Summary: <br> This past semester, Dr. Jeff Springer has helped me facilitate the weekly book study portion of our Principal Matters Mastermind. <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> In this week’s podcast episode, we share Part 2 of a conversation about the benefits of Masterminds for education leaders. Dr. Springer’s dissertation was on the power of play at the secondary level. As we planned for this show, Jeff asked me, “What if we took each tenet of ‘play’ and tied it into the benefits and results of participating in a Mastermind?’<br> <br> <br> <br> The Power of Masterminds, Part 2<br> <br> <br> <br> For a quick overview, Dr. Springer explains P.L.A.Y. and its connections to a Mastermind as follows:<br> <br> <br> <br> People – A Mastermind community helps members establish and identify who your people are.<br> <br> <br> <br> Love – A Mastermind helps members verbalize how are you care and love for your team and others.<br> <br> <br> <br> Acknowledge – A Mastermind helps participants acknowledge success, failures, and develop a plan for areas of improvement and investigation.<br> <br> <br> <br> Yearn – A Mastermind helps members establish a platform to reconnect educators why they became educators in the first place, renewal with passion. It’s a reminder of what gets them out of bed in the morning and gives them purpose!<br> <br> <br> <br> Listen in to this week’s podcast episode to enjoy these takeaways and more!<br> <br> <br> <br> Principal Matters, 2020 Review<br> <br> <br> <br> Some of you have been readers of the Principal Matters blog or have listened to the podcast for a long time. Others may be brand new members to the community. <br> <br> <br> <br> I began blogging in 2013 and podcasting in 2016. At the beginning of my blogging journey, I had just been named Oklahoma’s Assistant Principal of the Year. I continued sharing blogs and podcasts as a high school principal. In 2017, I began the fulltime work I do with my state principal association. Principal Matters, LLC, has always been and continues to be a passion project for me. I dedicate time in the evenings and weekends to writing and recording. If I’m invited to present or keynote, I take vacation time from my full-time work, which means my time is somewhat limited. To date, my blog posts have been downloaded 345,885 times and my podcast episodes 495,784. On average, between 2,000-2,500 education leaders are digesting my weekly posts. <br> <br> <br> <br> I like to think about how many students are being impacting by our collective learning. If each Principal Matters podcast listener, for instance, represents 300 to 500 students, it is possible we are influencing the lives of over 1 million students. <br> <br> <br> <br> Whether you are a long-time subscriber or first-time listener, I want to thank you for learning along with me. It seems odd to be celebrating at the end of such a crazy and difficult year, but as I look back on the past 12 months, I am amazed at the opportunities we had to grow together through a global pandemic, school shutdowns, and re-openings or hybrid settings. I have so many people to thank for the wins of 2020. These include my guests, partners, Mastermind members, and executive coaching clients. <br> <br> <br> <br> Guests<br> <br> <br> <br> A special thanks to the 20 friends who shared on my podcast this past year, including: Juan David Campolargo, Tim Elmore, Anthony Fisher, Marlena Gross-Taylor, D.J. Klein, Jethro Jones, Jeremie Kubicek, Sonia Lopez Morales, Andrew McPeak, Patrick McLaughlin, Anthony Muhammad, Jena Nelson, Don Parker, Brad Ruttman, Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj, Jen Schwanke, Jeff Springer, Josh Stamper, William Stubbs, Justin Thomas.<br> <br> <br> <br> Early 2020 Masterminds<br> <br> <br> <br>