Your Morning Boost

🎯 Leader Self-Assessment: It's Time for Your Midterm Grade (3 Ways to Course Correct Now)

As the first quarter ends, we're focused on student grades—but what grade would you give your leadership? Waiting until the end of the year to assess your effectiveness means missing a crucial chance to pivot.
In this sharp episode of Your Morning Boost, we dive into Dan P. Butler’s piece from the Fitting Five newsletter: "It's Time for Midterm Grades, but Not the Kind You're Thinking of." This challenge is not about judgment; it's about shifting from vague feelings of busyness to objective, fast, and focused course correction.
Key Takeaways: Learn three objective methods to measure what truly matters: your behavior, your time, and your connections:
Implement the Stop-Start-Continue Feedback Loop: Use a brief, anonymous survey with trusted staff to gather crystal-clear, actionable data on your leadership behaviors.
Conduct a Candid Time Audit: Track your time for two weeks to see if your daily actions align with your instructional priorities (e.g., are you spending 70% on email and only 10% on walkthroughs?).
Check your Relational Capital: Identify the 10 most critical people for your school's success (custodian, union rep, veteran teacher) and proactively invest in any relationship that scores low.
➡️ CTA: Commit to this objective self-assessment now to ensure you finish the year strong. Subscribe, listen, and share this episode!
Find out more about what we do:AWB Education - awbeducation.orgGrundmeyer Leader Services - grundmeyerleadersearch.comGot a mailbag question?  Reach out to us at adam@awbeducation.org

🏈 Offense is the Best Defense: 3 Ways Leaders Must Shift from Reactive to Strategic Leadership

Are you spending all your time reacting to crises, answering emails, and managing external mandates? When leaders only play defense, they surrender the agenda to external forces—the media, the district, or community frustration.
In this vital episode of Your Morning Boost, we dive into a powerful piece from the Harvard Graduate School of Education (via the Fitting Five newsletter) that challenges us to flip the script. Offensive leadership means you define the vision, set the pace, and prioritize the work that truly moves students forward.
Key Takeaways: Learn the three high-leverage challenges that help you reclaim your time and initiative:
Commit to Proactive Strategic Planning by blocking non-negotiable "thinking time" to define your yearly agenda.
Build an Early Warning System (KPIs)—tracking weekly referral trends and monthly staff morale to catch small dips before they become full-blown crises.
Focus on Process, Not Just Outcomes by documenting and auditing core operational systems (onboarding, enrollment) to defend your core work against instability.
➡️ CTA: It's time to control the narrative of your school's success. Subscribe, listen, and share this episode with your leadership team!
Find out more about what we do:AWB Education - awbeducation.orgGrundmeyer Leader Services - grundmeyerleadersearch.comGot a mailbag question?  Reach out to us at adam@awbeducation.org

🧠 Digital Drain: How Social Media is Rewiring Student Brains (and 3 Ways Leaders Can Fight Back)

Student attention spans are shrinking, and the science is clear: constant, fast-paced social media use is fundamentally impacting young people's ability to sustain the deep focus required for complex reading and long-term memory. This isn't just a distraction—it's a neurological shift.
In this essential episode of Your Morning Boost, we dive into the latest research from Ed Week (via the Fitting Five newsletter) on how social media erodes cognitive endurance. School leaders cannot ban these tools, but they must become explicit trainers of the deep attention skill that the digital world depletes.
Key Takeaways: Learn three systemic strategies to counter the "fragmentation effect":
Implement mandatory deep work blocks (20-30 minutes) requiring single-task, uninterrupted focus.
Teach sustained attention as a metacognitive muscle through explicit reflection prompts.
Design assessments that prioritize analytical summarization over simple fact recall to train working memory.
➡️ CTA: Ready to create analog skills and environments within your digital-heavy school? Subscribe, listen, and share this episode with your instructional team!
Find out more about what we do:AWB Education - awbeducation.orgGrundmeyer Leader Services - grundmeyerleadersearch.comGot a mailbag question?  Reach out to us at adam@awbeducation.org

