Schools of Excellence: The No. 1 ECE & Private School Leadership Podcast

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102. [Guest Share] Setting Expectations for and Connecting with Your Child Care Staff Oct 17, 2022

Show notes

There’s a subtle but important difference between high standards and high expectations. Contrary to how it may feel, you can maintain high standards while still having developmentally appropriate expectations for the meeting of those standards.

Let me give you an example to show you what I mean. When it comes to cleanliness standards in your center, you likely expect teachers to keep their classrooms relatively organized and sanitary for the health and safety of the children.

But if you walk into a classroom of 2-year-olds and are surprised to see toilet paper on the floor, you better check your expectations!

Maintaining high standards that align with your center’s values is important, but what’s even more essential is having appropriate expectations about how those standards will be met.

In a situation like this, you have a choice: you can either penalize the teacher for something outside of her control and risk damaging your relationship, or you can accept that making messes is young children’s M.O. and trust that she’ll clean things up when she’s able to.

When you learn to lead from this perspective, you can cultivate a healthier culture within your school, keep your teachers and staff happy, and reach new levels of excellence.

For this week’s podcast, I’m sharing a recording of an interview I was part of, where we talk about how to create culture and community in early childhood education centers.

During the interview, we touch on a variety of topics, including:

How to set appropriate expectations for staff while maintaining high standards
Shifting the focus from taking care of others to taking care of yourself
Identifying what grounds you so that you make better decisions for your center
What it’s like to work with me and Schools of Excellence

When you learn to maintain high standards that align with your center’s values while also managing your expectations, you nourish a healthy sense of community that keeps your staff happy and pushes your school toward new levels of excellence.

Learn more and apply for the Director’s Inner Circle & Owner’s HQ: http://Chanie.me/jointhedic

Have you considered learning how to cultivate your school’s community within a community of other leaders just like you? As part of our Owner’s Only HQ and Director’s Inner Circle membership programs, you’ll receive exclusive training, tools, and resources among a supportive group of owners and directors who are on similar journeys.

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If you are an Early Childhood director or owner, prepare to transform your school and life with the Schools of Excellence podcast. Tune in each week to learn from Chanie Wilschanski, the founder and host of the Schools of Excellence Podcast and a mom of 4 little kids. Each episode will be packed with tools and strategies – equipping you to build schools with higher staff retention, teacher motivation, parent partnership, collaborative culture, and beautiful quality of life.

Every week, Chanie shares the truth about the journey to excellence, the strategies that are working TODAY, and the mindset about the critical decisions and choices that you make every day which impact yourself, your teachers, parents, family, and children who you serve every day.

101. Strategic Mapping for the School Year Oct 10, 2022

Show notes

There’s only so much time in the year, and most of it is already accounted for. After you add up necessary activities like eating, sleeping, and showering, you’re left with just 2,400 hours—that’s 2,400 hours that must cover everything from work projects to family time to enjoying life’s small pleasures.

So, you have to ask yourself: What are you going to do with those 2,400 hours?

To make the most of the limited hours you have and prioritize what matters most, you need to plan out how you’re going to spend your time—just like a budget.

In the same way you budget your finances, you can learn to budget your time so that every hour you spend is intentional and surprises are few and far between.

Take flu season, for example. Despite the fact that it happens each and every year, many of us are still taken by surprise and forced to dip into our margin time to make up for it.

And that makes us feel as if we don’t have enough time and energy to focus on the things that actually move us forward, like legacy projects and one-on-one time with teachers.

Learning to budget your time is a game changer, and it’s a topic I cover often in our membership programs, Owner’s Only HQ and Director’s Inner Circle.

That’s why for this week’s podcast, I’ve chosen to share a recording from one of our live calls with members. During the call, I walked them through how to strategically plan for the upcoming school year.

You’ll hear us talk about concepts like:

Tracking how you spend your time
Taking inventory of your commitments in and outside of school
Choosing what to prioritize and what to delegate
Mapping out the school year on your calendar

My hope is that by sharing this call with you, you’ll not only pick up some valuable strategic planning tools, but also get a glimpse into what our membership programs look like in action.

Through calls just like these, we provide owners and directors with exclusive training and coaching, as well as a powerful community of support, that guide them through every stage of growth and development as they build and sustain schools of excellence.

