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Relational Leadership: Dr. Rachel Edoho-Eket · C3 Connecting, Coaches, Cognition

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  C3, Connecting Coaches' Cognition. It's time to get some coaching
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  for the coach.
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  Welcome back to another episode of C3. I'm Courtney Graskin, and I'm here
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  with Sandy Heiser. Sandy, what's new in your world?
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  Oh man, it is. We're in football season.
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  We have at Skyline a brand new stadium, so we've
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  gotten to have our stadium open our game and
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  the kids are just really excited. And of course it's homecoming season,
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  so it's, it's a lot of fun here right now. Yeah,
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  that's so nice for them to have a beautiful stadium. The place is just
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  amazing, but what a positive message to send to our kids that we believe
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  in you and you're worth having such a nice stadium.
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  It is. And they're really proud. They're really proud of it. And the
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  crazy thing is, it's a great incentive to talk to
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  seniors who are struggling about being the first class to walk across
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  the stage in the new stadium. That is a,
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  that is very, a huge incentive. So they're really excited
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  about it. You just gave me chills. I know.
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  Like, walk them out there if you're thinking about, you know, you don't, you can't
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  get this done. Let's go take a walk out to the new stadium. What do
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  you think now? It's like a Rudy moment. Yes, it totally
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  is. Well, and it sounds like you had a great interview with Rachel. I'm so
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  sorry that I missed this interview. Yeah,
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  she's amazing. Um, but I think the recording will really speak to you,
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  um, in your role as a leader. And hopefully lots of principals are listening
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  because this episode is definitely for them. We'd love to
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  welcome Dr. Rachel Alouek to C3 today.
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  Rachel is an award-winning educator, leader, author, speaker, and longtime
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  public school educator dedicated to developing strong leaders
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  and thriving school communities. She serves as the principal
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  of a National Blue Ribbon School in Maryland and is an adjunct professor at McDaniel
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  College. A former president of the Maryland Association of Elementary School
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  Principals, she was named one of, of District Administration Magazine's
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  Top 100 Educational influencers and received an
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  ISTE and ASCD 20 to Watch Award in
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  2026. She's the co-author of Relational Intelligence:
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  The Key to Exceptional School Leadership and author of Principal's Journey: Navigating
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  the Path to School Leadership. Her work emphasizes relational
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  leadership, mentorship, educator wellbeing, and creating school cultures where
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  students and educators can thrive. Thank you so much,
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  Rachel, for joining us today. Great to be here. Thanks,
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  Courtney. So can you just give us a little background on your journey
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  in education and how you've gotten to where you are today?
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  Yes. So I started my career as a kindergarten teacher, and I
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  loved everything about that work, working with young students and
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  helping to teach them how to read and write and do math, all those
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  wonderful things, helping them discover new things and also welcoming their
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  families into the That's something that I really valued and
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  something that I've been able to do now in my current role as a
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  school administrator. So I transitioned from kindergarten right into
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  administration and to the assistant principalship. So I did that for
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  4 years and now I'm entering into my 8th year as a principal.
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  So I have now been an administrator longer than I've been
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  a classroom teacher. I've hit year 21 and this is my 12th
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  year at the school. Administration, but as I was telling with you earlier,
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  I really love elementary school. And so I really don't want to get much further
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  from where I am right now because it's really important for me to stay close
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  to students. Yeah, those elementary kids have my heart
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  too, so I completely understand that sentiment.
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  And congratulations, 21 years is a milestone in education.
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  Um, and it's crazy when you translate, when it transfers
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  over to when you've been longer outside of the classroom than in.
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  Yeah. Yeah, for sure. It's something that I remember thinking,
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  oh my goodness, how can you stay like fresh and relevant being
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  outside of the classroom longer? But it has really
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  helped me to stay connected with teachers in, um,
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  being in the classroom and being really close with our students. That helps
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  to keep me relevant. And I sit in the PDs with everyone else.
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  And that also helps me to understand what our teachers
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  need and what's happening with the curriculum and things. So I still feel like I'm
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  still fresh. Which is a good thing. Uh, and I also get
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  to connect with other school leaders and, and learn from them as well. And my
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  current role, I'm past president of the Maryland Association of Elementary
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  School Principals, but for the past year I've served as president in that role.
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  And that has given me a lot of time
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  to get to know school leaders across our state and also across the country.
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  So that's been a great learning experience as well. Yeah,
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  that's amazing. You're bringing such a wide perspective to your educators that
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  you're working with, which then trickles down to all of the students. Thank you.
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  So I know your work highlights the importance of teacher development.
