Professional Learnings NSWPPA Educational Leadership

The 7 Habits Revolution in schools & The Leader in Me impact in schools with Sean Covey

• NSW PPA Professional Learning • Season 3 • Episode 5

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What happens when schools go beyond academic instruction to develop the whole child as a leader? 

In this podcast, Sean Covey, New York Times bestselling author and President of Franklin Covey Education, reveals the remarkable transformation occurring in thousands of schools worldwide through the Leader in Me program.

The journey began unexpectedly when an elementary school principal on the verge of losing her job discovered Stephen Covey's Seven Habits framework. Within three years, her failing school, with 50% poverty rates and 28 different languages, became America's number one school. Today, this approach has spread to 8,000 schools across 50 countries, with consistently impressive results in both academic achievement and school culture.

Covey shares a recent powerful example from an inner-city Los Angeles school where every student has leadership responsibilities and academic goals. Despite challenging neighbourhood circumstances, these students achieve some of California's highest test scores. The secret? A culture built around transformative paradigms: every child can lead, every student has genius, change starts with individual responsibility, and education must address the whole person.

For educators struggling with burnout – a widespread challenge exacerbated by recent global events – Covey emphasises the critical importance of self-renewal through "Sharpen the Saw" practices across physical, mental, emotional and spiritual dimensions. This isn't self-indulgence but strategic effectiveness: "One hour spent sharpening the saw can mean ten hours of increased productivity throughout the week."

Ready to transform your school culture? 

Covey recommends starting your journey by applying the habits personally before introducing them to your school community. When educators model these principles authentically, they create the foundation for sustainable change that equips students with lifelong leadership capabilities while creating vibrant, purpose-driven learning environments. 

Leader In Me: 

To take your first steps, visit  Leader in Me: 

https://www.leaderinme.com.au     

To start your Leader In Me Journey, reach out to the Franklin Covey Team. The key contact is Claire Banks: Claire Banks Email: Claire.Banks@franklincovey.com.au. 

Achieving Greatness in Education through Franklin Covey Education: 

To find further information about the FranklinCovey programs offered through the NSW Primary Principals Association, visit these links:

Links and References:

To view our Professional Learning Offerings, visit:
https://www.nswppa.org.au/professional-learning

To view our latest offerings, visit: https://www.nswppa.org.au/catalogue






Speaker 1:

Welcome to Season 3 of Professional Learnings, the New South Wales PPA Educational Leadership Podcast. I'm Drew Janetsky, back as your host for a brand new season. It's great for you to be with us as we continue this journey of learning, leading and drawing inspiration from the incredible insights of our amazing guests. Let's dive into our latest episode our amazing guests. Let's dive into our latest episode. Today, we're delighted to have Sean Covey joining us.

Speaker 1:

A New York Times bestselling author, president of Franklin Covey Education and a leading voice in personal and professional development, sean has written influential books like the Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teams, the Leader in Me, the Six Most Important Decisions You'll Ever Make and the Four Disciplines of Execution, which was named number one Wall Street Journal bestseller and quickly became an international bestseller. His work has truly inspired millions of educators, students, students and professionals around the world. Sean was incredible listening to his inspirational words, particularly showing the impact of the seven habits of highly effective people, as well as his current mission in the Leader in Me program. Before we begin our full discussion, let's listen to an extract from our conversation. Before we begin our full discussion, let's listen to an extract from our conversation.

Speaker 2:

These kids are all educated in the seven habits and so are the adults. They speak that language. They have WIGs four disciplines of execution, wildly important goals. And it's to increase their scores on their reading tests and the whole school is focused on it. And every kid has a goal aligned to that goal right. And then every kid has a leadership role and responsibility. Every kid. This person's in charge of playground. This person's in charge of helping others Really good writer helps other write essays, you know. This person is in charge of cleaning up in the lunchroom every day. And all these roles are some of them are rotated and some of them they apply for.

Speaker 2:

The kids do a ton of public speaking. They're really preparing them for the workforce. Tons of public speaking, goal setting. And the culture of the school is remarkable. The initiative of the kids was off the charts. So we went to an assembly. The whole thing was led by kids. They were the speakers, they ran the AV. That's one of the things we teach in Leader. Leader Me is turn the school over to the kids, watch what they can do. You'll be surprised at how well they can do things. You can be a guide to the side. You don't have to be leading it. Let the kids do it. But that was in this and their scores are some of the highest in California. Their math and reading scores, their attendance, their path to high school and college graduation some of the highest in a school that has no right doing that.

