Andrew McPeak and co -hosting this here podcast along with me is the incomparable Gina Watts Thank You Andrew. It's so great to be here with you. It's our very first episode. Yes It's been a long time coming and a lot of work, but we couldn't be more excited to be here, right? I totally totally agree. So I want to kick us off actually by the way in a way that we're gonna try and kick off every episode but I want to start by giving everybody a chance to tell us why they're here right now, by us sharing why we're here right now. My guess and my hope is that we're all here for the same reason. So here it is. If you believe that school should be more than just essays and GPAs, if you believe that EQs are as important as IQs, and if you expect amazing things from the next generation, then you are in the right place because we believe all of that too. Yes, that's why we are calling this podcast School on a Mission. Andrew, you and I have spent so much time in and around schools, and we've met so many amazing educators who have inspired us to do this. In fact, we think of this as a podcast for school leaders by school leaders. Our mission is to support, encourage, and connect educators who are on a mission to others who are doing the same thing. This isn't just a podcast. It's a community of amazing educational leaders who are on mission together. Absolutely. Absolutely. We cannot wait actually to get people connected together. So, Gina, I think we need to kick off this podcast by doing something I think we're not going to make a habit of, which is talking about ourselves. Exactly. We don't like to do that. No. But obviously people are here. This is episode number one. So we've got to answer the question, who are these two crazy people that people are going to be hearing on this? podcast. So they're wondering who we are. I think it's time we filled them in. Yeah, sure. I'm excited. I mean, they might regret getting to know us, but it'll be it'll be fine. It'll be fine. It's possible. It's possible. But we got to start somewhere. So friends, let me start. I'm going to introduce you to my friend, Gina Watts, and then give her a chance to say a few things about why she's here. If you don't know Gina Watts, you need to. Gina is a dynamic leader with a profound legacy of driving impactful change. She has graduate degrees in public administration and social work, and she has harnessed over a decade of higher education experience and over 15 years of strategic management and consulting. Gina's prowess in relationship building extends from local all the way to international spheres, and her impactful career spans from instruction and career services coordination to spearheading community -focused initiatives and development programs. And she has been recognized through numerous accolades, making her an influential and widely respected force in education and community leadership. Gina, those are the accolades, right? All the stuff that you've done, but I actually want people to get to know the real you too. They're going to do that throughout the course of the season, I'm sure. I was about to say, who is that that you just read about? Because I don't know. don't know who that is. Well, she is an incredible person. But I mean, I could read all of this. It's great to know you on paper, but I want to ask you the question and give you a chance to answer. What is it that brings you here? This is School on a Mission podcast. What is your mission? What's the mission that drives you? You know, it's really deeply personal. And I think that over the course of these episodes, folks are going to hear some really personal stories from me about that, about that, why it's so personal. You my mom's an educator. My mom's an educator. She taught for decades. My brother's an educator and I said I would never Become an educator. Of course you did and then I to say those kinds of exactly and then it happened and So education is deeply a part of our family and it's Where we're rooted and so This is really important to me and it's really personal. It's awesome. Yeah, it's awesome Yeah, thanks for being here. Yeah. Thanks for having me So Andrew, it's your turn My friend, Andrew McPhee, he is a remarkable leader. And I don't say that lightly. I deeply am moved by knowing and having relationship with Andrew. He is a wonderful communicator, a next -gen researcher, and a multi -time author. Don't let me forget to have you sign your book, too, again, before. before I leave. He has spoken on hundreds of stages to tens of thousands of leaders in almost every industry. Andrew also serves as the vice president of content and training here at Growing Leaders, and he leads our content strategy. And I believe that there is so much more to know about Andrew. And if you join us on this on this journey, you are going to get to know him even better and understand why I hold him in such high regard. So Andrew. Tell me why you're here. Yeah. For me, the journey began even while I was still in college, in school. I was one of those nerd kids that loved school. Yeah. Was excited to go every day. But I also started to develop a passion to understand what it is that makes some teachers and leaders more effective than others when it comes to reaching the next generation. That was kind of the driving passion. So I got into generations and all of this stuff. But along the way, and especially once I started working with Growing Leaders, I've been speaking and leading teachers for more than a decade at this point. But especially once I got started to work with Growing Leaders and got into schools on a regular basis, what I saw was that these folks are sort of, in my view, because of how much I believe