School leadership is no joke!
The work keeps coming and coming.
Most days it feels like drinking from a firehose …
And that is EXACTLY how my RUCKUS MAKER client, Molly Dandelet, felt most days.
Molly is AMAZING and it is my privilege to share how this courageous single mom of three boys (one in high school, two in college) shifted her experience from consistently frustrating days …
To consistently POWERFUL days.
The best part … (you can do it too).
More on that in just a second …
When I met Molly, she knew that SOMETHING had to change.
She lacked prioritization because the tasks that came across her desk became her priorities every day.
Which meant that she was pulled in 100 different directions every single day.
Then would go home (super late at night of course).
Grab something that passed as dinner …
Follow up with a few dozen emails …
Crash …
And get up the next day to do it all over again.
This kind of leadership was UNSUSTAINABLE for Molly.
And not only was this kind of leadership unsustainable but it was also misaligned with her Zone of Genius.
You see, Molly’s superpower is being a visionary and lifting up her colleagues.
In Molly’s words, “Quite honestly, when I’m not doing those things, it has a negative effect on my well-being.”
Molly really cares about not only her well-being, but that of her colleagues as well.
She calls her school a “teacher-powered” school and she knew that she had to address her focus and organization if she was truly going to care for her faculty.
In the past, Molly tried a number of free opportunities that made bold promises that offered her balance, purpose, better results, and so on …
But Molly knew she needed SKIN IN THE GAME to take her development seriously.
This was a scary endeavor for Molly.
Her charter school PD budget was much smaller than her public school colleagues.
Investing in herself was a hurdle. It was a scary endeavor.
The financial aspect was frightening but even scarier was her investment of time.
As a single mom with a son still in high school and leading a school …
Molly needed all the time she could get.
Unless she could figure out how to use her time better …
Molly had been listening to my podcast for years. She felt aligned with how I show up and serve school leaders.
And unlike the other free opportunities she participated in before, she experienced REAL results by reading and taking action on some of the books I recommended to her.
So she joined my newest program, The Principal Success Path™.
There she learned in LESS THAN 30-DAYS how to go from consistently frustrating days to consistently powerful days.
She calls those powerful days her “Monday Moment.”
She found how to create Monday Moments by implementing an idea I taught her in The Principal Success Path™.
Every Sunday I challenged Molly to set her goals and intentions for the week.
I also asked her to create an IDEAL WEEK and do it.
This changed EVERYTHING in Molly’s leadership.
Molly told me, “I literally remember experiencing my first ‘Monday Moment’ after implementing what you taught me, Danny. It was my very best day as a leader and I rocked a Monday like I’ve never rocked one before.”
I asked her what “rocking a Monday” looked like …
“I was working in my areas of strength. Creating programming, working on vision, helping my staff grow their strengths. I experienced something totally new. And I realized at that moment, if I could do this consistently I would LOVE my job.”
And not only did Molly experience flow and do so much more for her school in one day …
She also left work at 5pm.
This might not seem like a big deal to you.
There is a very UNHELPFUL leadership MYTH going around …
That a leader has to be the FIRST one to work each day and the LAST one to leave.
That is total BS.
And for the first time that Molly could remember, she left work before 8 or 9 pm.
(Kind of important for a single mom with a kid still in high school. Also important if she wanted to honor her own well-being.)
Now she had a system that could produce powerful days consistently.
But that wasn’t all Molly learned in The Principal Success Path™.
Molly also implemented the idea of a 90-day plan.
She didn’t stop there though.
Molly taught the idea to her staff and asked them to take action.
She posted her goals visibly in public (and even had custom stickers made so she could look at her goals every day while working on her laptop).
I asked her about the IMPACT this had on her staff:
“I see people who are sticking with their 90-day plans. The goals are visible. They are structured. My staff is much more ready for the year than I have ever seen. They are using their time differently than they have in the past because the 90-day plan does a great job of making our shared goals visible and identifying all the tiny steps that will help us accomplish our big goals.”
And the impact on her staff isn’t even THE BEST PART.
The BEST part is that nowadays Molly doesn’t feel like she has to work as hard.
Amazing how a simple plan, referenced regularly can help you ELEVATE your impact as a leader.
Now school leadership hasn’t become easy, but it has certainly gotten EASIER after Molly took action on the ideas she learned in The Principal Success Path™.
It has created the space to tackle new opportunities like learning how to successfully navigate a difficult relationship with a board member.
And by learning this approach to the relationship, she has opened up a whole world of possibilities before her …
I wonder what YOU might accomplish if you created space to get out of a REACTIVE mode of leadership and could operate PROACTIVELY?
So what advice does Molly have for you?
“Prioritize yourself like you prioritize your staff.”
I agree 100%.
School leaders are so good at taking care of their staff at the expense of themselves.
After all, educators are the most compassionate group of people I’ve come across.
But listen to Molly.
And take care of yourself.
YOU are WORTH IT.
Molly figured out that she is worth it.
And I am PROUD to share with you that she decided to join the mastermind after experiencing the MAGIC in The Principal Success Path™. She’s covering the cost of her membership out-of-pocket too.
Because Molly is worth it.
And so are you …
Ready to Level Up?
What if leadership could be easier?
What if you could turn consistently FRUSTRATING days into consistently POWERFUL days?
Molly did and so can YOU.
I taught her how in The Principal Success Path™.
I run this program twice a year.