If after listening to the podcast, you’re interested in getting this kind of support, I encourage you to apply to our Owner’s Only HQ and Director’s Inner Circle programs

I’m confident this episode will offer you new insights, a fresh perspective on planning, and the confidence to head into the new school year knowing that you’ve got everything under control.

Learn more and apply for the Director’s Inner Circle & Owner’s HQ: http://Chanie.me/jointhedic

Learning how to role model these skills for your staff is no easy task, but it’s well worth the effort. Join our Owner’s Only HQ or Director’s Inner Circle programs to get support and strategies from like-minded leaders like you who are experiencing the same challenges. Their stores and insights can guide you as you work toward building a school of excellence.

While strategic planning is a valuable strategy, it’s just one of many tools you can learn to implement that will elevate your capacity and skills as a leader. For additional resources related to having difficult conversations, managing to-do lists, dealing with parent-teacher conferences, and more, check out:

School Leadership Toolkit https://discovered.thrivecart.com/school-leadership-tool-kit/

Ultimate Teacher Training Vault https://discovered.thrivecart.com/the-ultimate-teacher-training-vault/

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100. The 3 M's that Create Stability and Security for your Team Oct 06, 2022

Show notes

This is a special live-recorded episode to celebrate our 100th episode!

Being a leader is hard. It requires you to exercise new skills, make tough decisions, and have difficult conversations on a daily basis.

Periods of transition can be especially difficult. Whether it’s starting a new school year, training new teachers, or implementing a new routine, some days can feel—quite literally—painful.

And in these times of great discomfort, it’s not easy to remain consistent in working toward your goals. Exhaustion sets in, motivation wanes, and you find yourself questioning if all this effort is really worth it.

But there’s some good news and it’s important to keep in mind.

It’s all temporary.

“Nothing lasts forever” may be a cliché, but it’s valuable wisdom that growth-minded leaders know to be true. They know at their core that the discomfort and pain that come with learning a new skill or making a difficult decision are temporary.

That said, developing this growth mindset takes a lot of practice and guidance.

On this episode, I chat with you about what I call the 3 M’s: Maintenance, Motivation, and Mindset. These three factors are not only essential to your success as a leader, but also the stability and security of your team.

By mastering the 3 M’s, you’ll never have to worry about being thrown completely off course. No matter what difficulties you encounter, you’ll be able to weather the storm and lead your team to safety.

Join me for a conversation about:

Focusing on maintenance and a growth mindset to reach your goals
Setting very specific goals
Dealing with waning motivation
Maintaining the right anchors and habits to stay focused and consistent
Understanding your mental capacity and timing (also, finding out if your timing is off)
Ensuring your “why” is big enough

Join our private Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/schoolsofexcellencelounge

Learn more and apply for the Director’s Inner Circle & Owner’s HQ: http://Chanie.me/jointhedic

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99. Emotional Regulation: Create a Calm Confident Environment Sep 22, 2022

Show notes

Everyone experiences a variety of emotions throughout the day. Whether it’s anxiety before a dentist appointment, excitement when we find $20 in our pocket, or disappointment when our favorite coffee cup breaks, emotions come and go—and it’s entirely normal.

There’s no such thing as a good or bad emotion. They’re just feelings that come and go like clouds passing in the sky.

But for some people, emotions aren’t always just clouds—they’re storms that ravage the land, causing destruction in their wake.

When people experience emotions more intensely and frequently than normal, to the detriment of their relationships with others, it means they struggle with what’s called emotional regulation.

Emotional regulation is the ability to control your emotional state. It’s understanding that emotions impact behavior and then taking the appropriate action to alter the intensity of your emotional experience.

So, when a teacher shows up late, someone who practices good emotional regulation would recognize the anger that arises and let it pass before it negatively affects the way they respond.

On the other hand, someone who struggles with emotional regulation might become consumed by the anger and take their emotions out on the teacher, potentially damaging the goodwill between them.

As a leader, you’ve probably seen your fair share of instances like these. And maybe you’ve felt frustrated by someone’s inability to keep their emotions in check and simply follow the protocol.

The problem is, an SOP can’t change the way a person’s nervous system has been trained to react in tense situations.

So, what can you do to help your staff better regulate their emotions and transform your center’s culture?

In this week’s podcast episode, we’ll explore the answer to that very question. The final part of my B.R.I.D.G.E. series focuses on the skills and strategies you need to help your staff master emotional regulation.

