Effective school leadership strategies are tested in May as the emotional reality inside buildings begins to shift. This episode explores how to support staff and address burnout by moving away from "fixing" problems and toward creating clarity in the moments that matter most.

As the school year winds down, leaders often feel the pressure to have all the answers for a struggling staff. However, moving too quickly to solutions can unintentionally strip teachers of their ownership and thinking space. We discuss how to identify the small leverage points in instruction and behavior that can shift the dynamic of a classroom in a single period.

Key Takeaways:

• Why the phrase "Have you tried?" can accidentally create a defensive checklist for teachers.
• How to shift hallway conversations from emotional venting to specific, observable moments.
• The importance of removing "friction" rather than adding more advice or overhaul.
• Techniques to help teachers regain a sense of control over their instruction through small adjustments.

This episode is for school principals, district leaders, and department heads looking to lead with intentionality during the most demanding time of the year.

If this conversation helped you find clarity today, please share it with a colleague who might need a "morning boost."

Sponsored by:

Grundmeyer Leader Services – www.grundmeyerleadersearch.com

AWB Education and Media – www.awbeducation.org

ForwardEd Network – www.forwardednetwork.com

This is YOUR MORNING boost, recorded in the Forward Ed Network studios, a weekly spark for educators and school leaders ready to lead, teach, and live with greater intention. This is YOUR morning Boost.

Good morning. Welcome back to YOUR morning boost here on the Forward Ed Network. I'm so glad you're here with us today.

And before we go anywhere today, just take, take a second and settle in. Not in a heavy, reflective way, just a human way. Let your shoulders drop, let your breath slow down a little.

Because we are moving deeper into May now and schools. That usually means the calendar is still technically running at full speed, but the emotional reality inside buildings, it's starting to shift.

There are still lessons happening, still grading, still meetings, still end of the year events, and are building up in the background. But there's also something else happening underneath all of that. Teachers are feeling the weight of the school year.

Students are feeling the change in rhythm, and leaders, we're feeling the pressure of trying to keep everything steady while the system starts to loosen up at the edges. And that creates a very specific kind of leadership moment.

It is less about formal meetings and more about the in between moments, hallway conversations, doorway questions, quick check ins between responsibilities. Those small, unscheduled moments where a teacher catches you and says something like, do you have a second?

And what usually follows is not a logistical question. It's almost always something instructional, something behavioral, something that feels like it is not working the way it used to.

A class that feels harder to reach, a routine that is slipping, a group of students that seems more disengaged than they were just a few weeks ago. And at all of those moments, leaders feel a very natural pull. We want to help, we want to fix it.

We want to say something that immediately makes it better. Because that's what leadership often feels like and feels like it should be in real time. But here's where something important happens this season.

When we move too quickly to solutions, we can unintentionally take something away from the teacher that's in front of us. We take away the thinking space. We take away the ownership of the problem.

And without meaning to, we shift the dynamic from coaching to fixing over time. That creates a pattern where teachers stop thinking through the problem themselves and start waiting for the next answer.

Not because they're incapable or because they're lazy, but because the structure of the conversation has trained them to do that. So what I want to focus on today is not how leaders become better at giving advice.

It's how leaders become more intentional in those hallway conversations so that teachers leave with clarity and direction, not just relief.

Because there's a real difference between someone feeling heard in a moment and someone walking away with something that they can actually try in their next class period. And in May, that difference matters more than it usually does. Foreign. This segment of your Morning Boost is sponsored by Grundmire leader services.

They believe that great schools start with great leaders, and they are here to help you find a perfect fit for your district, transform your school's future with the right leader of the helm. Visit grunmireleadersearch.com to learn more.

Transforming Education One Leader at a Time One of the most common habits in these conversations is something simple but powerful. It is the phrase have you tried. Have you tried changing the seating chart? Have you tried calling home? Have you tried proximity?

Have you tried resetting expectations? On the surface, it sounds supportive. It sounds practical. It sounds like experience that's being shared.

But when a teacher is already overwhelmed, that phrase often lands differently than we intended it to. It can quietly feel like a checklist of things that they have failed to solve already, even if that's not the intention at all.

And what often happens next is that the conversation becomes defensive or abstract instead of practical.

The teacher explains why they have tried this, or what they have tried, or why things are different with this group, or why those strategies don't work within this context. And just like that, the conversation shifts away from the real opportunity.

So instead of moving into advice, what strong leaders can do in these moments is slow the conversation down just enough to create clarity first. Not global clarity about the whole class, but specific clarity about the moment where things are breaking down.