in developing the next generation, they're sort of the pinnacle of our society. Like this is the... cornerstone upon which everything else is built because if Education doesn't work then our futures in a lot of trouble, you know And not only that we even though they have the most important job in the world Educators are often kind of pushed to the back and thought about last and so I have just over More than a decade of working with teachers just developed this profound respect for the profession and what they do every single day I always tell people when I'm coming into a school and leading a five -hour training. like, this looks like a lot of work, but you guys do far more work than I do. You have the harder jobs. And so for me, that's the heart behind this podcast for me is I believe in schools, I believe in educators. And if we can do even a small job of helping make that profession better, easier, more well -connected, more passionate, whatever the term might be, then I'm all in for it. That's what gets me up every day. That's why I'm so excited. to be here on the School on a Mission podcast. love it. I love it. Thanks for sharing that with us. Absolutely. Yeah. So, Andrew, let's get everyone, you know, let's get into what everyone can expect from the School on a Mission podcast. You know, starting with our podcast structure, this will be a seasonal podcast, meaning that episodes of this show will come in waves. Absolutely, yeah. So each season... will actually follow the school semester. So if you're an educator out there, that's going to be very familiar to you. That means for season one, which you're listening to right now, we're going to drop a weekly episode starting now in August, and we're going to go through November. We'll pick up, back up with season two in January and go through the spring semester with that. And each season, while having the same mission, we'll have a different theme. We will do our best to pick themes that address the hottest topics in educational leadership. This season, we felt like it was appropriate to start with a theme that is near and dear to our hearts and indicative of why we wanted to start this podcast in the first place. Our theme for this season is Beyond the Classroom. Love that. So to us, Beyond the Classroom is all about what schools are doing to go above and beyond what might be considered traditional education. So this season, we're not talking about reading or writing or math or science. We're talking about after school programs, creative classroom techniques, engagement with the community around the school. And here's what I love so much about the way we are going to approach this theme and all of our themes. We aren't just going to tell you what you could do. We are going to show you what other educators are already doing. We are going to introduce you to remarkable educational leaders who are pushing the boundaries of what schools can do to positively impact their students. And you are really going to love these people. I know we do. So speaking of remarkable leaders, our special guest for our first ever episode of School on a Mission is a person who I expect many of you listening will be familiar with. He is the founder of Growing Leaders himself, Dr. Tim Elmore. Tim, we are so excited to have you here with us today. Thanks for joining. It's great. It's always fun to hang out with people you love. Well, the feeling is mutual, my friend. We love you, Tim. Thank you, Gina. Vice versa. Andrew, you know, in the past when we did Lead to the Next Generation podcast, the phrase that you were made fun of was saying, I love that. Yes. So I'm trying to hold myself back and not just say that all the time now. I'm growing beyond. That's good. Well, Tim, we're going to start off each episode with a question. that Andrew and I are going to answer to help listeners learn a little bit more about us. And we want to include you in on this. Tim, Andrew, are you ready? I'm ready. I'm ready. All right. So if you could be an expert in any field overnight, what would it be? If you could be an expert in any field overnight, what would it be? Tim, you have an answer? I'd like you to lead off, Andrew. Well, I think my nerdiness is going to show because when you asked that question, my first thought was, I want to be an anthropologist. Is that nerdy? That's pretty nerdy. It is. I want to go somewhere and study some people group and write about them and all that. That sounds awesome to me. Gina's laughing at me right now. I'm the practical one. OK. I want to be an expert in parenting. I just want Tim to tell me what to do with my children. And then I'll be fine. What about you, Tim? I think both of you, my answer to that would be similar to Andrew's. I would want to be an expert in social science. So much of succeeding in life is understanding human behavior and not just individuals, but group think, how it happens, how we influence each other. So I'm clearly a love, I have a love for leadership development. And I feel like that just informs how I would lead other people. Awesome. I love it. I'm not at all surprised by Tim's answer. Tim, you mentioned leadership development and sociology. You're actually known for those things already. In fact, I consider you to be an expert in leadership. And I know both Gina and I look to you as a mentor and a guide in this area. You're especially adept at how to apply leadership principles, especially in the face of very challenging situations. You wrote some incredible stuff through the pandemic. You've written incredible stuff to struggling parents and teachers and leaders of all kinds. So we want to start off our first episode by really trying to glean some wisdom