Relational Leadership: Dr. Rachel Edoho-Eket

WEBVTT
00:08.730 --> 00:12.442
C3, Connecting Coaches' Cognition. It's time to get some coaching
00:12.555 --> 00:13.087
for the coach.
00:16.472 --> 00:19.934
Welcome back to another episode of C3. I'm Courtney Graskin, and I'm here
00:20.434 --> 00:24.057
with Sandy Heiser. Sandy, what's new in your world?
00:24.952 --> 00:27.822
Oh man, it is. We're in football season.
00:28.462 --> 00:32.793
We have at Skyline a brand new stadium, so we've
00:33.293 --> 00:36.932
gotten to have our stadium open our game and
00:36.964 --> 00:40.445
the kids are just really excited. And of course it's homecoming season,
00:40.879 --> 00:44.408
so it's, it's a lot of fun here right now. Yeah,
00:44.504 --> 00:48.033
that's so nice for them to have a beautiful stadium. The place is just
00:48.533 --> 00:51.723
amazing, but what a positive message to send to our kids that we believe
00:52.223 --> 00:54.547
in you and you're worth having such a nice stadium.
00:55.412 --> 00:58.616
It is. And they're really proud. They're really proud of it. And the
00:59.116 --> 01:02.862
crazy thing is, it's a great incentive to talk to
01:03.362 --> 01:07.092
seniors who are struggling about being the first class to walk across
01:07.592 --> 01:09.943
the stage in the new stadium. That is a,
01:10.616 --> 01:13.997
that is very, a huge incentive. So they're really excited
01:14.013 --> 01:17.201
about it. You just gave me chills. I know.
01:17.922 --> 01:21.350
Like, walk them out there if you're thinking about, you know, you don't, you can't
01:21.850 --> 01:24.474
get this done. Let's go take a walk out to the new stadium. What do
01:24.974 --> 01:28.634
you think now? It's like a Rudy moment. Yes, it totally
01:28.731 --> 01:32.684
is. Well, and it sounds like you had a great interview with Rachel. I'm so
01:33.184 --> 01:36.151
sorry that I missed this interview. Yeah,
01:36.216 --> 01:39.879
she's amazing. Um, but I think the recording will really speak to you,
01:40.154 --> 01:43.752
um, in your role as a leader. And hopefully lots of principals are listening
01:43.865 --> 01:47.295
because this episode is definitely for them. We'd love to
01:47.795 --> 01:49.886
welcome Dr. Rachel Alouek to C3 today.
01:51.172 --> 01:55.138
Rachel is an award-winning educator, leader, author, speaker, and longtime
01:55.186 --> 01:59.569
public school educator dedicated to developing strong leaders
01:59.601 --> 02:02.861
and thriving school communities. She serves as the principal
02:03.361 --> 02:06.843
of a National Blue Ribbon School in Maryland and is an adjunct professor at McDaniel
02:07.343 --> 02:11.001
College. A former president of the Maryland Association of Elementary School
02:11.501 --> 02:15.144
Principals, she was named one of, of District Administration Magazine's
02:15.176 --> 02:19.158
Top 100 Educational influencers and received an
02:19.495 --> 02:22.658
ISTE and ASCD 20 to Watch Award in
02:23.158 --> 02:27.218
2026. She's the co-author of Relational Intelligence:
02:27.282 --> 02:31.521
The Key to Exceptional School Leadership and author of Principal's Journey: Navigating
02:31.553 --> 02:35.487
the Path to School Leadership. Her work emphasizes relational
02:35.987 --> 02:39.999
leadership, mentorship, educator wellbeing, and creating school cultures where
02:40.499 --> 02:43.962
students and educators can thrive. Thank you so much,
02:44.010 --> 02:47.376
Rachel, for joining us today. Great to be here. Thanks,
02:47.424 --> 02:51.415
Courtney. So can you just give us a little background on your journey
02:51.447 --> 02:54.172
in education and how you've gotten to where you are today?