Join me for a conversation about:

What emotional regulation is
Why people lose control of their emotions
How emotional regulation impacts performance and work culture
The 5 skills for mastering emotional regulation
How to identify and reduce triggers

With lots of practice and proper modeling, you can show your staff how to control their own emotional state, improve the culture of your center, and create generational impact and legacy.

Learn more and apply for the Director’s Inner Circle & Owner’s HQ: http://Chanie.me/jointhedic

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98. Generosity: Giving Abundantly and Latitude For Mistakes Sep 19, 2022

Show notes

What does it mean to be generous?

Oftentimes the first thing people think of is financial generosity. They believe that to be a generous leader, they need to focus on philanthropy.

But while financial generosity is a type of generosity, it’s certainly not the only one. Sharing your knowledge, time, and resources is generous too, and the things you choose to share say a lot about who you are.

Unfortunately, though, our education system teaches people that the way to get ahead is to leave others behind. Instead of pooling our assets to benefit the community, we’re taught to work in stingy isolation to climb the ladder of success.

This sets a precedent that leaves leaders wary of generosity before they even step into the role. They unknowingly shut down their capacity for generosity, become overly critical of themselves and others, and have a hard time forgiving mistakes.

While this mindset can bring you some success, it’s not the most effective way to move forward—let alone build a legacy.

To be the type of leader who sustains a school of excellence, you need to build a culture of generosity at your center.

So, what exactly does that look like?

Let me explain using a parenting example (because they so often lend themselves to matters of school leadership).

Let’s say that you buy your child that Nintendo (That’s a thing, right?) they’ve been going on and on about. You bring it home, set it up in the living room, and leave him or her to play alone.

Is that what would happen in your household?

Consider this for a moment: What would happen if it didn’t stop there? What if by giving some of your time, you used it as an opportunity to connect on a deeper level and strengthen your relationship by playing together?

That is generosity.

And by cultivating a culture of generosity at your center, you can experience the same kind of beneficial connection between you and your staff.

This week’s podcast, the fifth of my B.R.I.D.G.E. series about developing critical meta-skills as a 21st century leader, will explore how to practice generosity in your center.

Join me as we talk about:

The benefits of generosity
How to be a more generous leader
The “generous silence” and resisting the temptation to fix
The difference between generosity and neglect
Questions you can use to reflect on your own generosity

Let me leave you with one of my favorite quotes by the late designer Zeev Aram: “I’ve never found that my own light has been dimmed by lighting someone else’s candle.”

In other words, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by becoming a more generous leader.

Learn more and apply for the Director’s Inner Circle & Owner’s HQ: http://Chanie.me/jointhedic

If you’re looking for inspiration in practicing your own generosity, I encourage you to check out our Owner's Only HQ or Director's Inner Circle programs. These groups are made up of leaders just like you who see the value in sharing their insight, advice, and feedback with others.

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97. Discernment: Balance Self-Reliance and Asking for Help Sep 13, 2022

Show notes

One of the most important skills I help owners and directors develop is discernment.

But…what exactly does that mean?

Let me give you an example: Two different patients go to the doctor with a headache. One of the patients is suffering from a hangover, and the other has a brain aneurysm.

How does the doctor properly diagnose and treat each patient?

Discernment!

Discernment is all about getting to the heart of the matter and understanding what lies below the surface so that you can come up with the right solution.

To diagnose their patients, doctors accumulate years of practice, learn from their mistakes, and avoid black-and-white thinking.

You and your staff can do the same.

When a situation arises in your center—like a teacher quitting on the spot—it can be easy to flounder in the chaos that ensues. Where’s the SOP for that?

But when you know how to ask the right questions, see past the surface, and consider the big picture, you can be an effective leader regardless of the scenario.

Discernment is like a muscle—to make it stronger, you need to use it! And the more you practice discernment, the smoother decision-making in your center will become.

This week, we’re diving into the fourth component of my B.R.I.D.G.E series on the six meta-skills you need as a 21st century leader: discernment.

Join me for a conversation about:

What makes a discerning leader
What questions you should ask to become a more discerning leader
How to grow your discernment muscle (HINT: It’s something kids do)

I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: You can’t SOP your way out of everything. No matter how great your systems and processes are, you’ll still have conflict and issues. But if you focus on training your discernment muscle, you’ll be prepared to make informed and wise decisions—no matter the situation.