from you, particularly on the topic of how schools better engage and even lead in their communities. So obviously, leader development needs to happen with students. It needs to happen with staff and faculty. but it also needs to happen with the community. I think schools should be the heart of the community and often that gets lost. So that's really what we want to talk about today. And I'm going to jump in, Tim. So I want to ask you a few questions. know, many of our listeners will have followed you for years. And while others may not know much about your history or your work, could you introduce yourself and give us some more information about why you started? growing leaders? Yeah, well the beginning of growing leaders was really not a revolution, it was an evolution. I began in 1979 while I was still finishing my degree teaching students. In fact, it was my sophomore year that I started my master's work and became a grad assistant and started teaching undergrads who are one year younger than me. It should have happened but it did. At the same time I became a part -time youth pastor at a little church because I just love kids I was I was a kid but I love students and along the course of the next two three four years I Realized I wanted my whole career to be about the next generation whoever that was and of course at that time It was the baby boomers way back over 40 years ago Then the Gen Xers came through and then the Millennials and now Gen Z and then Gen Alpha Fast forward to 1983, I started on staff in 1983 with John Maxwell. And very quickly, my love of students joined a love of leadership development. It's all the paramount importance of leader development early on. In fact, Andrew, you know, we've set a statement around growing leaders for years and years. Leadership matters and it matters disproportionately, maybe more than almost anything else. So I thought if I could grab young people who are still multiple and form timeless leadership principles inside of them, what could happen to the world where instead of learning them at 45 and we just have 40 more years left, what if we learned it at 15 and we got tons of years left? So what if it was all about that? John Maxwell has been very influential in my life as he has been both of you. And so love the journey. In 2003, we started this nonprofit. hoping in my family anyway that we could put food on the table. And it just began to take off. I don't think because we were just so brilliant, but it was such a great need. And schools just came to us saying, help us teach and connect with students, help us know what timeless things we need to say outside of reading, writing, arithmetic. So that's kind of been the journey and it's been a joy. Every year has been a joy. It's just been marvelous to take this journey and now realize We've reached millions, not just thousands. So, fun times. 20 years later, we now have impacted millions of kids, which is just incredible. Tim, I know one of the things that became a focal point for growing leaders over the years was the world of education. Obviously, if you're trying to impact students, that's where they are, right? For eight hours a day. So, as you've gotten to know more and more about the world of education, spent more time working, you know, weekly basis with educators and leaders all over the world. What are some of the biggest challenges you see that education is facing today? And how can educators and school leaders kind of overcome some of those challenges? What are some of the big things they've got to face? great question. I think when I think of the challenges that would be facing obviously administrators and teachers, but students themselves, parents in the community. The two words that come to my mind are the word anxiety and agency and I think those two things exist in all of the parties I just mentioned the administrators have reported even higher levels of stress than Teachers do and we know the teachers are already kind of stressed out with the load they carry so Anxiety can feel like disengagement to an educator. In other words when kids are anxious It's very hard to engage them in the classroom. So everything that was happening maybe at an accelerated pace in the past has been slowed down because we're just trying to make sure the kids are mentally healthy. Agency can feel like disrespect. Think about students in a classroom when they have a great high sense of agency because they hold a smartphone in their hand and they don't need us for information. It can feel like they don't respect the teacher, they don't respect the principal. And I feel like Andrew and Gina, we've heard from so many administrators around the country, I feel like nobody's really has a high level of respect. Parents are intruding in the school, taking their child out if they want to and not talking to the front office. It feels like disrespect. So we need to find a way to handle the high sense of agency, the empowerment that parents, teachers, and kids have, and then the anxiety. If we can tackle those two, think it's gonna be, things are gonna move much more fluidly in the work that we do as school leaders. Tim, that was so good. know, I, yeah, I love how you phrase that. Anxiety and agency. I'm sure I'm gonna come back to that later. You we've all heard, you mentioned John earlier, and we've heard his phrase, everything rises and falls on leadership. And that is, of course, very true in schools too. From your experience, what are some common characteristics that make for remarkable school leaders? and how can aspiring leaders develop these? Yeah, good. This is good. Well, I think we need to acknowledge right away that certainly everyone following