So instead of asking what has been tried, the conversation shifts towards understanding what actually happened. What did the moment look like when the lesson started to shift? What were students doing right before the energy changed?

What was the first visible sign that things were slipping?

It's a small shift, but it changes everything because it moves the teacher from a global, emotional experience of this class is not working into a specific, observable moment. And once something becomes observable, it becomes coachable.

We don't know those things until we have an opportunity to really get to the heart of that conversation. But then that conversation is no longer about fixing everything. It becomes identifying one small leverage point. Maybe it's the entry routine.

Maybe it's the transition between activities, or how how directions are delivered. Maybe it's how students are released into Independent work. The point here is not to overhaul instruction, especially during a hallway conversation.

The point is to identify one small adjustment that could shift the dynamic in the next lesson and in May. That kind of precision matters because there's not enough bandwidth for reinvention. There's only enough bandwidth for refinement.

There's another layer to these conversations that shows up just as often, and it's the venting moment, right? Teacher comes in, sits down, talks through a situation that feels frustrating or draining or even unsustainable.

And the leadership instinct in those moments is to. Well, it's to often validate it quickly, to acknowledge the frustration, to agree that it's hard to show understanding, and that is important.

Teachers need to feel heard. But there's a subtle risk when validation becomes agreeable agreement that nothing can change.

If the conversation ends at this group is just like this, or there's nothing else I can really do, then we've validated the emotion. But unintentionally, we've also limited the possibility. Once that happens, the conversation stops about instruction, and it becomes about endurance.

Strong leaders navigate this differently. They acknowledge what is real, the frustration, the fatigue, the effort it has taken to get to this point.

But they do not allow that to become the final conclusion of the conversation. Instead, they gently move back towards what is still within influence. Not a forced or motivational way, but in a grounded, professional way.

There is usually something, something small that can shift a clearer expectation, a tighter routine, maybe a more intentional entry to the lesson, or structured transitions. All of those small adjustments matter more than they look like they should, and especially when things feel really, really big.

But one of the most important leadership truths in May is teachers don't necessarily need more advice. They just need fewer barriers between them and the effective practice that they're really, really good at.

It's not a different kind of support, and it's not about adding more answers. It's about removing unnecessary friction.

Friction like overly broad suggestions or conversations that end without any sort of a direction in problems they'll feel too big to act upon if we let them go down that road. And when friction decreases, clarity increases. And when clarity increases, teachers regain a sense of control over their instruction.

That sense of control is often what determines whether the next class period feels like another struggle or. Or a chance to reset.

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Most teachers in this season are not looking for a complete overhaul of their classroom in a five minute conversation. They are looking for something that they can actually try next period. Something small enough to feel doable, but specific enough to matter.

So the role of leadership in these moments is not to not to impress them with our expertise. It's to help narrow down the focus until one next move becomes visible.

When teachers start to see their own practice in smaller, more actionable pieces, something important really shifts. They begin to think differently about their instruction. They begin to identify patterns instead of just labeling entire days or entire class periods.

They begin to experiment with small adjustments instead of waiting for some large solution to come from above. And over time, this is what builds capacity in a school.

Not perfect classrooms, not perfect systems, but more educators who feel capable of responding to challenges in real time. As we close today, I want to bring this back to the leadership reality of May. This is a season where everything feels slightly accelerated.

The schedule is full, the expectations are still there, the energy is shifting, and people are carrying a lot all at once. And in that environment, leadership tone matters more than it usually does. Not because leaders need to have all of the answers.

That is never going to be the truth, but because the way leaders communicate either adds pressure or it creates clarity. And clarity is what people are running low on right now.

So as you move through your building or your conversations, maybe even your final meetings of the week, the most important question is not how many problems you can solve in real time. It is whether the person you are speaking with walks away more capable of thinking through the next step than they were when they arrived.

They're more clear, they're more grounded, they're more able to act. That is the real work of leadership in the season that we are in. It is not fixing everything.

It is helping people see what is still within their influence. Thanks for being part of the work. Thank you for spending your time with us here on your morning boost from AWB Education.

We appreciate everything that you do for your students and your community. Thank you for doing a job that is really hard and only a few are qualified enough to do it. Thank you for being one of the few.

We'll be back again with you as we talk with you again next week.

That's your morning boost from AWB Education and Media. If this episode helped you reset your thinking or take your next step forward, share it with a colleague.

And don't forget to subscribe so your next boost is ready when you need it. Keep showing up with intention, keep moving forward and we'll see you next time.