brittany@leadcreativelydigital.com

In many cases, promotion decisions have nothing to do with money. This thinking reveals a common leadership trap: reducing success to numbers instead of considering leadership impact, growth, and alignment with organizational needs.

We gather metrics, pulse surveys, and meeting notes, but data alone doesn’t change culture. What changes culture is what we do with what we hear.

When we talk about a theory of change in education, it can sound abstract like strategy documents that live on a shelf. But for districts, the theory of change comes alive in one specific relationship: the partnership with school heads.

We talk a lot about accountability in schools and districts. But here’s the quiet truth underneath it: many leaders avoid holding people accountable because they don’t want to be disliked.

When you’re liked, you move things faster. Emails get answered. People show up. Initiatives get traction. Because people follow you if they like you.

What does success actually look like? Not in theory, but in the daily roles and responsibilities that keep districts moving.

She looked at me and said, “I don’t think adults in the professional environment should feel. I think just do. Do your job.”