Speaker 1:

Sean Covey, it's an honor and pleasure to have you here today, welcome.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, drew, it's good to be with you. I've been to Australia once here today. Welcome. Thank you, drew, it's good to be with you. I've been to Australia once and hope to return. Beautiful country.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we'd love to have you over, particularly in New South Wales, so more than welcome to come, absolutely yes. Now, sean, let's start with your journey and what led you to focus your career on empowering young people and educators through leadership and personal development.

Speaker 2:

Sure. So my father, stephen Covey. He wrote the Seven Habits book, as a lot of people know, right, and so growing up I went and listened to him speak all the time and he was just a great teacher. He was a good dad and a really good teacher as well.

Speaker 2:

But I played American football and actually the time I went to Australia was in we went to Melbourne and we played an American football game there at your cricket field to try to promote American football. But I was a football player and you know American football is huge in America, and so I was given a platform. I was the starting quarterback, the guy that throws the ball, you know, and runs the team for our team. And so they would high schools would ask me to come speak to the kids, right, because I was football, the quarterback. And so I did that once and I enjoyed it. And then, a couple of times, I ended up doing maybe 400 speeches over a four-year period and I kind of learned to talk to students, to kids, middle school, high school kids, elementary kids. So that's how it all started.

Speaker 2:

And then one day I got the idea of taking my dad's book and writing one for teens, yeah, and so it hit me. I thought these principles my dad's writing about, you know, being proactive and beginning with the end in mind and thinking win-win and taking charge of your life and these, these apply so well to anyone, at any age, including a 15 year old or 10 year old, 12 year old. And so that's where the idea came, and so, ever since then, I've been focused on trying to help kids understand how to be happy and successful living these habits and improving their lives. So I've I've been in the education space, you know, since um, since college yeah, yeah, it's such, it's so profound.

Speaker 1:

It's so important that teenage space, because um growing through social media, there's a lot of research and evidence around anxiety. At the moment there's some really strong work by Jonathan Haidt's work in the Exist Generation In terms of the. There's a lot of parallels with the seven habits and supporting teenagers and students at this point in time.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yes, there is. So you know, as you share, it's kind of a perfect storm right now for teenagers A lot of anxiety, depression, trauma. Unfortunately, it's just off the charts, and more so in girls than boys, but boys too. But you know, today in a recent poll I saw, you know, you got 50% of the girls that feel hopeless, literally hopeless, or feel like they don't measure up, and I think social media is a big part of it. Covid didn't help and people, they're living their life on a stage right All the time with likes and social media and everything, and so it makes it really hard.

Speaker 2:

So the seven habits give they give you your life back because they remind you that I'm in charge. Right, be proactive. I can have someone say something bad about my hair and not let it ruin my day. I can begin with the end in mind and I can have a goal and a vision and I can see beyond the challenges I have right now. Right, and I can think win-win, which means I can care about myself and care about another person equally Right, and learn to balance that and not have to be win-lose, which is getting ahead of somebody else, or lose-win, which is getting stepped on right.

Speaker 2:

I had one teenage girl wrote me and she just said hey, mr Covey, I read your teen book. Oh my gosh, it's changed my life. She said I used to compete with this girl who was just like me. She was in drama and debate and was very outgoing and showy like me and I hated her. And then I read your book on Think Win Win and I realized life isn't a competition. There's competition in sports and in you know who's going to be the starting this or that, or in business, but in relationships there's no winners and losers. And she said I learned I read Think Win-Win, I realized this girl can be my friend and it's changed everything. I didn't know you could think this way.

Speaker 2:

And so I got that letter and I thought wow, this is these kids. This is powerful. These kids understand these concepts inherently. It's inside of them, these are principles and they are unlike us adults. They're quick to change, they can get a new idea in their mind and they can just change the trajectory of their lives so fast. And we've learned in schools that these seven habits they get inside kids and they are powerful because these are tools they can use to realize I matter, I'm different, but I'm important and I can succeed personally and with other people by following these habits these habits, yeah, yeah, and I can feel that passion still coming through Sean and hearing that messages, and I'm sure you get many letters like that showing the impact of the work which is so powerful In terms of you briefly went through.

