You can have:

• Clear priorities
• Strong communication
• Aligned leadership

…and still get no results.

Why?

Because nothing changes until someone commits.

The Leadership Frustration

Every leader has said this:

👉 “We talked about that…”
👉 “We agreed on that…”
👉 “Why isn’t it happening?”

Because agreement is not commitment.

And clarity is not execution.

The Real Problem

Most teams operate in interest, not commitment.

• “That’s a good idea”
• “We should do that”
• “Let’s try that”

That’s not commitment.

That’s conversation.

What Commitment Actually Means

Commitment means:

• Someone owns it
• It has a deadline
• It will happen—no matter what

👉 Commitment removes ambiguity.

The Commitment Standard

If you want results, every initiative must answer:

• Who owns this?
• What exactly will be done?
• By when?

If one of those is missing…

👉 It’s not a commitment.

Why Leaders Avoid Commitment

Let’s be honest—this is where it gets uncomfortable.

Leaders avoid commitment bec...

Most leaders think they have a communication problem.

They don’t.

They have a consistency problem.

You said it once.
Your team heard it once.
And then it disappeared.

And now you’re frustrated because:

• People aren’t aligned
• Execution is inconsistent
• Priorities feel unclear

👉 If it doesn’t cascade, it doesn’t stick.

The Real Problem

In most organizations, communication looks like this:

Leader says it → meeting ends → everyone interprets it differently.

By the time it reaches classrooms, departments, or teams…

…it’s a completely different message.

That’s not communication.
That’s distortion.

What Cascade Communication Actually Means

Cascade communication is not about saying more.

It’s about ensuring the message is:

• Consistent
• Repeated
• Reinforced at every level

From leadership → to teams → to execution.

Not once.
Repeated until it becomes behavior.

The Leadership Gap

Here’s where most leaders get it wrong:

• “I said it” = “They got it”
• Leaders reword inst
...

After working with over 150 schools intimately and supporting leaders across 30+ states and multiple countries, one of the most common frustrations I hear is this:

“We just need more accountability.”

But when I dig deeper, that’s rarely the real issue.

It’s a clarity problem.

The Leadership Trap

Most leaders try to fix performance by increasing pressure:

• More check-ins
• More follow-up
• More conversations
• More consequences

But none of that works long-term…

If people aren’t clear on what they’re accountable for.

The Real Issue

You cannot hold people accountable to unclear expectations.

And yet, this happens every day in schools and organizations.

Leaders assume:

• People know their roles
• People understand priorities
• People know what success looks like

But assumption is not clarity.

What Lack of Clarity Looks Like

When clarity is missing:

• People stay busy—but not productive
• Priorities shift depending on the day
• Leaders step in more and more
• Teams feel microm
...

For 12 years, I’ve worked with school leaders in every situation you can imagine—new schools, schools in transition, and schools on the brink of failure.

And there’s one pattern I see over and over again:

Leaders think they have a people problem.

They say:

• “My team isn’t strong enough.”
• “This person isn’t the right fit.”
• “I need better people.”

But in most cases…

That’s not the real issue.

The Real Problem

Most leadership challenges are not people problems.

They are systems problems.

I’ve seen this in my own leadership.

There was a time when I had individuals in key roles that I didn’t believe were equipped for the job.

I questioned whether they were the right people.

But when I stepped back, I realized something:

They weren’t failing because of capability.
They were struggling because we didn’t have the right systems in place.

There were no clear systems for:

• Purchasing
• Student meetings
• Parent communication
• Daily priorities
• Provide feedback (to students or
...

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. The issue is, you are not always sure when that first impression is going to happen. 

Over a 30 day span, pretty much every public and private school will open. Over a million students and families will enter a new school. Everyone will be meeting their new teacher. 

So when will that first impression occur? 

I believe that when you are standing in the frame, it is hard to see the full picture. 

Here is what I mean. When you are immersed IN the school business every day, you can sometimes become less aware of the "little things". The little things are what matter most to your guest, and they quickly become BIG things. 

Just a few years ago, I was consulting for a charter school. I had been there multiple times but never really felt welcome. 

I asked the head of school if they had ver walked into the building through the eyes and ears of a guest? Someone who is looking to enroll their child or drop off a job application? 

This month marks a significant milestone for us at Leaders Building Leaders as we kick off our tenth year in business. Established in April 2014, I led the company's first retreat around the second week of July that year. We are proud of the impact we've made over the past decade and remain dedicated to empowering leaders and fostering excellence.

To celebrate, each week I am going to highlight one of our school's in our Empowered Executives: Inner Circle. The Inner Circle is a weekly virtual mastermind made up of public charter school principals, directors, and other administrators. They come together to share breakthroughs, gain advice, strategy and new perspectives from leaders in their positions. 

The first school I desire to highlight is The Expedition School (TES) in Hillsborough, North Carolina. When I wrote my book on high performing charter schools, the chapter on a Healthy School Culture Conducive for Learning, it was a school like TES that I modeled it after. 

The Expedit...

I hope you are having a productive and restorative summer. 

As I…we ALL prepare for the upcoming school year, my teammate Lauren and I have been keeping track of where my focus goes in planning and preparation for the upcoming year. 

We wanted to share the top 10 from my list with you. 

If you have yet to get with yourself and your team and ask…

1. What went well this year?
2. What needs more focus next year?
3. What do we need to STOP doing to move forward? (Critical list!)
4. To accomplish our goals for the 2024-2025 year…what needs to be true about our behavior and actions as a team? As a staff?
5. Most import: Where do I need to grow as a leader to ensure one year from today we are in a much stronger position?

One of the BEST tools we have and I utilize often is our principal quarterly checklist.I look at it each month, and definitely each quarter to stay responsive to bigger issues. This checklist can be personalized to your school and shared as a team. My teammate Lauren organized ...

I’ve got two amazing kids!

I am extremely blessed as they are good human beings and are way more advanced than I was at 11 or 16. Maybe even at 30!

Sometimes they do stuff, like leave their dirty dishes around, the lights on, argue, say a word out loud they shouldn’t, give attitude, bad mouth others, whatever…anything that gets my wife or I on a different emotion.

I've realized that all of the nagging to get them to do something different is pointless.

Because people don’t do what people say. People do what people see. 

That is the Law of the Picture from John Maxwell’s 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. 

I wish I had read a book or had a mentor like John Maxwell in my life in my twenties when I was a young teacher and baseball coach. I had a giant ego, a character that lacked integrity and humility, and a mouth to match. 

I recall making my JV Baseball team run and run and run when I heard them cursing or throwing equipment. Not 20 minutes later I’d be yelling at the umpire, ki...

This question as a principal, Am I sure the students are all learning? Use to keep me up at night. 

However, then I learned that the best way to ensure students are learning is through daily classroom walkthroughs.

These walkthrough must be intentional and focused on making sure that students are not just learning but mastering the curriculum taught. 

That the atmosphere is affirming. 

That the students are engaged in the process.

That the teacher is aware of everything that is happening between the four walls of the classroom. 

While you are walking through each classroom, the validity of the information you receive through assessments and benchmarks will be affirmed. 

The first step in effective leadership is making a choice that is in harmony with our goals and desires.

I personally believe that the academic growth your students make, and the development of the teachers that lead them, will directly correlate to the effectiveness and the diligence of my daily walkthrough rou...