Every year I step completely outside education and bring back five books that have nothing to do with schools — and everything to do with building one. This is my 2026 Summer Reading List, and it's the hardest one I've ever put together.

None of these books are education books. But every single one has something real to say about the culture you're trying to build — and the kind of principal you're becoming while you build it.

The 5 books on this year's list:

• Leading with Dignity by Donna Hicks
• Originals by Adam Grant
• One Word That Will Change Your Life by Jon Gordon, Dan Britton & Jimmy Page
• Strong Ground by Brené Brown
• The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader by Melissa Murray

After you watch, I'm curious. Tell me what books you're reading right now in the comments. I'll be reading every one and who knows? Your suggestion might just end up on next year's list.

You already have a vision for your school.

You have probably had it for years.

The problem is not that you cannot see it. The problem is that you have been waiting for someone else to tell you that you are allowed to believe in it.

In this episode of The 100% Principal, I am talking about the permission gap — why the vision problem most principals face is not a skill gap or a knowledge gap, but a permission gap. And why the only person who can close it is you.

We cover:

— Why the end of the year feels like this (and what the sneaking "I want more" feeling is really telling you) — How vision committees are designed to produce consensus — and why that is the exact opposite of what you need — The difference between a vision statement and a 100% Vision — What it actually costs to keep shrinking your vision to fit what you think others can handle — The one question to ask before you write another plan this summer

This episode is for the principal who already knows what they want and has not yet given themselves permission to say it out loud.

📩 Get The 100% Principal Newsletter every Friday: https://100percentprincipal.com

🏃 The 100% Vision Sprint — enrollment closes June 8: https://buildershipuniversity.com/sprint/

If you've ever stood in front of your staff in August full of hope and found yourself rationalizing data in May — this episode is for you.

In this episode, I'm breaking down why the leadership playbook is keeping you and your teachers stuck in the same loop every single year — and why the only thing that actually breaks it isn't a new program, a new framework, or a new acronym. It's a 100% Vision. I'll show you exactly what that means, why it changes the math for your entire school, and how principals like Trina, Francina, Kevin, and Ashley used it to get results most people said weren't possible.

You have a School Improvement Plan. You might not have a vision. And that difference explains everything about why your year keeps ending up in the same place.

Most principals think the gap between the year they planned and the year they got is a follow-through problem. A staff problem. A prioritization problem. It isn't. It's a clarity gap — and your SIP, no matter how well-written, can't close it.

In this episode I walk you through exactly what separates a school improvement plan from a 100% vision, why that distinction matters more than any strategy you'll set this fall, and the three questions that will tell you immediately whether your vision is clear enough to actually run your building.

If your staff works hard but the initiatives still stall, if you're the only one who can see what's possible, if October keeps breaking your momentum — this episode is for you.

📩 Get the full newsletter every Friday: 100percentprincipal.com

Resources mentioned:

Learn more about the upcoming free one-hour session on May 28th at 7pm ET called the 100% Vision Session: https://buildershipuniversity.com/visionlab/

Subscribe to The 100% Principal Newsletter — one thing every Friday you can take straight into Monday: 100percentprincipal.com

This episode comes from The 100 Percent Principal Weekly—my newsletter where every Friday I share one thing you can take straight into Monday to move the needle toward 100%.

You're listening to The 100 Percent Principal Podcast, where those ideas come to life.

Subscribe at https://100percentprincipal.com/

You've given the feedback. Done the modeling. Sent them to PD. And some of your teachers are still making the same mistakes they were making in September.

Before you write that final evaluation, I want you to consider something: are you judging their decisions — or are you examining their choices?

There's a difference. And it changes everything about how you develop teachers.

What you'll learn:

In this episode of The 100% Principal, I'm sharing Issue #005 of the newsletter — and it starts with something Michael Beasley said in an interview that made me put down my crochet hook mid-stitch. One sentence that named something I've been trying to articulate for years about the way we treat the people we lead.

We'll talk about:

• Why the reflective questions we were trained to ask in post-observation conferences are failing your teachers
• The difference between a will problem and a skill problem (and why it still comes down to choices)
• A simple four-level framework for matching your support to where your teachers actually are
• What it costs you when you don't make this shift

This is one of those episodes that's going to make you rethink something you've been doing all year.

Resources mentioned:

📖 Never Underestimate Your Teachers — https://mindsteps-inc.myshopify.com/products/never-underestimate-your-teachers

📬 Subscribe to The 100% Principal Newsletter — https://100percentprincipal.com

🏫 Learn more about Buildership University — https://buildershipuniversity.com

Subscribe to The 100% Principal Newsletter — one thing every Friday you can take straight into Monday: 100percentprincipal.com

This episode comes from The 100 Percent Principal Weekly—my newsletter where every Friday I share one thing you can take straight into Monday to move the needle toward 100%.

You're listening to The 100 Percent Principal Podcast, where those ideas come to life.

Subscribe at https://100percentprincipal.com/

You've spent real time on your vision. You can articulate it. Your staff has heard it. You believe it.

And your master schedule is quietly working against every word of it.

Why? Because nobody taught you to look at the schedule the right way: as a mirror for your vision, not a logistics problem to survive.

And once you see it that way, some problems you've been fighting for years turn out to have a twenty-minute solution.

In this episode I'm going to show you how to read your master schedule the way I read it, and what to do when what you find doesn't match what you say you believe.