Speaker 1:

I mean, what inspired you to write for younger audience and how has that shaped your work with schools?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, well, I, you know, I wrote this, this teenage book, and then, you know, years later we had a. There was an elementary school that was really failing. It was in Raleigh, north Carolina, in America, and it was a public school and they had, you know, a capacity for 800 kids in the school and they had 300 enrolled and it was about to be shut down because it was doing so poorly. And the principal, muriel Summers, she came across the seven habits, stephen Covey, my father was teaching them, and she happened to go to his workshop and she was told two weeks before that she'd be fired unless she could turn the school around. So she's desperate. Here's him. Talk about, you know, thinking when, when, and sharpening the saw body, heart, mind and spirit. You've got to balance your life and seeking first to understand, then to be understood. So he's teaching this and she says, oh, my goodness, this is exactly what we need in our school. So she went up, Dr Covey, during a break. Can these principles be taught to young kids? And he goes well. My son's done it with seven habits for teens, and she goes well. I teach five, six, seven, eight, nine-year-olds. Can it be done with them? He goes. I don't know why not Give it a try and let me know how it goes?

Speaker 2:

So she started this leadership school teaching the seven habits to you know, six-year-olds, eight-year-olds, 10-year-olds, and in three years, number one school in the country blew everybody away. They had 50% poverty, 50% of the kids were poverty level, 28 languages spoken in the school. Because it was a transient area, a lot of move-ins and move-outs, but she created this culture with a common language of leadership and they just excelled academically, culturally. Housing prices in the area doubled, 300 students became 800 with a 200-person waiting list. That was called Leader in Me, what she did, and we now have that in 8,000 schools, including about 100 there in Australia.

Speaker 2:

But it just shows the power of getting this content to young kids. But it starts with the adults in the school, right, they need to think and model it with their colleague across the hall and that culture just goes everywhere and the kids see that and then when they learn the habits and learn how to write a personal mission statement or how to resolve a conflict with a friend, it resonates right and it's powerful and it's compound interest of the adults doing the same thing the kids are doing and so it really impacts schools and it's really cool to see, and so it really impacts schools and it's really cool to see yeah, what a journey, and in terms of where, how long ago did that start?

Speaker 1:

When did that journey start?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it started in about 2010, so about 15 years ago, and today we have about 8,000 schools. Probably another 2,000 or so will join, but it's spreading across the world, in 50 countries so far, and it's just when you think about it. You go to school and you learn how to read, write, do math, and now you're learning these social emotional skills. You're learning how to set and achieve goals, learning how to manage your own temperament. You're learning how to manage your time. You're learning how to set and achieve goals, learning how to manage your own temperament. You're learning how to manage your time. You're learning how to resolve conflicts. You're learning how to you know, lead teams, how to balance your life, and so these life-ready skills, career-ready skills, college-ready skills are imbued into the curriculum.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and that's why it's resonated so well from one school and I heard 8,000-plus schools across the globe, which is showing the connection across the globe Fantastic, yeah, yeah. So now, as the president of Franklin Covey in Education, what drives your vision for equipping educators and students with these leadership skills?

Speaker 2:

Yes, well, as we've gone out and done research, the biggest challenges right now and these are pretty uniform across the globe are, you know, one is mental wellness, both with teachers and with students. Another one is just keeping your people the interest in education, hiring, getting a lot of interest in these positions to be administrator or teacher, and then keeping people there's a lot of interest in these positions to be an administrator or a teacher, and then keeping people. There's a lot of turnover COVID exacerbated that that's a big one. And then, I think, just juggling everything because there's so many demands. You've got demands from parents, you've got demands from government coming down on you, and so trying to manage all these balls in the air and keeping your sanity right. So what drives me is to try to.

Speaker 2:

I think educators are the best people in the world. My dad was an educator. I think, outside of the work we do in our own homes with our own children, the most important work going on in the world by far is the work we're doing in schools. We're nurturing and training the future and trying to help these kids realize their worth and potential. So what motivates me is just trying to help teachers understand. You know you're doing great. Here's some tools to help you out. Remember why you got into education in the first place. Don't let all those side things beat you up too much. You know, yeah, yeah, we're coming out with a new book this fall called Teacher Believed in Me and it's the science and heart of making a difference in the lives of students and it's basically how to build relationships with students and it's all research-based and in this book we talk about just all the different things you can do, um, to build that relationship and and we're finding that, um, as we've tested this, it so resonates with educators that go like, yes, that's why, that's why I got here in the first place. You know, for example, one of the deposits you can make into the emotional bank account of a student is to know them, know their names, yeah Right, just something that simple.