us need clear vision, simple strategy, and good communication. Those are the fundamentals of good leadership. But I think in today's world where it's harder to lead people than it was when I began my career, topping it all off is the whole issue of social and emotional intelligence. I have come to believe that the higher you go in any organization, the more you need to be emotionally intelligent. It matters even more. If you're at the bottom end of the total to pull whatever that looks like where you are, whatever industry you're in, you may not need it as much. You ought to have it, but you may not need it as much. I think the higher you go, superintendents, principals, APs, we just have to be good with people, reading our people before we're leading our people. reading ourselves and we talk about this all the time, managing our own emotions. So I did a book a couple of years ago that I think would be my answer to this question most clearly. The book was Eight Paradoxes of Great Leadership. Almost all of those eight paradoxes I put in that book are about emotional intelligence. But the paradoxes are that leaders today need to balance two qualities that may seem oxymoronic, like they shouldn't go together. I think the best leaders are both confident and humble. I think the best leaders are both visible at the right times and invisible at the right times. And they read what they've got to do there. I think the best leaders I know, I can't say this without smiling, are both stubborn and open -minded. I remember talking to Dan Cathy at Chick -fil -A about his father, Truett Cathy, who started Chick -fil -A. He said something that was so profound. He said, Tim, My dad was the most stubborn man I've ever met and the most open -minded man I've ever met. And I thought that is brilliant. So I think if school leaders can manage the balance of these paradoxes that I happen to put in that book and realize it's really about reading the situation I'm in. So all of us need timeless principles to lead by, but we also need timely paradoxes to interact by. with our people. That's what I think makes extraordinary leaders. Amazing. You can see listeners why we describe Tim as wise because he keeps dropping truth bombs on us. Love this. Sadly, we only have one question left for you, Tim, because I know you got to move on to other things and we got to move to a close for this podcast, too. But I'd love for you to talk to us just about the future. I know you think about the future a whole lot. based on your expertise, the experience, the things you're reading and diving into, what do you envision as the future of education? How are things going to change? What things are going to become priorities? And how can educators prepare for that? Wow, yes. Well, everybody listening would agree and does not need Tim Elmore to say this, but let me start with the obvious. We cannot continue to do what we've done in the past and hope to succeed in the future. You know, the teacher up front who is this Sage on the stage with the information. Schoolhouses used to be the brokers of all information and that is just not true anymore. Kids don't need us for information. So I think the future of education is exchange, not download. Meaning, I think teachers are gonna need to be in a classroom knowing that it's both listening and coaching. It's an exchange. And I think Generation Z and even more so Generation Alpha, the younger children behind Gen Z, are going to want to upload their own thoughts. And that's part of the learning process. Haven't we all said for years and years, you never learn something so much as when you have to teach it. I think teachers are going to need to let the students help teach the lesson, meaning they prepared and they come in ready and they do this. So listeners, I want you to think about that word exchange. How could our school be more of an exchange with the learners. And we are teachers and learners along the way. That means it's gonna have to be more holistic, involving everyone in the students' lives, parents, the community, businesses. I know we all dream of this and nobody's ever been able to do it very well, but I think we need to say all of us, it takes a village, are raising these children, these teenagers. And if we could come together with an agreed upon plan, what could we do? You know, Jonathan Haidt right now is a great example of this, isn't he? He's written this book, The Anxious Generation, and he's beckoning parents, teachers, principals to get in line with these four big ideas, know? No phones in schools, no phones to the children before 13, no social media before 16. I'm telling you, if we could collectively get together on a plan that are counties and our communities agree on, it could be powerful. So I guess that's a long answer to short question. I think we need to be thinking, what's the exchange we need to make? And do we engage the students better when we're not just downloading information from a lesson plan, but we're allowing them to be part of the teaching learning process? So good. So good. Tim, you're just a joy. You're so incredible. Thank you for... sharing your wisdom with us today. And I'm sure that our audience, as well as Andrew and I, have just been transformed by what you've shared, whether it's been helpful reminders or little nuggets that you never thought of before. We just thank you. We thank you for this space and this time. Well, it's always an honor to hang out with you guys. It's so fun for me to turn over. the leadership of growing leaders and watch you guys run with that baton even further and faster than we've gone before. So it's an honor to be with you. Look forward to future conversations. And