Selfmentorship is the leadership skill no one teaches principals. Stop waiting for a coach and learn to close your own leadership gaps.
Selfmentorship is the leadership skill most principals and school leaders were never taught: turning your own experience into growth instead of waiting for a coach, a program, or a PD day to develop you. Co-host Dan Watt puts Danny Bauer in the hot seat to unpack ten years of Better Leaders Better Schools and the category that will shape the next ten.
Danny breaks down his Harada chart (Sudoku for goals), why OKRs beat SMART goals, and the three-step play of create it, give it away, fire yourself. Then the reveal: a Digital Danny super user with 910 conversations named what Danny had been building for a decade. The lesson for your campus is to find your super users and describe your work in their words, not yours.
THINK THROUGH YOUR NEXT LEADERSHIP MOVE:
https://myprincipalcoach.com — your AI-powered principal coach, available 24/7.
⌚️ TIMESTAMPS:
- 00:00 - Why nobody teaches self-mentorship
- 05:34 - Danny's North Star for 2026
- 08:01 - The Harada method as Sudoku for goals
- 10:12 - Why OKRs beat SMART goals
- 13:05 - Infinite networking for school leaders
- 17:22 - Create it, give it away, fire yourself
- 22:27 - What Do School Different really means
- 24:20 - Why Ruckus Maker events break the PD mold
- 31:48 - The category nobody else teaches
- 33:48 - Find the super user on your campus
- 35:09 - Use their words, not yours
- 38:29 - Clarity in under 10 minutes
- 41:08 - The fundamentals behind peak performance
WHENEVER YOU ARE READY, HERE'S 3 WAYS TO HELP YOU DO SCHOOL DIFFERENT:
📬 Weekly newsletter: https://ruckusmakers.news/subscribe
📚 Monthly mini-books: https://ruckusmakers.media
🧭 Map your next 90-days: https://betterleadersbetterschools.com/principals-entry-plan/
TODAY'S RUCKUSCAST IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:
IXL
IXL's adaptive platform finds every student's knowledge gaps, adjusts difficulty as they learn, and gives you a dashboard showing exactly where growth is happening.
🔎 Over 1 million teachers use it — get started at https://ixl.com/leaders
ODP BUSINESS SOLUTIONS
ODP Business Solutions has supplied schools for 30 years — converting dead computer labs into STEAM centers, stocking multiple campuses, upgrading whiteboards to interactive displays — all from a single supplier through cooperative contracts. 🔎 Learn more at https://odpbusiness.com/education
ORCHARD
Orchard gives every student a personalized career action plan and scores readiness across 8 dimensions — a number you can take to your board.
🔎 See how it works at https://betterleaders.orchard.careers/
KIDS FIRST EDUCATION
Kids First Education builds professional learning around your district's priorities, your data, and your classrooms — not pulled off a shelf — and 98% of educators walk out ready to use what they learned.
🔎 Partner with them at https://kidsfirst.llc/leaders