Speaker 2:

And starting a class by saying something like good morning class. You know of 30. Why don't we go around to the room real quick and do a highlight and a low light of the week? Everyone just take, you know, 15, 20 seconds. What was a highlight and low light? Oh, yeah, well, we won the soccer game, woo, and you know my, you know my best friend moved, you know. And so just something that simple is the front end of a class, the back end of a class, little things you can do to create connection between you and the students, the students and each other. So, anyway, that's that's what motivates me, is I, you know, I, I think I have so much admiration for all of you educators, I have so much admiration for all of you educators.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and thank you for the work in terms of the impact and what I'm hearing is you're constantly listening to the narrative of educators. You've got the pulse check on what is occurring at the moment with mental wellness, keeping good teachers in the profession as well, knowing what the whirlwind around them and coming down on them is, and it's really nice to hear in terms of that sounds exciting. The title was called Teachers Believe in Me. That sounds like almost an exclusive on our podcast today, but thank you for sharing that sounds and the tips that you just said. Like getting to know people, like having that connection is so crucial to it's not just students aren't just test results. They are actual human beings and what drives them, what's in their world, caring about them, is a key message in relationships. Having that relationships before delivering content is so crucial.

Speaker 2:

So key.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, if we switch gears now to the seven habits, which is so iconic and for educational leaders, managing the complexities that we've talked about and change, which habits do you think are the most transformative?

Speaker 2:

Sure, well, I mean, the most important habit of the seven is the one you're having the most difficult time living, right, yeah, but I'll just start with one. So Habit 7 is called Sharpen the Saw. It's the idea we should never be too busy driving to take time to get gas, and we should never be too busy living to take time to sharpen ourselves mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually. And by spiritually I mean what drives you, your motivation right, your inspiration. And I start with this one for educators because there's so much burnout.

Speaker 2:

And burnout happens because you have a hard job and you're juggling lots of stakeholders and needs, a lot of people, and you're struggling, a lot of kids that are struggling, right, and you're having to manage all of that, and so you tend to give a lot, and so you burn yourself out and you get worn out and that's why so many are leaving the profession. But I just encourage you that it's okay to take time to sharpen your saw. In fact you've got to do it, and if you don't do it you will burn out and you need to find your own routines for managing that. So you know, for the body it's good nutrition, stress management, exercise, whatever you need, you know good rest. I mean increasingly that the research on sleep is so. I used to not sleep at all until I read the book why we sleep and realized I was living drunk effectively right, really like you weren't a very.

Speaker 1:

You had a small amount of sleep in your I wouldn't get enough sleep and I thought it was kind of a macho thing.

Speaker 2:

I get by on, I can get by in five hours, yeah, yeah, right. And then I realized that I was uh, just not my, I didn't have my full strength, right, and so that's important, right, and and then you're mentally, what are you doing to grow, develop, get better at your profession? Attending conferences, reading, reading, studying, you know, emotionally, connecting with the people that you know? The heart is about relationships and doing things to keep those relationships, the most important ones, strong in your life. Then, spiritually, what drives you, what motivates you? And it can be literature, could be practicing a religion, it could be meditation, it could be walk in, walking in nature, um, you know, there's lots of different ways people inspire themselves goal setting, um, and so on, but, uh, most people, I mean entropy takes over if you don't have a plan for doing this. I love this story about Lin-Manuel Miranda. He's the one that wrote Alexander Hamilton, the new musical.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

Has been a smash hit, came out about five years ago, has won every award, is considered the greatest musical of all time. And he talks about how for years he had been working on other plays and never took a break and was exhausted and he said, finally, I realized I need a vacation with my family and I needed a long vacation. And so he went on vacation to Puerto Rico, the Island of Puerto Rico in the Gulf of Mexico, you know, and while he was in the airport he picked up a book called Alexander Hamilton. It's about the found one of the founding fathers of America. And he, he read this book and, um, he went on to say he, you know, it gave him the idea to write this play.