02:55.053 --> 02:59.012
Yes. So I started my career as a kindergarten teacher, and I
02:59.204 --> 03:02.730
loved everything about that work, working with young students and
03:03.230 --> 03:06.801
helping to teach them how to read and write and do math, all those
03:06.833 --> 03:10.760
wonderful things, helping them discover new things and also welcoming their
03:11.260 --> 03:15.317
families into the That's something that I really valued and
03:15.430 --> 03:18.560
something that I've been able to do now in my current role as a
03:19.060 --> 03:23.168
school administrator. So I transitioned from kindergarten right into
03:23.200 --> 03:26.796
administration and to the assistant principalship. So I did that for
03:26.957 --> 03:30.296
4 years and now I'm entering into my 8th year as a principal.
03:30.344 --> 03:33.844
So I have now been an administrator longer than I've been
03:33.937 --> 03:37.794
a classroom teacher. I've hit year 21 and this is my 12th
03:38.294 --> 03:41.514
year at the school. Administration, but as I was telling with you earlier,
03:41.802 --> 03:45.506
I really love elementary school. And so I really don't want to get much further
03:45.971 --> 03:49.033
from where I am right now because it's really important for me to stay close
03:49.533 --> 03:53.073
to students. Yeah, those elementary kids have my heart
03:53.121 --> 03:55.494
too, so I completely understand that sentiment.
03:56.632 --> 04:00.224
And congratulations, 21 years is a milestone in education.
04:00.801 --> 04:04.568
Um, and it's crazy when you translate, when it transfers
04:05.068 --> 04:07.743
over to when you've been longer outside of the classroom than in.
04:08.352 --> 04:12.008
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. It's something that I remember thinking,
04:12.040 --> 04:16.098
oh my goodness, how can you stay like fresh and relevant being
04:16.194 --> 04:19.225
outside of the classroom longer? But it has really
04:19.241 --> 04:22.593
helped me to stay connected with teachers in, um,
04:22.705 --> 04:26.153
being in the classroom and being really close with our students. That helps
04:26.653 --> 04:29.809
to keep me relevant. And I sit in the PDs with everyone else.
04:30.082 --> 04:33.979
And that also helps me to understand what our teachers
04:34.011 --> 04:37.603
need and what's happening with the curriculum and things. So I still feel like I'm
04:38.103 --> 04:41.804
still fresh. Which is a good thing. Uh, and I also get
04:42.304 --> 04:46.308
to connect with other school leaders and, and learn from them as well. And my
04:46.500 --> 04:49.658
current role, I'm past president of the Maryland Association of Elementary
04:50.158 --> 04:53.650
School Principals, but for the past year I've served as president in that role.
04:53.730 --> 04:57.337
And that has given me a lot of time
04:57.837 --> 05:00.960
to get to know school leaders across our state and also across the country.
05:01.056 --> 05:04.262
So that's been a great learning experience as well. Yeah,
05:04.310 --> 05:08.221
that's amazing. You're bringing such a wide perspective to your educators that
05:08.721 --> 05:12.260
you're working with, which then trickles down to all of the students. Thank you.
05:13.973 --> 05:17.319
So I know your work highlights the importance of teacher development.
