Stop Leading, Start Building!: Turn Your School into a Success Story with the People and Resources You Already Have

You are a school administrator—a principal or maybe a district leader. You're doing everything "right"—poring over data, trying new strategies, launching annual initiatives, bringing in outside trainers. So why do the outcomes you seek still seem so far away? The problem isn't you; it's that you were trained in school leadership, and school leadership just isn’t up to the challenge.

Each year, Robyn R. Jackson helps thousands of administrators stop wasting time and energy on flawed leadership approaches that succeed only with the right staff, students, parents, budget, and boss. As they have discovered, it's possible to transform your school with the people and resources you already have. The secret? Stop leading and start building!

In this book, you'll learn to use Jackson's breakthrough Buildership Model™ to escape the "school improvement hamster wheel" and finally create the school your students and teachers deserve. The work involves a handful of simple shifts in how you approach . . .

• Purpose: Instead of chasing tiny gains or the "next new thing" every year, you'll establish and use an ambitious vision, mission, and set of core values to galvanize your staff, keep everyone focused, and create true accountability for achieving your goals.
• People: You’ll discover new ways to help every teacher grow one level in one domain in one year or less and, ultimately, develop high levels of both will and skill.
• Pathway: Instead of trying to tackle every problem at once, you'll identify the biggest obstacle standing in your way right now and figure out exactly how to remove it once and for all.
• Plan: You'll learn a new process for solution implementation that is iterative, cyclical, and capable of powering both short-term wins and ongoing transformation, year over year.

When you stop leading and start building, you let go of the idea that you need to work harder to make your school "work better." You no longer settle for incremental improvement when what you really want is dramatic change and better learning outcomes for all. It's time to make the shift from leadership to buildership. Get ready to turn your school into a success story.

Robyn R. Jackson is passionate about building better schools. As the CEO of Mindsteps® Inc., she has helped thousands of K–12 administrators and teachers develop the clarity and confidence to turn their classrooms and schools into success stories, most recently through her Builder's Lab workshops and her online training program, Buildership University. A former National Board–Certified high school English teacher and an award-winning middle school administrator, Dr. Jackson is an internationally recognized keynote speaker and consultant who has worked in schools and districts worldwide to help teachers and administrators develop rigorous instructional programs that provide students with the support and motivation they need to reach or exceed the standards.