🚨 The Silent Crisis: How Teacher Turnover Fuels Student Discipline Problems

The link is undeniable: when great teachers leave, student discipline issues rise. In this vital episode of Your Morning Boost, we dive deep into the findings of the K-12 Dive article, "Teacher Turnover Contributes to Suspensions and Referrals Study Finds." We explore how the loss of relational capital (key student-teacher relationships) and procedural consistency (uniform rules) destabilizes school culture and leads to a spike in office referrals, especially for students with trauma.
Key Takeaways: Learn three actionable, non-budgetary strategies to interrupt this cycle: establish a uniform tier one behavioral strategy (e.g., Be respectful, responsible, ready), mandate protected time for proactive relational check-ins, and develop high-leverage peer mentorship focused on behavioral support for new staff. Don't let staffing instability sabotage your school's climate.
➡️ CTA: Ready to build a resilient school culture? Subscribe, listen, and share this episode with your leadership team!
Find out more about what we do:AWB Education - awbeducation.orgGrundmeyer Leader Services - grundmeyerleadersearch.comGot a mailbag question?  Reach out to us at adam@awbeducation.org

Shield the Noise, Serve the Students: 3 Strategies for School Leaders

After a week of focusing on internal strength—from knowing your style to prioritizing wellness and learning—it's time to put that inner work into service. School leadership is constantly bombarded by noise and urgent-but-not-important demands. This episode provides definitive strategies for creating a strategic bubble of focus to protect your core instructional priorities and keep your work squarely on serving students.
Key Takeaways:
Define and Enforce Core Priorities: Rigidly align every initiative, meeting, and PD session back to three defined instructional priorities for the quarter. If it doesn't support them, the answer is "not now."
Create Focus Blocks for Deep Work: Schedule and protect 60-90 minute blocks for mission-critical tasks (e.g., analyzing data) by delegating interruptions and turning off notifications.
Filter Communication Flow at the Source: Empower front office staff and assistant principals to handle specific categories of issues, ensuring only true instructional or emergency dilemmas land on your desk.
Practice Student-Centric Prioritization: Before committing to any new initiative, ask: "How will this directly and positively impact a student in a classroom?" Eliminate the merely "good" to focus on the truly great.
Protecting your focus is protecting your legacy. Subscribe and commit to mission clarity!
Find out more about what we do:AWB Education - awbeducation.orgGrundmeyer Leader Services - grundmeyerleadersearch.comGot a mailbag question?  Reach out to us at adam@awbeducation.org

Micro-Learning for Busy Leaders: 5 Minutes That Change Your Day

Are you struggling to find time for professional growth? Sustainable leadership requires continuous learning, but a busy school leader's day rarely allows for hours of uninterrupted study. This episode shifts the focus from all-day professional development to micro-learning: targeted, quick bursts of professional engagement strategically integrated into your daily flow. We're providing just-in-time, just-for-me strategies to keep your leadership sharp, relevant, and consistently renewed.
Key Takeaways:
Create a 5-Minute Resource Feed: Curate resources based on identified growth areas (e.g., conflict resolution) and scan them during your first coffee or the last 5 minutes of the day.
Integrate Drive-Time PD: Transform your commute by swapping passive listening for targeted audio content, like short summaries or relevant podcast segments.
Pair a Problem with a Resource: When facing a challenge (e.g., classroom management), immediately dedicate 10 minutes to reading a short, relevant article for instant retention and transfer.
Make Learning Out Loud a Habit: Consciously share one new insight daily to reinforce your own learning and model a culture of continuous growth for your staff, similar to the process outlined in The Art of Coaching.
Finding time for growth is a vital part of authentic leadership. Never underestimate the power of the small moments. Subscribe and keep learning! To suggest a topic or reach out, visit awbeducation.org.
Find out more about what we do:AWB Education - awbeducation.orgGrundmeyer Leader Services - grundmeyerleadersearch.comGot a mailbag question?  Reach out to us at adam@awbeducation.org

5-Minute Armor: Mindful Habits for School Leaders

Feeling the drain? Your leadership capacity is directly tied to your personal sustainability. This episode is a vital conversation focused on the health and wellness of school leaders. The challenge isn't finding time for a retreat—it's securing five minutes of restorative space daily within the hurricane of duties. We share small, non-negotiable strategies to help you protect your energy and ensure you are leading from a place of strength.
Key Takeaways:
Mindful Transition: Schedule a 5-minute pause between home and campus to shift your mindset.
Physical Boundary: Block off 30 minutes for a lunch/walk appointment you cannot miss.
Communication Cutoffs: Establish clear off-hours expectations to prevent perpetual burnout.
External Passion: Cultivate a non-school related hobby for cognitive cross-training and renewal.
Protecting your personal wellness is the key to sustainable, long-term impact. Commit to filling your own cup today!
Find out more about what we do:AWB Education - awbeducation.orgGrundmeyer Leader Services - grundmeyerleadersearch.comGot a mailbag question?  Reach out to us at adam@awbeducation.org