05:17.846 --> 05:21.542
How can our leaders balance accountability with building trust and professional
05:21.574 --> 05:25.205
growth among their staff? And this is a great question, and I
05:25.705 --> 05:29.562
think one that leaders are still grappling with, but I think ultimately
05:30.062 --> 05:33.500
we have to remember that everyone in our building is here to serve students
05:33.580 --> 05:37.461
and everyone is under a different journey. So we have teachers
05:37.494 --> 05:41.036
in the building who are brand new. We have teachers who are coming
05:41.470 --> 05:44.890
from second careers who may not have some
05:44.922 --> 05:48.551
of that pedagogy and background. And then we have veteran teachers in our
05:48.615 --> 05:51.955
building who may have been around for a long time, who have a lot of
05:51.987 --> 05:55.872
knowledge base. And so I think it's important to really differentiate the supports that
05:55.920 --> 05:59.148
we give to our teachers and staff. And that starts with getting to
05:59.648 --> 06:03.435
know people and getting to know what their strengths are and where their areas
06:03.483 --> 06:06.723
of needs are. And in my school, I like to think about how I can
06:06.755 --> 06:10.408
pair people together to really help with that accountability
06:10.440 --> 06:13.709
piece. So as a principal, I don't always want to be the
06:14.209 --> 06:18.420
first person criticizing or critiquing a teacher. I really love
06:18.612 --> 06:22.394
to have opportunities to have like peer mentors or teacher
06:22.538 --> 06:25.952
leaders who are already leading the work on their teams.
06:26.528 --> 06:30.150
I might cover their classroom so that they can go into another
06:30.650 --> 06:34.403
teacher's classroom. And observe and provide some level of feedback.
06:34.468 --> 06:38.756
I think that that's very, very helpful, especially as we're establishing relationships
06:39.256 --> 06:42.931
across the school. And yes, there are definitely times when we will need to
06:43.431 --> 06:46.208
have conversations that may be accountability-based,
06:46.673 --> 06:50.126
but at the same time, I think it's important for us, like one thing that
06:50.626 --> 06:53.884
I do as a school principal is I will meet teachers in their classrooms
06:54.382 --> 06:57.691
instead of always having them come up to the front office, because sometimes the front
06:58.191 --> 07:02.287
office can be intimidating to come to the principal's office. And so I find that
07:02.834 --> 07:06.581
having that equal playing field is really helpful for teachers as
07:06.678 --> 07:09.621
we are establishing relationships and also working on improvement.
07:11.710 --> 07:15.171
Yeah, I love how just humanizing it is. You're having your teachers build their
07:15.671 --> 07:18.536
network of support so they have their people to go to. And then when you
07:19.036 --> 07:22.299
need to be in that role of being the administrator or the evaluator, you can
07:22.395 --> 07:26.454
easily step into that, but hopefully they've heard some of it from a peer first.
07:26.744 --> 07:30.060
Yes. That's important. Yeah. And just meeting
07:30.092 --> 07:33.337
people where they are, it's so simple, but we have to be reminded of that
07:33.449 --> 07:35.842
constantly. Just check in.
07:36.757 --> 07:40.500
Checking in and everything does not always have to be about instruction,
07:41.078 --> 07:44.724
you know, checking in to see how someone's weekend was or what's happening
07:45.224 --> 07:48.450
with their family or their favorite pet or the TV shows. All those
07:48.482 --> 07:52.240
things are important to making people feel comfortable and valued
07:52.740 --> 07:55.629
and safe in our buildings. And that's really what we need. It's hard to be
07:56.129 --> 07:59.693
a teacher. It's hard to be an administrator right now. And so anything
07:59.709 --> 08:02.746
that we can do to help build a positive rapport, we should be doing it.
08:03.967 --> 08:07.036
Yeah. And that goes both ways. You know, the teachers, let's be
08:07.536 --> 08:10.795
human with our administrators and vice versa. Let's just have real
08:11.295 --> 08:15.037
conversations. Yes. The grace is definitely important. That's something that we've
08:15.069 --> 08:18.427
talked about a lot. I'll say to staff, I'm very far
08:18.927 --> 08:21.801
from perfect and I don't expect you all to think that I'm perfect because I'm
08:21.881 --> 08:25.204
going to fall short there. I'm gonna do my best. I'm gonna communicate
08:25.704 --> 08:29.006
with you. If I make a mistake, I will apologize. And I think that those
08:29.102 --> 08:32.135
are more of the conversations we need to have to kind of normalize,
08:32.792 --> 08:36.081
uh, when things don't go right, how can we respond and still be
08:36.097 --> 08:38.713
in a good place? Definitely.