Speaker 2:

So after his vacation he came back and this was his new work and it's made him famous. And, um, it's been just an incredible work. And but he said these words, he said it's no surprise, the best idea I've ever had, the best idea I'll probably ever had, have came to me on vacation. And then, um, you know I've done a lot of research on some real great producers and how they all had their own routines of taking time off and relaxing and sharpening their saws so they could get inspiration and ideas and could be at their best. And so the idea is we do our best work Um, when we are relaxed and rested properly and emotionally stable. And so I give you permission, told that, to take time to sharpen your saw, because the return on the time you spend there is tenfold one hour spent sharpening the saw can mean 10 hours of increased productivity throughout the week yeah, and and the fact that you it's backed with evidence and research as well, sean, and what a powerful story in terms of, of, of.

Speaker 1:

Uh, I'll get the name, is it lynn man? Manuel did I get.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, his name is lynn manuel miranda. Yeah, alexander Hamilton. The place called Hamilton yeah, I'm sure it's in some of your big cities there.

Speaker 1:

Oh, absolutely yeah. But the story behind that is so intriguing in terms of and the message is just don't burn yourself out, colleagues. Just take the time to look after yourself and go and have that vacation and come back refreshed and ready with energy. Otherwise you're going to be like a hamster on a wheel, so to speak, burning yourself out.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and you need vacation time. You also need time every day to do. You know, I call it the daily private victory.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Every day you have your own little routine. You know for you know for me I get up early and I go and exercise and I read and I plan my day. It takes one hour and it's my foundation for everything else. Right, I win that victory, my foundation for everything else. Right, I win that victory over self, in a sense.

Speaker 1:

And then it prepares me for you know all the battles of the day. And if you some things come through, if you miss that, hypothetically, how do you feel after that? Do you feel a bit disappointed in?

Speaker 2:

yourself if you don't get to that, or have you made that a disciplined approach in your world? Well, I've made it a disciplined approach, but I don't get to it every day and sometimes things interrupt. But if I can get to it 80% of the time right, then over a long period of time it's working. And so, like today, I got up and I had podcasts starting really early this morning and I didn't have time to sharpen my saw this morning, but tomorrow I'll spend a little bit more time, yeah yeah, yeah, that's a good message as well to say you know it's okay, but just keep doing consistently repeating, consistently repeating.

Speaker 1:

and that's what the journey of I've read and seen through your work with, with your, with your background, in writing. That's what you did every day. You took the time to put that hour in and you just gradually did that to get to the, the, the seven habits for highly successful teenagers. It wasn't a quick fix. It was a long-term journey for you to ensure that that work was obviously highly effective. Yeah, and practice, in terms of if we go to shifting to how school leaders, how could school leaders embed the seven habits into the culture of their schools to create long-term impact?

Speaker 2:

sure? Well, I think that, um, looking at the example of ab combs that I shared earlier, yeah, um, it needs to be ubiquitous, meaning everywhere all the time, and it's got to start with you. It's an inside out approach. The best single thing you can do is just, you know, read the book yourself. And again, the book was written by my father, stephen Covey. It was his life's work, based on, you know, 200 years. He basically looked at 200 years of research and synthesized these into these habits, right? And so I think, getting that book and getting it inside of you yourself, and just starting as a model, doing your best to being proactive yourself, right, and having an end in mind, you might want to then say, after you've kind of done it yourself, I do a book, study honestly and have everyone read the book, discuss it, what's working for you, what doesn't work? And then maybe the next step would be write a mission statement as a school. You might have one, you might not, but sometimes people have them but they don't really mean anything because it didn't come from the current team. Right, I would rewrite it if, and just say what's the purpose of our school, what are we trying to accomplish? Let's not just put a platitude on the wall, but let's do something that really is about who we are right and that can be a powerful experience, and then just start using a common language. Common language is how you build culture. You know, hey, we need to think win-win. You know, third grade teachers, have you listened to the start first to understand what the upper grades are saying? You know, you get a common language going and it starts with the adults in the school and it can be really powerful if it's done by everybody. Of course you're going to have a few teachers that don't, I don't want to do this, this is stupid, and then some that don't want to change. But we've learned that if you don't need everyone, you need a critical mass, and it starts with the principal. The principal gets on board every everyone eventually does and the culture takes over and it just it becomes a behavior standard and a common language, and then you can bring it to the students right at that point and you just integrate it into lessons. This is what AB Combs Elementary, the school I told you about earlier did. They just started integrating it into lessons. We're teaching poetry, robert Frost poetry.