In this episode I break down:

• Why your master schedule is the most honest document in your building
• The one question that changes everything about how the scheduling process starts
• The scheduling decision that made teachers start recommending students for honor without anyone asking them to
• What "change your core values or change your schedule" actually means, and the principal whose teachers changed the schedule themselves once they saw the misalignment
• The specific 15-minute move you can do this week to find the gap between your vision and your schedule

What you'll learn:

In this episode I'm going to show you how to read your master schedule the way I read it, and what to do when what you find doesn't match what you say you believe.

I break down: — Why your master schedule is the most honest document in your building — more honest than your vision statement — The one question that changes everything about how the scheduling process starts — The scheduling decision that made teachers start recommending students for honors — without anyone asking them to — What "change your core values or change your schedule" actually means — and the principal whose teachers changed the schedule themselves once they saw the misalignment — The specific 15-minute move you can do this week to find the gap between your vision and your schedule

🤔 QUESTION OF THE DAY: Pick one thing from your vision. Now ask yourself: does it have protected time in your master schedule?

Resources mentioned:

Subscribe to The 100% Principal Newsletter — one thing every Friday you can take straight into Monday: 100percentprincipal.com

Get your copy of the Master Scheduling Playbook here

This episode comes from The 100 Percent Principal Weekly—my newsletter where every Friday I share one thing you can take straight into Monday to move the needle toward 100%.

Subscribe at https://100percentprincipal.com/

Most principals walk out of a hiring interview with a feeling. A 100% Principal walks out with evidence. In this episode, I'm breaking down the three-stage hiring system that changes who applies, who you interview, and who actually shows up in your building every day.

What you'll learn:

• Why your job posting is filtering for the wrong people (and how to fix it in under 5 minutes)
• The one question that reveals what a candidate actually believes — versus what they know to say
• Why a sample lesson in the second interview is the least useful thing you can ask for — and what to do instead
• The real cost of a will-based misalignment hire and why it almost never shows up in year one

Resources mentioned:

How to Hire Your Next Master Teacher Playbook — https://mindsteps-inc.myshopify.com/products/how-to-hire-your-next-master-teacher-playbook

The 100% Collective — https://buildershipuniversity.com/collective

Subscribe to The 100% Principal Newsletter — one thing every Friday you can take straight into Monday: 100percentprincipal.com

Your last culture-building moment of the year is already underway — and most principals are about to waste it.

It's April. The energy has gone flat. Your teachers are still showing up but everyone is running on fumes. And somewhere in the back of your mind is a thought you haven't said out loud: I'm not sure this year went the way I wanted it to.

I've watched principals turn around brutal years in the last six weeks of school. I've also watched great years fall apart in a bad June. Both are possible right now — in your building. What you do in the next six weeks doesn't just close out the year. It writes the story your staff and students carry into September.

In this episode I break down:

• Why the end of the year shapes how people remember everything that came before it —
• The Meaning → Moment → Memory framework that turns a forgettable June into the most powerful culture-building opportunity you have left
• Two specific moves you can make this week — one for your students, one for your staff — that change how they walk back through your doors in September

🤔 QUESTION OF THE DAY: What does the end of this year need to prove about your school? What's the one thing you want your staff to believe about themselves when they walk out that door at the end of the year?

This episode came from this week's 100% Principal Newsletter where every Friday I send you one thing you can take straight into Monday that will actually move the needle toward 100%. Join me at https://100percentprincipal.com.

Every morning you walk into school with a plan. And by 9am it's gone.

You're constantly interrupted, constantly pulled into decisions that aren't yours to make, constantly the person everyone is waiting on before they can move. You probably think you have a boundaries problem. You don't. You have a systems problem. And those two problems have completely different solutions.

I was on a podcast recently where the hosts threw every crisis scenario at me they had — low morale, declining scores, surface-level compliance, staff resistance. And every single time I kept arriving at the same answer. Not because I was being stubborn. Because it's the only answer that actually works. In this episode I'm going to show you exactly what's happening when a Builder slips back into leadership under pressure — and what you have to build right now so your school stops running on you.

In this episode I break down: — Why good principals lose their 100% vision under pressure — one reasonable decision at a time — The real reason your staff keeps pulling you into every meeting and waiting for your green light — What the difference between a time problem and a systems problem actually means for your school — The specific move you can make this week to start fixing it — not next semester, this week

🤔 QUESTION OF THE DAY: Where is your school running on you right now instead of on what you built?

This episode came from this week's 100% Principal Newsletter — where every Friday I send you one thing you can take straight into Monday that will actually move the needle toward 100%. Join me at https://100percentprincipal.com.

After eight years, this podcast has a new name, a new format, and one very specific focus: principals who have decided that 100Percent student success isn't an aspiration. It's something they're going to build. In this first episode, I'm telling you exactly what The 100Percent Principal Podcast is, who it's for, and what you can expect every week when you show up. Whether you're a sitting principal, an aspiring one, or a district leader who supports them, there's something here for you. Subscribe to the newsletter at 100percentprincipal.com and I'll see you April 15th.

For the last four weeks I've been naming something you already knew but couldn't say out loud — what's happening with your students, your teachers, your communities, and why everything you were trained to do feels like it's working less than it used to. Today is the final episode of this series. And I have two things for you: the answer you've been waiting for, and an announcement I've been sitting on for a long time. I'll give you the answer first. The announcement comes at the end — and no, before you say anything, I know what day it is. This is not a joke.