08:40.189 --> 08:43.445
Based on your work in school leadership development, what are the most common
08:43.478 --> 08:47.039
misconceptions leaders have about what it takes to drive
08:47.152 --> 08:50.603
lasting school improvement? I think part of it is around
08:51.103 --> 08:55.020
that accountability piece. I know that there are some people who believe
08:55.520 --> 08:59.020
you have to, you know, be in a teacher's class every
08:59.052 --> 09:02.168
single day, staying on top of them. Yes, that,
09:02.265 --> 09:06.120
that can help, but I think it also creates, can create
09:06.360 --> 09:10.023
an environment of fear or intimidation, and that's not something
09:10.601 --> 09:14.279
that we want to do. I think there are multiple ways that we can use,
09:14.697 --> 09:17.939
utilize resources to help someone improve. I mean, I think about in
09:18.439 --> 09:21.961
my own life, when I am struggling with something, it doesn't make
09:22.461 --> 09:25.134
me feel better if someone's on my back about it all the time. Now,
09:25.198 --> 09:27.923
if they're giving me a resource and I have time to check, or I have
09:27.939 --> 09:31.192
time to talk with a peer or to ask for advice, that's different.
09:31.785 --> 09:35.022
And so I think we just need to humanize that process a little
09:35.070 --> 09:38.403
better and just say that we're here as supportive
09:38.499 --> 09:42.217
partners instead of making it sometimes feel intimidating for people.
09:44.047 --> 09:47.339
Yeah, and I think that's really important to let things breathe. Like if you just
09:47.839 --> 09:51.722
talk to someone about something needing to be adjusted or changed, how much time
09:51.995 --> 09:55.303
do we need to give them to implement and play around with it before
09:55.351 --> 09:58.787
we're back in the classroom checking on things? Agreed. Agreed.
09:59.301 --> 10:02.159
Yeah, and I know you know that in your coaching role. I'm sure you've given
10:02.512 --> 10:05.691
advice to people and give them time to process it and do it in,
10:05.948 --> 10:09.394
do it in action, then come back and see. Yeah, and it's easy
10:09.894 --> 10:12.999
to fall in that trap. We're so fast-paced. I feel like in education we're onto
10:13.032 --> 10:16.475
the next thing, but things take time. It takes time to make shifts,
10:16.604 --> 10:20.164
and if it's true change, people need time to play around
10:20.664 --> 10:23.288
with it and get comfortable. Agreed. Definitely.
10:25.166 --> 10:28.299
For leaders working in under-resourced or high-need schools,
10:28.412 --> 10:32.093
what strategies from your work have proven most effective in sustaining
10:32.125 --> 10:35.636
momentum and avoiding burnout while still driving meaningful
10:36.136 --> 10:39.221
change? I think a couple of things I know I can speak
10:39.721 --> 10:43.711
to just in terms of the sustainability piece. We are like a, we're not
10:44.211 --> 10:47.206
a Title I school. We're not a school that has a ton of resources.
10:47.254 --> 10:50.509
We're kind of right in the middle there. And so we have had
10:50.557 --> 10:54.646
to focus on community engagement to support
10:55.146 --> 10:58.125
some of the things that we want to do. Just one example, around the holidays
10:58.270 --> 11:01.477
time, we used to have like a major budget where we could buy all
11:01.589 --> 11:04.699
of these snacks and pies for staff.
11:04.780 --> 11:08.199
Staff, but we were not able to do that over the past year or two.
11:08.327 --> 11:11.955
And so we asked our community if they could just come together,
11:12.501 --> 11:15.873
put some baked goods. We made like lists in SignUpGenius and
11:16.033 --> 11:19.501
cookies and pies and cakes. And we ended up with
11:20.001 --> 11:23.129
this amazing cart for our staff just to
11:23.434 --> 11:26.645
get some holiday treats. Everyone had bags and they could take what
11:27.145 --> 11:30.578
they wanted home. And the best part was that the students were saying, I made
11:31.078 --> 11:33.596
those cookies, or I was with my mom and dad and we made those at
11:33.612 --> 11:37.270
home. Do you like them? So it really ended up being a nice
11:37.318 --> 11:41.008
community way to engage and to support our teachers
11:41.508 --> 11:43.976
in a different way. And so that's one of the things that I've had to
11:44.476 --> 11:47.506
think about is in the absence of a large budget, how can we
11:48.006 --> 11:50.602
get creative with how we're supporting teachers?
