Tanya Sheckley

Often, in my work as a school leader, I am asked questions or asked for tasks that would be much better answered by members of our team. I share a bit of perspective and then ask the team members to get together and chat about it and let me know what they think. I get the work off my plate, my team spends some time together sharing ideas, and we have a much better answer or idea than I would have come up with. It's important to give leadership, development, and agency to the team. Let them solve the problems they will be responsible for implementing.

One of the most valuable things I did as a new leader was to find a good coach. I was never a fan of coaching programs, a women’s business and leadership mastermind changed my life. It has made me more productive, more creative, and more connected. Leadership can be a very lonely place, find your people and maintain a curious and learning mindset.

Growth mindset, if you’re not failing, you’re not trying hard enough. The greatest learning comes from failure. There must be room to try new things and make mistakes if we are going to be innovative and challenge the status quo. When we take risks and they work, we build character and resolve for taking the next big step forward. If we want our students to take risks in their work and classrooms we must also model that with our teams taking risks in their work. Most risk is over perceived, think if it will matter in a week, a month, or a year - then choose your risks accordingly. Most things won’t matter in a year, if it really doesn’t matter, is it a real risk?

If you want your team to have work like balance, you have to model that balance. I use a mix of time blocking and understanding that work may not happen at traditional times to create more balance. Time block your schedule so that you know when you are most creative, book phone calls when you know you are less productive, and be sure to schedule your personal time; whether that’s picking up kids or working out, if it’s on your schedule it won’t get scheduled over and you can literally schedule the life you desire.

It's important to have an 'open door policy' but it's equally important to have focused work time. By looking at my to-do list, creating my priorities, and putting individual tasks in the calendar around the time blocked blocks of time I am able to be more productive. I'm not looking at my list wondering what to do next, it has been prioritized and placed on my calendar. I have been most productive when I do this around time blocked blocks of time set aside for conversations, writing, creativity, strategy, development, or other areas that currently need focus and placed in the time of day where I know my biorhythm will be most productive.

We had the opportunity to move to a new space. As a part of a project unit on civilizations our students looked at how cultures had designed their architecture and spaces based on their values and uses. They then designed our space based on our values and the ways the students wanted to use the space. We have quiet spaces, individual work spaces, and the collaborative work space we call the collaboratory. All imagined and designed by our students for our students.