Learn more and apply for the Director’s Inner Circle & Owner’s HQ: http://Chanie.me/jointhedic

As you’ll learn in the podcast episode, one important part of becoming a discerning leader is knowing when and where to seek wise counsel. By joining our Owner's Only HQ or Director's Inner Circle programs, you’ll have access to a welcoming community of peer school leaders who can share their real-world experience and advice, whenever you need.

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96. Individual Advocacy: Empower the Team to Own Their Growth and Development Sep 05, 2022

Show notes

Some of my biggest coaching Aha! moments happen when I talk to my kids.

Earlier this summer, my son came to my husband with a question that was bothering him. His friend hadn’t been accepted into summer camp, and he wanted to understand why.

My husband answered that, unfortunately, our son’s friend didn’t have anyone to advocate for him.

“What does it mean to ‘advocate’ for someone?” he asked.

My husband explained that advocating for someone helps them get the things they need, usually because they’re unable to do so on their own. It can look like talking to a teacher about homework, buying supplies for a school project, or—in the case of my son’s friend—applying for summer camp.

Without intending to, my husband had provided a crystal clear example of how children differ from adults when it comes to advocacy.

When kids are still growing and learning, they need parents or other adults to advocate for them. Without this support, they can’t get what they need, because they don’t yet have the tools to do so on their own.

But adults are different. Although they may still be growing and learning, adults are capable of accessing the skills and resources necessary to advocate for themselves and others…even if it takes some practice.

That goes for your staff, too.

When you’re running around giving your time and energy to solving all the problems throughout your center, it may feel like you’re doing a good thing—after all, you’ve got the answers and want to keep people happy!

But the reality is that this causes two major issues:

Leader burnout: Giving 100% of yourself with the expectation that it will make everyone happy and keep them at your center isn’t generosity—it’s emotional horse trading, and it’s exhausting.
Hindered development: Solving others’ problems for them robs them of the opportunity for self-development, which prevents growth in your center.

In this week’s episode, which is the third of my B.R.I.D.G.E. series about developing critical meta-skills as a 21st century leader, we’re talking all about individual advocacy and how it can transform your center.

By practicing your own advocacy skills and modeling them for your staff, you’ll help them learn to communicate their own needs, solve problems on their own, and develop stronger relationships amongst themselves.

This is a conversation about:

What individual advocacy looks like
Why it’s an important meta-skill
The benefits of helping your staff learn to self-advocate

At the end of the day, YOU are your greatest advocate. With individual advocacy skills, both you and your staff will be more self-aware, balanced, and able to handle whatever life throws at you—whether there’s an SOP in place or not.

Learn more and apply for the Director’s Inner Circle & Owner’s HQ: http://Chanie.me/jointhedic

Take your first step in practicing self-advocacy by joining our Owner’s Only HQ or Director’s Inner Circle programs. There, you’ll connect with a community of fellow school leaders who have valuable stories, insights, advice, and feedback to offer you as you build your school of excellence.

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95. Relationship Intelligence - Navigate Conflict and Build Trust Aug 29, 2022

Show notes

One of the hallmarks of a great leader is how you understand and respond to emotions, and, then in turn, how that understanding helps you cultivate relationships.

Have you ever encountered these kinds of scenarios with your leadership team after staff meetings and retreats?

Someone on your leadership team was too afraid to mention something they didn’t agree with.
Some members had questions but felt too intimidated to ask them.
Someone with a dissenting opinion buried it because they didn't want to “rock the boat.”

If so, you’re not alone. These are common and challenging scenarios. I know because I’m coaching members in my Owner's HQ or Director's Inner Circle programs who are facing them right now.

And I’m sure you’ve experienced at least one with your own leadership team.

When your team reacts with feelings of fear, intimidation, and withdrawal, there’s a larger issue going on.

It usually means your team doesn’t feel enough trust or connection with you and the rest of the team to say what’s really on their minds.

As the school leader, improving this begins with practicing a meta-skill I call relational intelligence.

Relational intelligence refers to your ability to connect with others, understand their emotions, and ultimately form relationships. Relationally intelligent people recognize body language, have the ability to be vulnerable, and are unafraid of difficult conversations.

In the stressful, emotionally-charged environments within early childhood centers, relational intelligence is an incredibly important meta-skill for you to have and to model for your team. It’s the second meta-skill of the six I’m introducing in my latest podcast series on the B.R.I.D.G.E. Concept.