11:50.987 --> 11:54.966
Just, you know, from a standpoint of sort
11:55.030 --> 11:58.479
of the emotional social part of it,
11:58.495 --> 12:01.607
it's also around instruction. So we've
12:01.863 --> 12:05.774
tried to work with different tools to see if we can't
12:06.031 --> 12:09.476
get like physical tutors in this building, what tools can
12:09.976 --> 12:13.419
we use for math instruction? So we, um, used a
12:13.467 --> 12:17.538
program last year. We were able to utilize some school funds to give
12:17.715 --> 12:20.952
all of our students access to a mathematics program just
12:21.016 --> 12:24.094
on math facts. So we were just, we were targeting one skill,
12:24.286 --> 12:27.459
but it was across the building and we saw major improvements.
12:27.508 --> 12:31.213
So we're really trying to think about how can we use funds
12:31.341 --> 12:34.987
in different ways now that our budgets are really tight because the money
12:35.035 --> 12:38.312
hasn't really changed. We're just kind of shifting how we're using it.
12:39.613 --> 12:43.179
Yeah. A lot of creative problem solving around finances and education right
12:43.679 --> 12:47.081
now. Yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately, that's where we
12:47.242 --> 12:51.193
are. And I don't see that changing anytime soon. That's the value I
12:51.693 --> 12:55.594
think of going to conferences and speaking with people in your district or in
12:56.094 --> 12:59.614
other places, because you can really get some good ideas. For how you
13:00.114 --> 13:02.907
can make school work that's best in your community.
13:04.392 --> 13:07.378
Yeah, I think we're just gonna have to come at things from a totally different
13:07.878 --> 13:11.418
perspective and look at how to, you know, really guard our resources
13:11.450 --> 13:13.983
and use them well. Yeah.
13:15.832 --> 13:18.979
What advice might you give to a new administrator who's just starting out in this
13:19.092 --> 13:22.686
world? Ooh, this is a great question. What advice would
13:23.186 --> 13:26.523
I give? I always tell new leaders, don't try to do
13:26.701 --> 13:29.773
everything. That's something that I fell into
13:29.821 --> 13:32.729
a trap. So, I guess this answered your other question as well. Like, what are
13:33.229 --> 13:37.228
some misconceptions? I think that I came up trained to
13:37.678 --> 13:40.634
do everything and to really,
13:41.389 --> 13:44.554
you know, not have any boundaries and just to push, push, push.
13:45.389 --> 13:48.538
And what ended up happening was I almost pushed myself out of the job
13:49.038 --> 13:52.603
because I could not sustain myself. I was a new principal during
13:52.619 --> 13:56.135
the onset of COVID-19. And so, there was a lot
13:56.167 --> 13:59.136
going on and I really didn't know how to manage all of it. I just
13:59.636 --> 14:02.746
continued to take on more and more to the point where I wasn't able to
14:03.246 --> 14:07.287
do much of anything. And so, what I've learned to tell leaders is
14:08.105 --> 14:11.459
this is not a job where one person can do everything.
14:11.812 --> 14:15.069
That's not what this job was meant to look like. And it definitely
14:15.181 --> 14:18.599
is not something that's sustainable. So, you have to utilize
14:18.711 --> 14:22.145
the people in your buildings. You have to tap into the talent
14:22.645 --> 14:27.209
that's already here. We're surrounded by amazing teachers and staff. Who have talents
14:27.290 --> 14:30.524
and we need to utilize those talents and let
14:31.024 --> 14:34.583
everyone share their gifts with the school. And so I just
14:35.083 --> 14:38.368
encourage leaders to continue to find the gifts that everyone has and
14:38.465 --> 14:40.293
give them opportunities to use them.