Stop Leading Solo: Build Your Peer Principal Cohort Today

On this Morning Boost episode (Tuesday, October 28), the host explains how school leaders can move from isolation to intentional collaboration by creating a small, confidential cohort of peer principals. Topics include how to identify three to five cross-district colleagues, write a simple invitation, and set uncompromising norms of confidentiality and purpose.The episode outlines practical structures for sustainability—regular monthly or biweekly meetings, a consistent agenda (wins, challenges, and a deep-dive problem presentation), rotating leadership, and using protocols like the critical friends model to surface diverse, actionable solutions. A real example is shared of a middle school principal who solved a complex boundary issue with support from her cohort.Key takeaways: proactively initiate your group, keep membership outside immediate evaluation lines, commit to confidentiality and cadence, and rotate expertise so the cohort becomes a durable professional lifeline. Grundmeyer Leader Services supports this episode’s message of transforming education one leader at a time.
Find out more about what we do:AWB Education - awbeducation.orgGrundmeyer Leader Services - grundmeyerleadersearch.comGot a mailbag question?  Reach out to us at adam@awbeducation.org

Stop Trying to Be a Textbook Leader: Unlocking Your Authentic Leadership Style

Are you trying to lead like a model instead of yourself? The most effective school leaders lead with authenticity, which is only possible through deep self-awareness. This episode dives into how understanding your unique leadership style is the key to unlocking your greatest potential. We'll share practical steps to help you identify your core values, synthesize 360-degree feedback, and deliberately lean into your signature strengths. Discover how aligning your actions with your convictions—like a leader whose core value is equity adopting a transformational style—builds trust, fosters a positive school culture, and ultimately improves decision-making. Stop wasting time trying to be who a textbook says you should be; embrace the leader you authentically are because it is your greatest asset.
Key Takeaways:
Identify your core values and non-negotiables as the foundation of your style.
Actively solicit and internalize 360-degree feedback to understand your impact.
Focus on refining your signature strengths rather than forcing a style that doesn't feel authentic.
Find out more about what we do:AWB Education - awbeducation.orgGrundmeyer Leader Services - grundmeyerleadersearch.comGot a mailbag question?  Reach out to us at adam@awbeducation.org

The One Leadership Strategy to Overcome Grading Reform Resistance

After a week of diving deep into modern grading practices, experts Dr. Chad Lang and Dr. Matt Townsley deliver the most impactful leadership behavior for navigating the inevitable "implementation dip" that comes with change. They argue that the most effective way to quiet staff and community resistance is to shift the focus back to the customer: the student. Leaders must prioritize creating opportunities for students to articulate their learning, celebrate their successes, and explain how clear, standards-based grading helps them own their learning.
The Solution: Center students in the conversation.
Key Takeaways:
The implementation dip happens when communication and confidence falter, leading to uncertainty for students and frustration for parents.
Student voice is the most potent communication tool. Leaders must actively create spaces for students to share their "before and after" stories of learning clarity.
A strong strategy is implementing student-led learning stations (rotations) that teach students directly about standards, scales, and the reassessment process.
Student understanding equals parent understanding. Use these student-facing resources (like recorded sessions) to educate the community.
You can find out more about our guests by visiting https://www.awbeducation.org/contributors-lineup. Follow their work via the links below, and pick up their book, The Parent's Guide to Grading and Reporting. Thank you for listening!
Connect with the Experts:
Dr. Chad Lang: recalibrateedservices.com or on LinkedIn.
Dr. Matt Townsley: Search "all things standards based grading" or find him on X/Blue Sky at @MCTownsley.
Find out more about what we do:AWB Education - awbeducation.orgGrundmeyer Leader Services - grundmeyerleadersearch.comGot a mailbag question?  Reach out to us at adam@awbeducation.org