Speaker 2:

Let's talk about his poem. Which habits do you see, were represented in his poem. Two roads diverged in the wood and I took the road less traveled by. I saw this the other day in school and these kids were saying, well, I think it represents habit too, because they had to begin with the end in mind of which road to take. And other kids said, well, I think it's habit one, because they had to choose right and it'd be proactive. And I thought, wow, what a rich discussion, what a great way to teach a habit, instead of saying, hey, habit two is this yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Integrate it into PE physical education, into your English classes, into your math. There's just so many ways. Do it on the playground. Two kids are fighting. Hey kids, are you thinking win-win.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, right, yeah, yeah. And those are just great examples, really practical advice, of how to integrate that into the everyday, for teachers to incorporate it, whether it's in English or whether it's in any key learning area on the playground as well. In terms of the what makes do you think Leader and Me so effective and why do you think it resonates so well with educators and students alike?

Speaker 2:

Yes, I've thought about this a lot. Why is it in 8,000 schools and growing? Four reasons Number one it's based on different paradigms. Paradigm is, you know, a lens through which you see the world. It's a belief system, right. And the paradigms of leader in me are everyone can be a leader. Students, every one of you can be a leader, right? Everyone has genius. That there's gifts in every student. You might be very smart academically, you're smart, very smart emotionally, which can't be measured, and you're very smart you know with languages and you're good at making people laugh and right. So everyone has genius.

Speaker 2:

Change starts with me that if I want my school to change, I got to get along better with my spouse. I need to get along better with my colleague across the hall. And then that we don't control learning but we empower students to lead their own learning. It's a paradigm. Job is not to give you something, it's to empower you to own your own learning. And then, finally, the paradigm that we educate the whole child, not just the academic child, because the kid can feel if all they are is a test score, they don't like how that feels. No one does right, and we know that they're whole people and they'll do better with their test score if they're treated as a whole person.

Speaker 2:

So paradigms, that's one reason it works. The second reason is ubiquitous everywhere, all the time. You can't just do this in one classroom and see a big cultural change. You can't just do it with the adults, just the kids, just the principal. It's got to be everywhere all the time. A third is you've got to have it's the powerful content that you have of the seven habits is a common framework, right? That gives you a behavior standard.

Speaker 2:

And then you've got the four disciplines of execution, which is goal setting, achievement. It teaches you how to go after something as an organization, right? So those three things. And then, finally, it's just the simple thing of it works. Because it's based on timeless principles. That's why it's popular. I was just in Pakistan a few weeks ago and there's 500 schools, huge schools in Pakistan that love this or eating it up. Because it's based on principles of initiative and hard work and, um, you know, balance and vision and prioritization, right? These things that everyone, every society, agrees with. If you follow the principle of mutual benefit, it'll succeed, whether it's in Japan or Jakarta or New South Wales, right, yeah, it's going to work everywhere. So that's why LeaderMe resonates and why it sticks is those four reasons.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, terrific In terms of you've mentioned then, you've been to Pakistan and what an experience that would have been. You travel all around the globe. Is there any specific examples or school that you've seen? Wow, this has had literally me, has had a real measurable impact. Sure, I'm sure you've got plenty yeah, I've got.

Speaker 2:

I've got plenty. Um, I'll just, uh, talk about one I went to about two weeks ago. It was in downtown Los Angeles kind of a really sketchy area. Yeah, you're a little bit nervous to even drive there and it's a really sketchy neighborhood and A lot of crime in the area. And you walk into this school. It's an elementary school and it's an oasis. I mean it was incredible Walked into this school, it locked the gates, oh, nice Welcome you get that idea when you get inside it's just an oasis.

Speaker 2:

These kids are all educated in the seven habits, and so are the adults. They speak that language. They have WIGs four disciplines of execution wildly important goals. And it's to increase their you know their scores on their reading tests and the whole school is focused on it. And every kid has a goal aligned to that goal right. And then every kid has a leadership role and responsibility. Every kid, this person's in charge of playground. This person's in charge of helping others. A really good writer helps other write essays. You know, this person is in charge of cleaning up in the lunchroom every day. And all these roles some of them are rotated and some of them they apply for.