14:42.135 --> 14:45.686
That's so beautifully put. Like, there are so many gifts in
14:46.186 --> 14:50.008
a building. Let's, you know, put our everything aside and really tap
14:50.508 --> 14:53.961
into those people. And people feel so honored. Too, when you ask them like,
14:54.442 --> 14:58.376
oh, can you run this activity or can you help us plan this event?
14:59.114 --> 15:02.470
Yes. And that's another thing was, as we're looking at
15:02.970 --> 15:06.210
different schedules for the coming school year, as we're looking at right
15:06.259 --> 15:09.999
now, you know, this time of year we're making adjustments. We're thinking about
15:10.015 --> 15:13.708
how can we maximize the human resources, the wonderful people
15:13.724 --> 15:17.288
that we have, and asking people that question, what do
15:17.320 --> 15:21.299
you like to do? And Figuring out ways that people can do more
15:21.411 --> 15:24.554
of it really helps people feel important
15:24.875 --> 15:28.884
and that their work is valuable in the school. Yeah, that's wonderful.
15:30.167 --> 15:33.983
Well, we're gonna shift into the rapid-fire portion. So in approximately 10
15:34.079 --> 15:35.955
seconds or less, no pressure,
15:36.966 --> 15:40.494
what's one strategy every administrator should have in their back
15:40.574 --> 15:43.925
pocket? Ooh, I have no
15:43.957 --> 15:47.569
idea. A strategy? I, I don't
15:48.069 --> 15:51.216
know. That's a hard one. A go-to move that you have that you pull
15:51.329 --> 15:54.767
out. A go-to move? I mean,
15:54.783 --> 15:58.126
it's not a move. I'm just gonna say every administrator should have multiple pairs of
15:58.174 --> 16:01.998
shoes in his or her office, period. They should definitely have multiple pairs of shoes
16:02.110 --> 16:05.629
cuz there's too many different things that happen in a day. I love it.
16:05.710 --> 16:08.923
And if my co-host Sandy was here, she would agree because we were at
16:09.423 --> 16:11.671
a training and her shoe broke the other day. Yes. So.
16:12.849 --> 16:15.007
Mm-hmm. Always have multiple pairs of shoes.
16:17.137 --> 16:20.421
And if you had about 60 seconds alone with a new administrator,
16:20.920 --> 16:23.077
what's something, a message you'd impart with them?
16:24.420 --> 16:28.171
I would say continue to find the joy in this work. There are so
16:28.235 --> 16:32.034
many challenges that happen on a daily basis, and we don't
16:32.534 --> 16:35.765
spend enough time talking about what we love about this job and what's
16:36.265 --> 16:39.669
going well. And so if we can find the points in our day
16:40.222 --> 16:43.966
to do more of what we love with students and with our staff and families,
16:44.078 --> 16:48.143
then that can really help to change how we view our jobs.
16:48.657 --> 16:51.960
And so I would say find the joy in your work and keep
16:52.460 --> 16:56.041
showing up every day. I love it. And I love your positivity
16:56.460 --> 16:59.590
around all of this, and I really appreciate you taking time out
17:00.090 --> 17:03.205
of your busy day to join us. Thank you for having me. It's been a
17:03.705 --> 17:07.352
fun conversation. Rachel offers such wonderful advice for
17:07.852 --> 17:09.783
our leaders. My favorite was, what are the gifts within your building and how might
17:10.283 --> 17:14.047
you leverage leverage them. Thanks for listening
17:14.080 --> 17:17.403
to another episode of C3. Be sure to follow us on social media.
17:21.690 --> 17:25.483
C3, connecting coaches' cognition.
17:26.183 --> 17:27.893
Whose thinking will you mediate today?