Leading through seasons of change

I joined our building in the middle of the 2024-2025 school year, and I knew how important it would be to lean into building relationships. Ensuring that our school community could connect with me, establish trust and believe in my commitment and ability to follow through were my top priorities from day one. My focus was on collaborating, leading, serving and learning with each member in our community.

But I wouldn’t have the benefit of our in-depth summer session to delve into our building data with my new colleagues or to be part of our crucial action planning sessions that address our primary goals. As I discovered, that meant putting an additional premium on creating focused opportunities for listening sessions – as well as organizing my individual routines around absorbing, understanding and sharing vital information to move our community forward. 

I also joined in a moment of fast-moving student engagement and renewed interest in opportunities for student leadership and schoolwide impact. I’m a firm believer in student leadership as a central part of kids’ success, both in their broader skills development, in elevating their real-time needs into responsive building plans and being future-ready. Meeting the challenge of keeping pace, facilitating communication and aligning with our overarching goals as a new-to-the-building leader is no small task. From that experience, I’ve added to my personal toolkit of organizational strategies for my time, presence and priorities. Whether you’re a new-to-the-building leader this year or looking for strategies to meet a season of change, I hope my experience can support you in shaping supportive routines throughout the year.

Decide on your primary themes

Each day has its own degree of unpredictability. But especially in the early days, I found it crucial to organize my time around themes. Monday was always my day for open-door hours and deep listening. Wednesdays were always relationship-focused while incorporating some element of fun or gratitude for my new team. Fridays were always for celebrating student progress, parent accomplishments and highlighting the educators who were helping to drive that change. And besides that structure, I would use data to select different areas of deep focus month by month. In that way, whatever each day had in store, I could orient myself to absorbing new information according to my themes.

Balance active listening and making your perspective known 

For me, becoming part of a new community meant really being a sponge and taking in a lot of new information at a rapid pace. But it was equally important to communicate who I am and what my values are, in order to build trust. That process of showing up fully right away gave me some insights into taking risks. Getting on the intercom to offer genuine appreciation and gratitude, offering colleagues the spotlight, opening up space for feedback when you’re still new and trying out a new activity for connecting with students’ families – all these things can carry a certain amount of risk. And they can get deprioritized during fast-moving or high-pressure times like starting new. But they can also be exactly the stepping stones to the robust and responsive school culture you want to see.

Determine your guiding questions

One of the things I really focused on was meeting with each student group early on. I had three main guiding questions: What does their day-to-day experience look like? What does wraparound support look like for them? What do they need to thrive academically? With those questions, I was able to tap into the conversation students were already having about their experience, their overall well-being and what they wanted to see in school day to day. 

And because I place a high value on demonstrating my follow-through, I could pinpoint practical next steps directly tied to students’ priorities and to similar conversations with my new colleagues. That led to establishing a new Multi-leader Student Organization, which reinvigorated earlier student leadership initiatives and led to a spring student-led town hall. 

To create and sustain change, notice where the energy is  

I saw very quickly that our students were energized around taking their leadership potential to the next level. They were ready to be heard and ready to contribute to thoughtful and actionable solutions throughout the building. And the more I showed up with questions and opportunities, the more interest they showed in carrying each initiative forward. Noticing this energy, and the needs it was responding to, allowed my staff and me to create new programs – including our summer service day and leadership academy. And overall, it allowed us to remain informed and connected to purposeful action during a crucial season of change in our school community.

Whatever this season brings you and your school community, I hope that you can build the personal support structures that allow you the responsiveness, flexibility and opportunity to create positive change in your building this year. Always remember, you matter and you are worth it! Our community deserves for us to show up each day as our best version, but remember to give yourself grace. You can’t pour from an empty cup.