Speaker 2:

The kids do a ton of public speaking. They're really preparing them for the workforce. Tons of public speaking, goal setting. And the culture of the school is remarkable and the initiative of the kids was off the charts. So we went to an assembly. The whole thing was led by kids. They were the speakers, they ran the AV. That's one of the things we teach in Leader in Me is turn the school over to the kids, watch what they can do. You'll be surprised at how well they can do things. You can be a guide to the side, but you don't have to be leading it. Let the kids do it, but that was in this and their scores are some of the highest in California their math and reading scores, their attendance, their you know path to high school and college graduation some of the highest in a school that you has no right doing that in in terms of people externally looking in would go, they'd say they they'd have the unconscious bias, so to speak, in and have that thought process about what those students would be capable of.

Speaker 2:

Based on that, and then exactly, Just because they come from a lot of poverty in a real tough area, not really strong family backgrounds, and these kids are overachieving from where they are supposed to be, you know.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

But I could tell you you know hundreds of stories like that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's amazing because, in terms of just bringing it to the context of our main audience in New South Wales, just to give you the context is 1,800 primary schools that the New South Wales Primary Principals Association represents and they're scattered from Sydney metro areas across a vast landscape of New South Wales, from rural to remote. I guess in terms of the listeners thinking and saying, look, this sounds terrific, how would I start this process and what's the best advice there? Sean Sure.

Speaker 2:

Well, we have. So in the 8,000 schools you know, we've got inner city schools like the one I just told you about. We also have schools in remote areas, you know in Kentucky, where the schools are. Some of them have 10 students and some have 50 and some have 100. And they're really spread out right. But this process works really well in those schools as well.

Speaker 2:

And I think the best place to start is, honestly, again, start with yourself. And if you're interested in doing Leader in Me, we run Leader in Me out of Australia and we have a team there and it's not very expensive all things considered. And if you're interested, you can just go to the web and Google us and find out. We can come in and help you get started. If you're not up for that right now, you can start just by doing what I talked about before, which is read the book, start implementing some of the practices, read the Seven Habits book and. But you know we'd, of course, love to work with you if you have that interest. But you know it starts with you. Got to believe, got to remember why you're doing this in the first place and the paradigms are foundational, what I shared before when we went to AB Combs, the school that was failing and became number one in America. The first thing I noticed when I came home. I said to my wife we're going to move to that city because we need our kids to go there. And she goes.

Speaker 2:

What was different? And I thought for a moment. I said their teachers believe that every child was a genius. I didn't get it. I just thought, wow, why are they're so affirming in the way they're treating these kids? And every kid is given a chance to shine, because sometimes we just give the chance to shine to the person that's really good at writing the essay or on the sports field. There are a hundred talents, right, and they had a way of just bringing them out. And they had a way of just bringing them out.

Speaker 2:

And so I just think it just starts with honestly saying I believe that every child here can be a leader. It doesn't mean you're the student body president, because we always think about you, know, the class leader, the president, but no, you can lead your own life. You can be a leader of others just by doing the right thing when no one is watching, and everyone can lead in different ways, right? So that paradigm is foundational to everything else and it starts there. And the reality is most teachers feel that way. That's why they went into teaching is they see kids that aren't behaving properly? Their software is out of sync with their hardware. Their hardware is greatness and their software is messed up right now because they're depressed or because they've had some trauma right and teachers want to say no, I'm going to help you replace your software to remember who you are and give you some behavior standards so you can become who you should be and are capable of becoming.

Speaker 1:

That's essentially what research is showing. The teenagers are glued to the algorithms bringing them back into the social media and if they type in depression or something, it just it compounds in that space. So it's a whirlwind around them. And then what I've heard is just have an understanding of sense of self through seven habits, through knowing yourself and what you stand for, what your values are. It's similar to educators as well. The whirlwind around them will keep on whirling, but if you don't have the sense of self, then you won't be able to have a sense of purpose and achievement.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yeah, in the Seven Habits book you know the seven habits are are be proactive, begin with the end in mind, put first things first. Those are the first three habits. It's about you and it's it's kind of the idea of getting your own act together first. Habits four, five and six are about others. Think, win, win, seek first to understand, then to be understood, synerize. It's about victory with people. And then habit seven is sharpen the saw, which kind of keeps the first six alive. But there's a sequence to these. This isn't just seven things, it's a sequence.

Speaker 2:

Private victories first three habits always come before public victories. And so often in life we're trying to work on a relationship problem Habit five. Maybe we're trying to work on a relationship problem habit five. Maybe we're not seeking for us to understand when the real challenge is we haven't got ourselves right first. We need to go back and win a private victory. We need to get our intent right. You know what's my end in mind. What am I trying to get done here? What am I trying to get done here? And if you will start with yourself, nine out of ten times relationship problems are you and you've got to kind of fix yourself first. So often people take seven habits oh, my boss needs this, my spouse needs this, my partner needs this, spouse needs this right, my partner needs this. When, um, typically most problems start with start with ourselves.

