, the train is leaving the station and someone has to, if you've kind of got your hand on the railing and the train is leaving and you're not on it, You've got to either let go or get on board at that point, right? And you can argue with your leader all you want at that point, but that train is going to go. And they're telling you the truth when they say you've got to get on board or let go. So I love the way you put that in the right order and in the right context. And in the book, you break it down into kind of the why skill sets, the who skill sets, the how skill sets, and the do skill sets.

[31:50]

I wonder if we could close with some recommendations for district leaders, because all of this plays out at multiple levels within any district of any size where maybe district leaders are going and accessing expertise and bringing ideas in. And then they're bringing school leaders on board and then school leaders have to take the further step of bringing their staff on board. How does this show up at the district level when a district is really committed to seeing a change through at every level? They don't just want one kind of flagship school to be the beacon of success. They want everybody to be successful, but they see some big variation, right? Some schools are really on board.

[32:27]

Some schools are kind of dragging their feet. Maybe principals are varying in their effectiveness in terms of communicating and building that trust, or maybe there's been turnover in one school. What are some things that district administrators can do to make those investments in the right order?

[32:42] SPEAKER_00:

The same obligation that a principal would have to a teacher, district administration has to have for principals. Just because I have a great idea as the associate superintendent of instruction or a superintendent doesn't mean the principals understand why. or trust me, or know how. I have to make the same checks and balances I expect them to make for teachers, I have to do for them. Because it's hard for me to say I'm gonna fire, because the further we move away from kids, the more at will people tend to be. I've seen people let principals go like that because they didn't agree, or because they don't have the same level of labor protections.

[33:23]

I think that would be a mistake. The same level of concern, that a principal should have for teachers, central office should have for their principals. You hired that person or you inherited that person in that position. You have an obligation to invest in that person. Communication, building trust, capacity. And then if they're not on board at that point, then you have to make some decisions, but you can't jump.

[33:49]

I see central office using authority more than influence in too many cases. The second recommendation is to Get away from paper. Get away from regulation and go make a human connection. This book is about human beings. It's not about state report cards. It's not about budgets.

[34:11]

It's not about board retreats and board policy. It's about people. And if you focus on people, then you're going to be successful. I see so many central officers who are really good at politics and really good at policy, but not good at human relationships. Figure out as many ways as possible to make that connection and gather that intelligence. Just like I said, the principal should do that.

[34:39]

As a central admin, you have to gather intelligence. You're a servant. You're not a monarch. You're not the president. You're a servant. Servants have to be in tune with those that they serve.

[34:53]

So Rick DeFore used to talk about central office, when they're ineffective, they're like the sun in the galaxy system. They make all the planets revolve around it. Rick DeFore said an effective central office makes each school building the sun, and the district revolves around the orbit of the school. So they're gonna make their behavior congruent to the school's needs, rather than the central office being the big galvanizing force that keeps all of the districts in their gravitational pull, assess the needs of each building. Rather than making the school servants of central office, central office has to be the servants of schools. When that transition is made, now I just take my expertise as a leader and now I'm connecting with the human beings in a larger platform

[35:45]

Because every school's needs are going to be different. If you don't make that human connection, you never know.

[35:52] SPEAKER_02:

So the book is Time for Change, Four Essential Skills for Transformational School and District Leaders. Dr. Muhammad, if people want to get in touch with you, reach out and learn more about working with you, where's the best place for them to find you online?

[36:05] SPEAKER_00:

My website is www.newfrontier21.com. And all of my pertinent information is there. Also on Twitter, at New Frontier 21. Those are the two best mediums to reach out to me.

[36:21]

My website has pretty much everything you need from links to ordering books, to conferences I'm speaking at, to articles that I've written. It's kind of a one-stop place. So www.newfrontier21.com. And I do want to say one more quick thing, Justin.

[36:37]

The book also has a chapter that addresses teacher leadership. So don't think just because the title says School and District Leaders, We believe that teacher leadership is as essential or even more essential than leadership at other levels.

[36:51] SPEAKER_02:

Well, Dr. Anthony Muhammad, thank you so much for joining me again on Principal Center Radio. It's been a privilege.

[36:55] SPEAKER_00:

Thanks for tuning in.

[36:56] Announcer:

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