The action plan has been communicated.
The goals have been set. The vision and mission are clear. Your staff understands where you are going and, hopefully, you have done the important work of creating buy-in around why you are going there.
Now comes the hard part.
Turning buy-in into ownership.
Because if we aren’t intentional, all of that excitement we created during back-to-school professional development can disappear somewhere between Meet the Teacher, the first parent concern, the 47th email, and about Wednesday afternoon of the first week of school.
The beginning of a school year is exhausting.
Teachers are preparing classrooms, meeting families, learning new initiatives, studying student information, attending district trainings, building relationships, and trying to remember every single thing we told them during professional development.
It can feel like drinking from a fire hydrant.
And then the students arrive.
For the first couple of days, everyone is running on adrenaline. Teachers are determined to make this the best year ever. Students are figuring out expectations. Leaders are everywhere, making sure everything runs smoothly.
Then comes day three. Day four. Day five.
Everyone gets tired.
The honeymoon period starts wearing off. Students become more comfortable. Teachers become more comfortable. And when we’re tired, there is a natural tendency to return to what we already know.
Even when what we already know wasn’t producing the results we wanted.
That’s why creating ownership before the first day of school matters…but sustaining it after that first day matters even more.
As leaders, there are three important levers we can pull.
1. Create Clarity and Back It Up With Support
Our people need to know three things:
Where are we going? Why are we going there? What is it going to take to get there?
But clarity alone isn’t enough.
Teachers also need to believe that we believe in their ability to get there.
If we are asking people to change their practice, try something new, or leave behind something that feels comfortable, we are asking them to be vulnerable.
We have to create an environment where trying something new and not getting it right the first time isn’t viewed as failure.
Maybe they need additional coaching. Maybe they need modeling. Maybe they need more practice. Maybe they simply need someone beside them saying, Let’s figure this out together.
Ownership grows when people know they will be held accountable and supported in becoming successful.
Those two things are not opposites.
They belong together.
2. Do What You Said You Were Going to Do
This one is on us.
If we tell teachers we are going to be in classrooms monitoring and supporting instruction, then we need to be in classrooms.
If we say we are going to communicate consistently with families, then we need to communicate.
If we establish something as a priority in August but stop talking about it in September, we have unintentionally communicated that it wasn’t actually a priority.
What we monitor matters.
What we consistently give our attention to gets done.
School leaders have 75 different things coming at us on any given day. That’s real. But that’s also why we need strong leadership teams, clear systems, thoughtful delegation, and a very clear understanding of our highest-leverage priorities.
We cannot ask our staff to remain committed to work that we have stopped visibly committing to ourselves.
3. Don’t Forget the Joy
This may be the most overlooked piece.
This work is hard.
I came home exhausted every day this week. And every morning, I looked at my dog and said some version of:
“I am tired. But I’m putting on my happy pants, walking into that building with a smile, and doing my very best today.”
Why?
Because I’m the leader.
My teams are counting on me.
Our energy doesn’t mean pretending everything is easy. It means remembering why the hard work is worth doing.
This week, I spent time supporting a teacher who genuinely wants to be great—but doesn’t know how to get there yet.
There were several things we could have worked on. Instead, I intentionally identified what she was already doing well and then focused our conversation on one high-leverage adjustment.
She implemented it immediately.
And she began seeing how that one change positively affected other parts of her classroom.
When I followed up with her, I asked, “Did you have fun today?”
She laughed.
“I don’t know if I’d say I had fun,” she told me, “but I actually enjoyed being in the classroom today.”
That’s the work.
We aren’t just implementing action plans.
We are building people.
We are helping people experience success so they begin believing they are capable of even more.
We are creating schools where accountability and support can exist together, where people understand exactly what matters, and where even during the exhausting days, we help one another remember the joy.
Because ownership isn’t created in one great back-to-school presentation.
It is created when our people see, day after day:
We meant what we said.
We’re going to do this together.
And the work is worth doing.
So, as you prepare for that first day, or work your way through those exhausting first weeks, keep communicating. Keep supporting. Keep showing up. Keep finding the joy.
And yes, put on your happy pants.
Our students are counting on us to do hard better.
Cheri