Speaker 2:

I, I remember one time my son, I played, uh, you know, american college football and I wanted to make the pros, but then I blew my, I hurt my knee. I got married and my first, my first child, you know, was a, was a boy, and so I thought I'm going to have him achieve all my dreams for me, and I trained him to be a really good football player. He was outstanding. And then, when he was about 15, he came to me and told me he didn't want to play anymore. And I just fell apart emotionally because I'd spent 15 years getting him ready right, it was so good, and I I was upset with him, I was making him feel guilty, and finally I realized I wasn't listening at all, and so I had to check myself. I had to kind of win a private victory and say what am I trying to do, raise a quarterback or raise a son? And I thought no, I'm trying to down deep, I'm trying to raise a son. Do I really thought, no, I'm trying to down deep. I'm trying to raise a son. Do I really care if he's a great quarterback? No, it'd be fun, but not really. And so, for the first time, I was able to listen to him, because I won a private victory, and he told me about how, how he felt small and how he was 50 pounds lighter than everybody else and how he, how beat up he got the year before and that's why he didn't want to play. And, and I understood him for the first time. Right, that was like a public victory with him. I, we, we connected. I understood him, he understood me.

Speaker 2:

But I had to go back to myself first. Right, it took me like two weeks to have it One. Two weeks to have it one. Be proactive, use my conscience, self-awareness to realize I was trying to put my agenda into his life. And then what's my end in mind? Began with the end of mind have it to raise a son, not a quarterback. Got myself right, we're able to fix this relationship problem. Um, it didn't matter if he played football or not anymore, right, I just we had this good relationship.

Speaker 2:

So my point is start with yourself. Most challenges are things you need to get right yourself, and the seven habits just give you a nice. It's a nice synthesized framework. Stephen Covey did for the seven habits with the seven habits. Stephen Covey did for the seven habits with the seven habits what Steve Jobs and Bill Gates did for the graphical user interface they took something very complicated computers and made it accessible to the masses. The seven habits it's the same thing. It takes something that's kind of complicated, self-improvement, makes it accessible to the masses, makes it really simple.

Speaker 2:

A sequenced, research-based approach that stands the test of time. That basically says hey, if you want to be effective, happy, successful, achieve your full potential, start with you. Private victory, be proactive, don't be a victim, take charge, take initiative. You're in the driver's seat of your life, you're not a passenger. And then begin with the end in mind. What is your mission statement? What are your goals? What is your blueprint for success in your life? Then, put first things first. Make sure the things that matter most get the proper time and attention they need. Prioritize, say no to the things that are less important. I'm talking too much here, drew, but that's the idea.

Speaker 1:

And I could just keep listening. And so many takeaways there, sean, in terms of real key messages for our listeners as well. It's been an absolute privilege for you to be with us today. Your insights into the leadership education they're so inspiring and they're practical for our audience as well as school leaders, not just in New South Wales, Australia, but beyond all of our educators listening can resonate with that. Congratulations on the mission, the work of the leader in me, and thank you for the work that you're continuing to lead and looking forward to more in terms of the next, what's coming next and I heard at the start teachers believe in me, really excited to be hearing when that comes out soon.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, great, yeah, leave in me really excited to be hearing when that comes out soon. Yeah, yeah, yeah, great, yeah, I, uh, I look forward to coming to australia again and seeing the leader of me schools, and my son, as I shared before, is, uh, he loves reptiles and you have a lot of them there and so, um, he's always wanted to go to australia, so so I look forward to a visit soon.

Speaker 1:

And that brings us to the end of today's episode with Sean Covey. All of the links and references we discussed today can be found in our show notes, so make sure to check those out. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe to our podcast and please feel free to share this with other educational leaders in your network who would find this conversation really valuable. A huge thanks again to Sean Covey and the Franklin Covey team for making this podcast possible. Remember, franklin Covey builds exceptional leaders, teams and cultures that achieve real results, and that's why we, the New South Wales Primary Principals Association, are proud to partner with FranklinCovey Education to support you on your journey towards greatness in education. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time.

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Drew Janetzki

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