As a school leader, when is it best to make “top-down” decisions, and when should you make it a collaborative process?

How can you tell which stakeholder input to prioritize?

What’s the best way to communicate with your staff in a way that feels transparent, but doesn’t burden them with too much information?

How can you make decisions confidently when you’re supervising staff in positions you’ve never held yourself?

I invited Dr. Jen Schwanke to episode 170 of the De Facto Leaders podcast to discuss these questions.

Dr. Jen Schwanke is a longtime educator, teaching and leading at all levels. She is the author of four ASCD books, including the recently-released The Principal’s Guide to Conflict Management, and has published hundreds of articles for various educational publishers. She has written and presented for multiple state and local education organizations, and has provided professional development to various districts in the areas of school climate, personnel, and instructional leadership. An instructor in educational administration at Miami University of Ohio and The Ohio State University, Dr. Schwanke currently serves as a Deputy Superintendent in Ohio. You can find her at jenschwanke.com.

In this conversation, we discuss:

✅Getting to the “root cause” of pain points: How can you tell what people really need from you?

✅Being decisive vs. being collaborative: The different types of decisions leaders need to make and the strategies for handling them

✅When should we use our own expertise to solve problems, and when should we leverage the expertise of others?

✅Shaking things up vs. maintaining the status quo: How this changes the way you lead

You can connect with Dr. Schwanke at her website at jenschwanke.com, on X @jenschwanke (http://jenschwanke.com), and on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/drjenschwanke/

In this episode, I mention the School of Clinical Leadership, my program that helps related service providers develop a strategic plan for putting executive functioning support in place in collaboration with their school teams.

You can learn more about that program here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership

We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL and MyFlexLearning.

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you simplify and streamline technology, reliably meet Tier 1 standards, improve assessment performance, and more. Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

MyFlexLearning is the scheduling platform that helps middle and high schools meet the individual needs of all students. Create and manage time for flex blocks, WIN time, activity periods, RTI, counselor and teacher appointments and much more. And with a built-in accountability tool and reporting features, solve your challenges around getting kids where they need to be and understanding how flex time is spent. Make your flex time work for you. Visit myflexlearning.com/BE to learn more and receive $500 off the first year.