Accelerate Your Performance

The skills that students need to be successful after school ends are rapidly changing. What it means to be career-ready tomorrow, will look different in 2025. To best support students for the future, leaders and community members in Oak Ridge School District have made a collective commitment to advance their strategic plan and include a focus on college, career and life success. Listen as Dr. Bruc...

Are you trying to find the next silver bullet solution? Or are you focused on evidence-based leadership and improvement practices? Focusing on the next shiny silver bullet will often lead to organizational chaos. Today, Janet shares another way leaders can prepare their teams for change and build leadership capabilities to improve organizational systems. This episode addresses questions, such as:...

Get comfortable being uncomfortable.  It's a saying you've likely heard before, and one that today's guest says applies to being a Superintendent. As an educator for 29 years, Deanna (Dede) Ashby, recently retired Superintendent of Hopkins County Schools joins Janet again to share how she helps others develop a vision and mission that leaves a huge impact on their community. Listen...

New academic years begin with new faces everywhere you look.  Whether people are new to the organization or new to their role, Janet recommends two tactics that build confidence and support employees in a new position. To be an excellent organization, we strive to apply these practices and train all of our team members to do the same. This episode answers questions such as: What does AIDET stand f...

Being a Superintendent can bring out the best in people, as well as highlight our most glaring mistakes and blindspots. Today, retired Superintendent, Tim Wyrosdick joins Dr. Janet Pilcher to share what he has learned from 36 years as an educator in Santa Rosa County, Florida. Listen as Tim explains why it's important to embrace new challenges and never be satisfied.  This episode answers que...

How can we tackle declining student performance? After over a year of difficult transitions and decisions, Janet shares why we need to rethink and unlearn what schools have done in the past. Most people in our educational systems want to contribute to student success - it is our purpose. Using the book, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know by Adam Grant , Janet explains how w...

Leadership development is often viewed as a "nice to have" in organizations. Today's guest, Dr. Pat Greco , shares why leadership development is core to the capacity of the organization and a lifeline to everyone it supports. School systems aren't static - they are continuously changing with new students, teachers, leaders, support staff and board members. Listen as Pat and Jan...

The words we use matter. Messages that focus on the customer's perspective build relationships and reinforce how important the customer is to an organization. Customers are always seeking to understand, 'what's in it for me?' Communication with this as the focus engages the people we serve. Today, Dr. Janet Pilcher shares four steps to address customer questions and respond wit...

Organizations sustain high performance when people are aligned and understand where the organization is headed. Although there will always be people who are resistant to change, the best leaders persevere through pushback to help create incredible results in our school systems. Such as, Hudson School District Superintendent Nick Ouellette, PhD , who understands that even though reaching agreement...

Families are a great resource for educators. They offer a unique perspective and window into the life of our students. When we approach building relationships with families the same way we approach building a team within our organization, students are more successful. Today's guest, Dr. Holly Ellis shares how leaders can invest their effort into relationships that increase student engagement...

Leaders want employees who are happy,  productive and invested in the organization's future. However, retaining these people requires leaders to become aware of what it takes to meet employee's needs in the workplace. Hear about those needs and the fundamentals we use to support confident and engaged employees from Leader Coach and employee engagement expert, Dr. KK Owen . Today, KK and...

What can we do when an individual hoards conversation time, constantly interrupts, provides unsolicited advice and puts others down? These behaviors can be interpreted as manipulative and can damage individuals on our teams and organizations. To maintain working relationships, and be authentic to ourselves and those we lead, we have to firmly and diplomatically say no to manipulators. Today Janet...

As educators, it's our goal to help students progress, achieve, and build confidence in themselves and their learning. We are witnessing schools do so by using simple continuous improvement strategies in the classroom. To share what this looks like, we've interviewed Leader Coach, Dr. Kathleen Orapollo , an expert in designing unique adult and student learning experiences. Today, Kathy a...

Within our organizations, there are people who will do whatever it takes to be successful. Sometimes people who we believe are high performers are actually lethal employees and manipulators. To gain power, people hoard information, shut others down, avoid seeking input and insist on always having control. Saving employees from manipulators in our organizations is one of the most difficult aspects...

What does it mean to be a high performing employee? What if we all had an athlete’s mindset at work? Today Janet closes this series about defining high performance by discussing the final 8 personality traits of high-performing athletes from the Sports Management Degree Guide . Ultimately, it takes hard work and commitment to grow ourselves to be the best we can be. Do you see that commitment on y...

We all want to attain excellence - some of us are just more systematic and focused on how to get there. Today's guest, Dr. JoAnn Sternke cautions, " You'll never achieve excellence if you don't have purpose, focus and alignment." In this episode, Janet and JoAnn discuss how to better align operational leaders and teams to realize their impacts in academic organizations. Wh...

What if we all had an athlete’s mindset at work? What would that look like? Today Janet discusses 6 more personality traits of high-performing athletes from the Sports Management Degree Guide . The best teams provide opportunities for people to feel connected to the work and each other to achieve results. It’s the responsibility of every team member to ensure that no one feels alone when we are wo...

How can we really make improvement work across an organization? What enables people to solve problems and make the best decisions at every level? We begin by helping people understand improvement is a connected, system-wide process deeply rooted in the capabilities of the people within the organization.  Today, we hear from an award-winning Superintendent, and our Director of Thought Leadership, D...

What if we all had an athlete's mindset at work? What would that look like? Today Janet discusses 6 personality traits of high-performing athletes and how we can use those to assess ourselves and further define high performance in the workplace. To be a high-performing team, we need all people engaging in the self-discovery work required to be their best every day. This episode answers questi...

Why is it important to align your district values to the values found in the homes of students in the community? Today, Superintendent Dr. Larry Ouimette shares how his small northern Wisconsin school district incorporates the local Native American Ojibwe Tribe into all aspects of education. Dr. Ouimette explains that public respect of local culture has a significant bearing on the success of his...

To garner our high-performing team, all employees are expected to be productive - and we say all very purposefully. Chris Porteous outlines 7 Traits of Supremely Productive Employees that we can use to communicate expectations to everyone on our team. Today, Dr. Janet Pilcher discusses these traits and what we can do this week to be more productive employees.  This episode answers questions such a...

Last September, one of the largest wildfires in central Oregon's history came within a mile of schools and downtown Estacada. While still navigating the ever-changing Covid-19 pandemic, all 1800 of Estacada School District 's students, families, and employees were evacuated from their homes. However, Superintendent Ryan Carpenter and his team prepare proactively to respond to emergencies...

There is no greater compliment than trust. As educators, we have a great responsibility to do what is best for children entrusted to us. This is the foundation of the moral compass used by the Tea Area School District team led by Superintendent Jennifer Lowery . In this episode, Dr. Lowery shares how her team created a central location to connect its community and the sometimes heartbreaking burde...

The time has come in which organizations are thinking about how to return to work with a new perspective and understanding. As we begin to engage with each other again in person and come to work in new ways, one simple tactic will be more important than ever. Rounding with purpose results in a better culture of engaged employees and leaders working together. Today, Janet shares 8 steps to create a...

How can we engage people to become champions of improvement? Today, we share how one school district stayed eight months ahead of the national conversation by investing in the brainpower of its people to solve its toughest challenges. Listen as Dr. Pat Greco and Janet discuss how the right measures and processes support an army of improvers in the School District of Menomonee Falls .  This episode...