You’ll want to make time for this week’s podcast episode if you’re looking to initiate productive conversations with your leadership team, break down silos, and encourage effective teamwork.

Join me for a conversation about:

The importance of reflecting on your own relational intelligence skills
Creating a leadership team based on trust, connection, and vulnerability
Questions to ask your team to get them to open up and be honest with you
The difference between professional relationships and dysfunctional codependency

You’ll get clear on how to use relational intelligence to encourage your leadership team to share information freely, experiment with new ideas, and think outside the box.

Learn more and apply for the Director’s Inner Circle & Owner’s HQ: http://Chanie.me/jointhedic

As a school leader, you must first be in tune with yourself before your leadership team can be in tune with their own emotions, feelings, and needs. This kind of inner work is challenging, and you’ll likely have questions along the way.

Right now there’s a group of like-minded school leaders grappling with this very same meta-skill. You can connect with them and find support inside our Owner's HQ or Director's Inner Circle programs.

Together, you’ll work on relational intelligence as well as the other five meta-skills you need to build and sustain your school of excellence.

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From the Archive: The First Staff Meeting of the School Year Aug 25, 2022

Show notes

Starting off the new school year on the right note will set up your school for excellence. As a school leader, the last thing you’d want is overloading your staff with content, hence the reason why you need to break it down into segments. And the segments are divided based on how the brain processes information.

In today’s episode, I share a segment of training that took place inside our Director’s Inner Circle & Owner's HQ flagship program. I created this training to teach our members how they can lead and prepare for their first staff meeting. And as our amazing podcast listeners, we are sharing this section as a special gift to you!

Tune in to learn more about:

How to lead your first staff meeting.
What to talk about during your first staff meeting.
How to divide the time blocks during your meeting.
Some of the exercises to do and the questions to ask your teams.
Staff meeting headline ideas and tips for choosing them.
How to tell if you and your team are getting results and growing your mindset
Why you should be specific about the kind of results you are after as the school leader.
Ideas for helping your staff lean on each other.
And how to wrap up your staff meeting.

More about the show:

Every week, Chanie shares the truth about the journey to excellence, the strategies that are working TODAY, and the mindset about the critical decisions and choices that you make every day that impact yourself, your teachers, parents, family, and children who you serve every day.

94. Boundaries: Create Space and Time to Hit Your Goals Aug 22, 2022

Show notes

Recently, I was reflecting on my parenting style and how it’s evolved over time.

As much as we think we’ll parent in our own unique way once we have little ones, we often do things just like our parents.

Can you relate?

There was a time, as a new mother, when I used blame and shame just as my parents had to set boundaries with me and my siblings.

I used their approach on my own children because I had weak boundaries at that time. This approach is effective for controlling little ones, but it doesn’t produce responsible, happy children with high self-esteem.

Eventually two things happened:

I became more self-aware of my boundary setting style, and
I learned healthier boundaries.

Eventually, I replaced blame and shame with peace and confidence to set healthy boundaries.

This has made all the difference with my children, improving my relationship with each of them. It’s also helped me professionally as an executive director who was responsible for a leadership team.

If you’ve been struggling with setting clear boundaries inside your center—with other leaders, teachers, or even parents, this is the podcast episode for you.

It’s the second episode in my new B.R.I.D.G.E. series that’s all about helping you gain the critical meta-skills you need as a 21st-century school leader.

This week’s focus is on raising awareness of boundary setting styles in order to help you develop healthy boundaries within your center.

Join me for a conversation about:

How and why you need to overcome rigid black-and-white thinking
The different types of boundary setting styles and why yours may not be working
Trading ineffective boundary setting styles for ones that are both assertive and respectful

It’s your turn to stop setting boundaries from a place of anger, blame, excuses, or apologies and start practicing them from a place of calm, confidence, peace, and serenity.

Learn more and apply for the Director’s Inner Circle & Owner’s HQ: http://Chanie.me/jointhedic

The truth is, you’ll never fully master boundaries. No one ever does, especially because boundaries can change depending on the season of your life. But here’s the good news: Schools of Excellence can help you strengthen your boundary-setting muscles.

I invite you to take a closer look at our Owner's HQ or Director's Inner Circle programs, where you’ll connect with a welcoming community of peer school leaders who can share their real-world experience with setting boundaries in their early childcare center and so much more.

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