It All Starts with Me!
While we’ve just finished the calendar year, we are actually in the middle of the school year—and that distinction matters.
In early childhood, January is not a fresh start. Children are still developing routines, relationships are already established, and teams are carrying both momentum and fatigue from the months behind them. This moment in the year often feels layered: reflective, yes—but also deeply rooted in what is already in motion.
Leadership during this stretch isn’t about beginning again.
It’s about stewarding what already exists.
And that’s why this series begins with Personal Leadership.
Highly effective teams don’t change because the calendar turns. They change when the people within them pause, reflect, and make intentional adjustments to how they show up—especially midyear, when stress, expectations, and complexity tend to converge.
Why Personal Leadership Comes First
If you’ve worked in early childhood long enough, you already know this truth:
Teams don’t become highly effective because of more meetings, new initiatives, or tighter policies.
They become effective when the people inside them grow.
So, before we talk about communication, clarity, accountability, or systems, we start with the leader within. Your mindset, emotional presence, and daily habits influence every interaction you’re part of—whether you hold a formal leadership role or lead through influence.
Personal leadership isn’t separate from team effectiveness.
It is the foundation of it.
At this point in the school year, teams don’t need urgency layered on top of exhaustion. They need steadiness. And steadiness begins with awareness—of ourselves first.
The Path We’ll Take Together
Over the coming weeks and months, this series will explore what makes teams truly effective, moving intentionally from the inside out.
We’ll begin by strengthening Relational Competencies—how we connect, communicate, and build trust with one another. Because without strong relationships, even the clearest plans fall apart.
From there, we’ll focus on Clarity Competencies—shared direction, roles, and expectations that reduce confusion and frustration and help teams work with purpose.
Next, we’ll explore Accountability and Adaptability—how teams follow through on commitments, share responsibility, and adjust when conditions change (as they always do in early childhood settings).
As those foundations come into focus, we’ll zoom out to examine Big Team Systems—the structures, leadership practices, and organizational decisions that either support or strain the people closest to the work.
Finally, we’ll spend time where many teams feel the most tension: conflict. We’ll look at how conflict shows up midyear, how it escalates under pressure, and how teams can reframe, repair, and restore relationships in healthy, sustainable ways.
Each layer builds on the one before it. Nothing is rushed. Nothing is skipped.
Why We Start With Ourselves — Midyear
Midyear leadership isn’t about starting over. It’s about noticing what’s already in motion and choosing how you’ll influence the second half of the year.
Your self-regulation becomes calm in the classroom or during supervision.
Your relational awareness becomes team trust.
Your clarity becomes shared direction.
Your willingness to grow becomes cultural stability.
Highly effective teams are built from the inside out, and that work always begins with personal leadership—not perfection, not having all the answers, but intentional presence.
A Midyear Leadership Checkpoint
Rather than adding something new, this moment in the year invites a pause.
Take a few minutes to reflect:
Where do I feel most steady in my leadership right now?
Where do I notice strain, reactivity, or fatigue showing up?
How might my presence be influencing the tone of my team during high-pressure moments?
What is one small, intentional adjustment I want to make moving forward?
These kinds of reflections are often the first step toward stronger alignment—not just within ourselves, but across teams.
Where This Work Leads
Personal leadership does not exist in isolation.
The way we regulate ourselves, communicate under stress, and model responsibility becomes the groundwork for how teams function together. Over time, those individual choices shape shared expectations, relational norms, and ultimately, organizational culture.
That is the heart of Team Agreements—shared commitments that grow from personal leadership into relational clarity and system-wide consistency.
If you’re curious how this inside-out approach extends beyond individual reflection and into team practices and organizational systems, you can learn more here:
👉 Explore the Team Agreements approach
This will give you a sense of how personal leadership connects to core team dynamics and big team structures—without needing to change everything at once.