josiahpledl.com - Purpose Driven Insight and Ideas

12Dec

By Josiah PledlNo Comments

Growth Mindset-A Blessing or a Curse?

As I have shifted careers, I joined a company with a growth mindset as one of its core values. This company is different from other places I have worked in that the core values are fundamental and mean something. They are practices that the organization hires and fires employees over. The core values are more than a sign in the lobby of the building. They are tangible and fundamental values that you are measured up against daily. "All change doesn't create improvment, but all improvement requires change." In this new culture, I have reflected on my mindset. I have always had a growth mindset and am committed to growing and learning. I am constantly reading or listening to podcasts to learn. Learning is embraced in my current job, and the organization presents me with many opportun...

You Have Been Lied To-Sweat the Small Stuff!

16Nov

By Josiah Pledl1 Comment

You Have Been Lied To-Sweat the Small Stuff!

In the late 90s, there was a popular book that told you to not sweat the small stuff. When it comes to leadership or self help the path to tremendous results includes sweating the small stuff. If you are looking to improve results or yourself there is only one way to drive improvement and growth. The secret to success is to repeatedly do ordinary things that ultimately produce extraordinary results. Discipline is what produces results! Defining discipline and what it really means is challenging. Discipline is doing what you said you were going to do long after the feeling you had when you committed to this task has gone away. In life, it is common to get excited and dive into something when following somebody else’s enthusiasm and passion. It is when that feeling of enthusiasm and passion ...

The Power and the Influence of Love in Leadership

13Nov

By Josiah PledlNo Comments

The Power and the Influence of Love in Leadership

I was talking with a colleague at work and he told me he heard this saying that people will follow fear but they will die for love. We talked about the simplicity and power in that statement, and that statement has captivated my attention and focus in relation to leading others. The more interesting piece is that my colleague told me that it was a Navy SEAL that made the statement. This statement was made by an elite warrior. The Navy SEALS are some of the toughest, most aggressive, and most violent warriors on this planet and this guy is talking about the power of love in relationship to leadership. I needed to learn more! I am fortunate to have grown up with a friend that went on to serve as a Navy SEAL for a number of years. His name is Shane and I often talk to him about leadership ...

Why I Made a Career Change and the Future of this Site

11Nov

By Josiah Pledl2 Comments

Why I Made a Career Change and the Future of this Site

As an educator, I always avoided the teacher’s lounge. The teacher’s lounge was far too negative for me and it was often used as a place to vent. I stopped in the teacher's lounge to grab a snack I heard a teacher make this comment. “I am so sick of getting gaslit by twelve-year-olds.” I grabbed my snack and moved on quickly. Then I reflected on this statement. Since the dawn of education, there has been these type of incidents. A teacher asks a kid why they threw a pencil and the kid denies throwing the pencil. This is not gaslighting this is a kid being a child. This simple experience drove me to reflect on my career as an educator. This was a microcosm of the societal issues that are penetrating schools across the country. I had to make a change. I have recently transitioned fr...

21Jul

By Josiah Pledl2 Comments

Bucks in Six….World Champions

The city of Milwaukee holds a special place in my heart. As a kid growing up in Milwaukee we would travel to other places, and the one thing that sticks out in my mind when we would return home would be the smell when you arrived in Milwaukee. The city would often times stink but it was a unique stench. The smell was made up by a blue-collar city that was producing beer, loading up animals at the stock yards, Jones Island and many other manufacturing facilities. The city often receives criticism for that stench but to me that smell meant home. The Milwaukee Bucks also hold a special place in my heart. I remember going to watch the Bucks in the Mecca arena with my grandpa as a young child. The Bradley Center was built when I was nine years old. There were many years of my life wher...

Listening for what Matters…. Deciphering Between Noise and Validity as a Leader

13Jul

By Josiah Pledl2 Comments

Listening for what Matters…. Deciphering Between Noise and Validity as a Leader

As I reflect on my first year as a building principal, I am grateful for the effort of our staff and our students. What a year the 2020-2021 school year was, and I am grateful that it is behind us. There were many key lessons learned and many experiences that pushed me to grow as an educator and a leader. Our staff worked tirelessly to provide our students with authentic learning experiences through virtual learning, hybrid learning and in person learning with concurrent instruction for virtual students. We were able to navigate these challenges with a key mantra of working together collegially and collaboratively to provide our students with engaging and meaningful learning opportunities. It seemed at every turn we did not know what the next day would bring or where we would be at in the ...

Trust: The Most Vital Piece of Building a High Performing Team

8Mar

By Josiah PledlNo Comments

Trust: The Most Vital Piece of Building a High Performing Team

As I began my journey as a new principal this past year there were many things that were on my radar as essential pieces to leading a team. We were starting off the year in a virtual environment and there were natural barriers to building trust with a new team in the virtual world. Trust is the most important piece of leadership with a team because out of trust comes the confidence to take on challenges, collaborate to overcome challenges and the common desire to achieve results. In any line of work, you and an organization are only as strong as the relationships that make up the organization, and trust is the bedrock of any healthy relationship. I began to research what trust means and as usual I migrated to my resources around leadership and the plethora of content out there on leadershi...

Unleashing the Power of Distributed Leadership

31Aug

By Josiah PledlNo Comments

Unleashing the Power of Distributed Leadership

We are preparing for our journey through the start of the school year during a pandemic. Staff have been back for two weeks, and I officially began my role as a new principal. There have been numerous typical leadership responsibilities, but there are also unique responsibilities that have come through leading during a pandemic. As a staff we have covered expectations for teachers, students and support staff during our virtual start. We have begun our journey around social justice and equity, and we have covered the standard operational expectations to starting the year virtually. It has been a good two weeks and as a new principal there have been some points where I have been overwhelmed and anxious. The feelings of anxiety have been normal and healthy as we approach the start of the year...

Viewing Students Through an Asset-Based Lens

3Aug

By Josiah PledlNo Comments

Viewing Students Through an Asset-Based Lens

Last week I participated in a professional development session that focused on viewing all students through an asset-based lens. It is evident that viewing students through an asset-based lens allows teachers to maximize the potential of all learners. The idea of the self-fulfilling prophecy transfers to teachers, and if a teacher views a student through a deficit-based lens it is guaranteed the student will start viewing their self in the same way. As a group we agreed that this was important, but we started our discussion around why this is challenging. Every teacher can think about that one kid that gave them a run for their money every day. The one kid that never follows the rules, never completes work and most importantly never misses school. In my first year as a dean of stu...

How to Eat an Elephant-Balancing the Priorities of Leadership as a New Principal

14Jul

By Josiah Pledl1 Comment

How to Eat an Elephant-Balancing the Priorities of Leadership as a New Principal

Today I participated in a visioning meeting with our school leadership team and the district leadership team. It was an invigorating experience as we worked through the agenda with an icebreaker, writing our personal mission statement for the school and talking through some other things related to the district and our building. Everything was going well and I was feeling excited and optimistic. My brain was moving at a rapid pace and I felt comfortable with the work that we would be doing together for our students. Then we moved to a SWOT analysis around our building. This was intense and very healthy. Everyone was open and honest with what they were sharing in each of the categories. I appreciated the discussion, and I was completely engaged in each of the four categories. The discussi...