<aside> 🔒

Recreated for this portfolio. I planned and ran leadership sessions for teachers in the federally funded teacher-leader programs at California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH), including APPLE (Accelerated Preparation Program for Leaders in Education). The original session materials belong to the university, so the scenario cards below show the same practice design in new words.

</aside>

The problem

The best teachers get asked to lead: mentor a new teacher, run the department's data meeting, present PD to colleagues. Nobody teaches them how. They're experts at leading students, and suddenly they're leading adults who don't have to listen to them.

It's the same transition every company faces when a top performer becomes a first-time leader. The skills that made them great at the job are not the skills that make them great at leading people who do the job.

The goal: give emerging leaders deliberate practice leading adults before they have to do it for real.

Why this matters outside education

What the teachers practiced The business equivalent
Giving feedback to a newer teacher A new manager's first performance conversation
Running a data meeting with colleagues Leading a team through results and a decision
Presenting PD to other teachers Training or presenting to peers
Handling pushback from a veteran colleague Leading without authority

The design: a practice lab, not a lecture

Participants didn't learn about leading adults. They practiced it, in four situations every new leader faces.

The practice cycle

  1. Brief: read the scenario card and plan an approach
  2. Try it: run the conversation or meeting with colleagues playing the other roles
  3. Observe: a peer watches with a short look-for list
  4. Debrief: what worked, what landed badly, what to change
  5. Follow up: a later check-in with the participant to confirm the improvement showed up when they did it for real

The follow-up is the point. Most leadership training stops at feedback in the room. The only way to know practice changed behavior is to go back and check.

Scenario cards