[Intro music plays in the background.]

Janet Pilcher: Welcome to Accelerate Your Performance. I’m Janet Pilcher and have the privilege of being your host every Monday. And I come to you this Monday as we open our annual What’s Right in Education Conference in Colorado.

Here’s what I love about this conference. We hear impact stories from our partner organizations demonstrating that educators are passionate people with great purpose. We hear how they apply the strategies, tools, and tactics associated with our Nine Principles Framework. They focus on the bright spots and how they’ve used evidence to engage their teams and conversations to solve the issues needed to continuously improve.

What I see at this conference are superintendents and executive leaders who see good as the enemy of great. They lead their teams applying improvement practices with the underlying drive of knowing they can always get better. And they are some of the best educational organizations in the country.

Increasingly, I notice that most often the best leaders at great organizations are those who are most committed to getting better. They’re never satisfied, always knowing they can improve. That’s what makes them great.

Like the episodes I share about partner stories, this conference makes my book Hardwiring Excellence in Education come to life. It’s about leadership. It’s for anyone who practices leadership regardless of their position in an organization.

Our theme at the conference is “Everyone is a Leader from the boardroom to the classroom.” It aligns to our mission to create great places to work, learn, and succeed. To do so, we believe and see evidence of our mission as we develop people to gain leadership skills.

Continuous improvement is the backbone of an organizational excellence journey that our conference presentations and sessions will show. The tools and tactics associated with the Nine Principles Framework support leadership behaviors that produce positive results.

At the conference, we ask our participants to focus on some key leadership outcomes as they engage in the session presentations. The session presentations show examples of how districts apply and learn from various Nine Principles strategies. They include the scorecard process and organizational alignment, short cycle improvement process, survey rollout process, rounding conversations, service excellence standards and actions, consistency of leadership practices, effective messaging using key words at key times, engaging in performance coaching conversations, and recognizing bright spots and people.

As our attendees engage in the sessions, they’ll note how ten specific leadership actions are part of the impact stories they are hearing in the sessions.

This year’s outcomes that they’ll be noting and looking for are: describe why an action is being taken using key words in a message. When developing a message, think about what’s most important for them to hear rather than what you want to say. Engage in conversations by connecting people to evidence, staying away from generalizations. Connect people’s work to organizational direction and results. Listen with great awareness while probing for understanding. Be specific when asking for feedback. Demonstrate how actions will be taken on feedback that is provided and show how follow up will be communicated and tracked. Harvest wins and recognize bright spots by being specific, genuine, and timely. And last but certainly not least, recognize people for their contributions and performance.

The organizational leaders will show how these skills are alive and well and are applied so that their teams are deeply connected to their work. That’s what builds a workplace where everyone is a leader and that there are systems that are connected from the boardroom to the classroom.

As a follow up to our conversation, you’ll hear from superintendents and executive leaders right here on Accelerate Your Performance. We hope that you are joining us at the conference, but if you can’t attend, then stay tuned and join us every week to hear these impact stories.

I close today with great appreciation for our educational leaders who will be with us next week. They model what they expect from their employees, and they’ve made a choice to be a leader knowing that means being their best every day to create great places to work, learn, and succeed. I’m so fortunate to lead our work at Studer Education to partner with some of the best educational organizations in the country.

[Outro music plays in the background.]

So let’s get ready to learn, network and have fun together because you are what’s right in education. You indeed make a difference in the lives of others. Thank you for being your best at work.