yeah, have fun with this podcast in the future. Thanks, Tim. Thank you, Tim. Well, Gina, I cannot imagine us having a better first guest for our podcast. Can we do all the snaps? Yeah, he deserves a lot of snaps. All the snaps, My goodness. He just like in a few minutes drops tons of truth for us and is such a great picture of what we want this podcast to be all about. For sure. Leaders who see their job as bigger than just what's happening in a school day in and day out. I'm excited. this is a perfect segue into, you know, we're actually gonna have a lot of traditions and segments and fun, weird things that we do because we are us. We are us. And we cannot not be us. That's a t -shirt. We are us. We are us. We do need to make that t -shirt, I like that. So, but one we wanna come back to probably every episode is what we call DMI. That's not TMI, but DMI. It's so corny, but it's one of the reasons why I love you. Thank you so much. I'm not a dad, but I have a dad joke or two. Yeah, everyone's so out. So TMI is too much information. DMI is don't miss it because this is where we go. Hey, that's not TMI. We need to reiterate what that means. So DMI stands for do not miss it. One of our values on this podcast is to give everybody listening practical action steps and ideas that they can use ASAP. So each of us. Gina, you and I are going to pick one thing that was said in this episode so far, and we want to bold that thing, underline it, highlight it, all caps, whatever it is. It's our thing we don't want people to miss and that we hope they'll come back to think about, journal about, and maybe even put into action. So without further ado, it's time for DMI. So Gina, do you want to kick us off? What's the best thing Tim said that you're like, I want to reiterate this needs to be said again, we don't need to miss it? There are so many, but I think for me, know, Tim was talking about that there are timeless principles for timely paradoxes. And the one he talked about was, you know, the example he gave about with Dan Caffey is like being stubborn, but also being open -minded. And I almost said to him, are you talking about me? Are you talking about me before he said the Dan Caffey part? So yeah, like that was for me, underlined. bold, highlight, all caps put into action. That is such a great picture. mean, there's obviously eight really great paradoxes. If you haven't picked up that book, you got to do it. But that sort of stubborn, open -minded thing to me is the idea of an incredible principal these days. Somebody who is like, we have these standards at our school and we're not going to lower them. also, if a student comes in with a really wacky idea and I think it might work, let's go for it. 100. Yeah, I agree. And honestly, guess it is, I was saying it jokingly, but it is the type of leader that I would want to be. And I would want to be known for, is that I hold truth to what we need to hold true and then the things that we can be flexible on and be open -minded We hold them loosely. Yep, hey, hey. So how about you? What was something that really stood out for you? Well, I read a lot of things down. I love taking notes. saw it. But to me, think because, and especially because I'm sitting here in the first episode and I'm thinking about what do we want to walk away with, to me, it was his statement, we cannot continue to do what we've done in the past into the future. Too much is at stake, too much is changing. And he also talked about our role, which actually he didn't say this, but it is one of the paradoxes in the book, is people today, leaders today have to be both teachers and learners. And I think... If I could embody or try and sum up what this podcast is ultimately about, it is that, right? It's a community of people coming together and going, just because I'm in charge doesn't mean I've got it all down. And I also recognize that if I don't stay with the times, what's going on, and continue to innovate and ask questions and challenge assumptions, then I'm going end up falling behind and I'm going to end up creating an environment at my school where I'm not actually preparing students for the world they're entering into. And I feel like those two things, that idea of we cannot continue to do what we've done in the past into the future, and that we have to be both the teacher, the leader, and play the role of learner and somebody who wants to grow, boy, if we can embody that, I think we're gonna be just fine. So good. So good. Well, folks, that's a wrap. Can you believe it? For our first ever episode of the School on a Mission podcast. Now, before you hit skip onto your next podcast, we've got a little challenge for you. We want you to grab a pen, a notebook, a sticky, even something like right on the back of your hand, whatever it is, a napkin, something. And write down one action you're going to take this week. Maybe it's something you're going to do. Maybe it's something you're going to investigate, something you want to read more about. mentioned several things that you can investigate or read about, but Or maybe it's a person that you want to meet with, that you need to take an action toward. So take a second and write that down. Do you have it? Perfect. Now DM us on Instagram or TikTok with your action step. Because you can think of it and you can write it down. But if you don't have accountability, it might be less likely for you to do something about it. So. We want to hear from you and we want to see what you've done with what you learned today. We can't wait to see what awesome things that you're up to, that you've been up to. And until next time, friends, stay curious, stay bold, and keep leading your school on a mission.