Leadership Habit #3: Celebrate Wins

Celebrating wins is essential for developing a positive and motivating school environment. When we recognize and celebrate achievements, whether big or small, we show our teachers and staff that their hard work is valued and appreciated. As school leaders, we are responsible for building a sense of belongingness within our community. Teachers and staff who feel seen and recognized can lead to higher engagement and a stronger commitment to our school's goals. 

Habit 3: Celebrate Wins

This is a great time to acknowledge the “wins” from 2023-2024 and plan your back-to-school celebration. 

It doesn’t matter if it’s big or small, a win is a win. The concept of celebrating wins is all about boosting people’s energy, motivation, and well-being toward your school, your data, and your students. I am sure that most of you can identify wins from your year-end data.

School leaders should be aware and give importance to the wins from this past year. I understand that constantly facing challenges makes it easy to lose your focus on celebrating success. However, it is important to know that these celebrations set you and your team up for continued success and achievement. Even small wins can create the energy and motivation needed to reach larger goals. 

When you think about the word, “celebration” does it conjure big to-do lists and public displays for teachers and students? Yes, your back-to-school meeting may be a big “to-do!” You are not only celebrating but welcoming teachers back and setting the tone for the new school year. 

It is also important to build short-term goals to celebrate wins throughout the year.  Here is a blog article that I wrote to help you in this area: Building Up Small Success to Achieve Larger Results

It’s moving beyond the back-to-school meeting that it is important to remember, as you celebrate your teachers this next year, that not all wins need a “big” to do to be impactful. In an article about teacher morale, Danny Steele, EdD and Todd Whitaker, PhD share a list of “shout outs” to recognize not only teachers but also support staff throughout the year. 

No need to reinvent the wheel, head over to this article for some ideas that may spark your creativity for back-to-school recognition. How Are You Affecting Teacher Morale? The Importance of Recognizing and Celebrating Your Teachers “Great Principals Do Not Act Important; They Make Their Teachers Feel Important.” Danny Steele, EdD and Todd Whitaker, PhD 

As a leader, we are always reflecting on the impact of our actions. Do you know the practices and behaviors that will make a difference? (Those identified within your solutions to your root causes). If so, reward those practices that are having a positive impact on your results.

Questions to consider:

• What celebrations would help positively contribute to your data climate?
• What celebrations create an atmosphere of data ownership for your teachers? 
• When you have positive results to share, what instructional practices did the teacher implement to achieve those results?
• When you have positive results to share, which teachers fully implemented the identified solutions and achieved those results?

For the past 3 weeks, I’ve shared with you 3 Leadership Habits which I know will bring about many benefits as take on a new school year. As a recap, here are those 3 leadership habits:

1. Be Present and Build Relationships
2. Check-in with your Teachers
3. Celebrate Wins

School leaders guide everyone within the school to achieve their goals. One of the best ways to do that is to have great habits that will help you to fulfill that role. A great leader knows and understands what are the things that need to be done for the school to be successful.

If you are looking for support analyzing your data and identifying your next leadership steps in this new school year, request a FREE consultation call with me. Fill in the Contact Form Link: https://debradurma.com/contact-us 

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