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  How can our leaders balance accountability with building trust and professional
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  growth among their staff? And this is a great question, and I
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  think one that leaders are still grappling with, but I think ultimately
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  we have to remember that everyone in our building is here to serve students
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  and everyone is under a different journey. So we have teachers
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  in the building who are brand new. We have teachers who are coming
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  from second careers who may not have some
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  of that pedagogy and background. And then we have veteran teachers in our
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  building who may have been around for a long time, who have a lot of
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  knowledge base. And so I think it's important to really differentiate the supports that
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  we give to our teachers and staff. And that starts with getting to
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  know people and getting to know what their strengths are and where their areas
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  of needs are. And in my school, I like to think about how I can
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  pair people together to really help with that accountability
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  piece. So as a principal, I don't always want to be the
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  first person criticizing or critiquing a teacher. I really love
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  to have opportunities to have like peer mentors or teacher
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  leaders who are already leading the work on their teams.
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  I might cover their classroom so that they can go into another
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  teacher's classroom. And observe and provide some level of feedback.
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  I think that that's very, very helpful, especially as we're establishing relationships
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  across the school. And yes, there are definitely times when we will need to
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  have conversations that may be accountability-based,
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  but at the same time, I think it's important for us, like one thing that
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  I do as a school principal is I will meet teachers in their classrooms
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  instead of always having them come up to the front office, because sometimes the front
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  office can be intimidating to come to the principal's office. And so I find that
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  having that equal playing field is really helpful for teachers as
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  we are establishing relationships and also working on improvement.
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  Yeah, I love how just humanizing it is. You're having your teachers build their
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  network of support so they have their people to go to. And then when you
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  need to be in that role of being the administrator or the evaluator, you can
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  easily step into that, but hopefully they've heard some of it from a peer first.
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  Yes. That's important. Yeah. And just meeting
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  people where they are, it's so simple, but we have to be reminded of that
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  constantly. Just check in.
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  Checking in and everything does not always have to be about instruction,
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  you know, checking in to see how someone's weekend was or what's happening
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  with their family or their favorite pet or the TV shows. All those
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  things are important to making people feel comfortable and valued
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  and safe in our buildings. And that's really what we need. It's hard to be
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  a teacher. It's hard to be an administrator right now. And so anything
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  that we can do to help build a positive rapport, we should be doing it.
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  Yeah. And that goes both ways. You know, the teachers, let's be
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  human with our administrators and vice versa. Let's just have real
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  conversations. Yes. The grace is definitely important. That's something that we've
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  talked about a lot. I'll say to staff, I'm very far
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  from perfect and I don't expect you all to think that I'm perfect because I'm
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  going to fall short there. I'm gonna do my best. I'm gonna communicate
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  with you. If I make a mistake, I will apologize. And I think that those
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  are more of the conversations we need to have to kind of normalize,
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  uh, when things don't go right, how can we respond and still be
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  in a good place? Definitely.
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  Based on your work in school leadership development, what are the most common
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  misconceptions leaders have about what it takes to drive
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  lasting school improvement? I think part of it is around
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  that accountability piece. I know that there are some people who believe
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  you have to, you know, be in a teacher's class every
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  single day, staying on top of them. Yes, that,
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  that can help, but I think it also creates, can create
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  an environment of fear or intimidation, and that's not something
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  that we want to do. I think there are multiple ways that we can use,
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  utilize resources to help someone improve. I mean, I think about in
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  my own life, when I am struggling with something, it doesn't make
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  me feel better if someone's on my back about it all the time. Now,
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  if they're giving me a resource and I have time to check, or I have
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  time to talk with a peer or to ask for advice, that's different.
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  And so I think we just need to humanize that process a little
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  better and just say that we're here as supportive
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  partners instead of making it sometimes feel intimidating for people.
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  Yeah, and I think that's really important to let things breathe. Like if you just
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  talk to someone about something needing to be adjusted or changed, how much time
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  do we need to give them to implement and play around with it before
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  we're back in the classroom checking on things? Agreed. Agreed.
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  Yeah, and I know you know that in your coaching role. I'm sure you've given
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  advice to people and give them time to process it and do it in,
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  do it in action, then come back and see. Yeah, and it's easy
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  to fall in that trap. We're so fast-paced. I feel like in education we're onto
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  the next thing, but things take time. It takes time to make shifts,
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  and if it's true change, people need time to play around
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  with it and get comfortable. Agreed. Definitely.
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  For leaders working in under-resourced or high-need schools,
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  what strategies from your work have proven most effective in sustaining
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  momentum and avoiding burnout while still driving meaningful
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  change? I think a couple of things I know I can speak
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  to just in terms of the sustainability piece. We are like a, we're not
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  a Title I school. We're not a school that has a ton of resources.
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  We're kind of right in the middle there. And so we have had
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  to focus on community engagement to support
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  some of the things that we want to do. Just one example, around the holidays
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  time, we used to have like a major budget where we could buy all
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  of these snacks and pies for staff.
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  Staff, but we were not able to do that over the past year or two.
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  And so we asked our community if they could just come together,
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  put some baked goods. We made like lists in SignUpGenius and
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  cookies and pies and cakes. And we ended up with
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  this amazing cart for our staff just to
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  get some holiday treats. Everyone had bags and they could take what
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  they wanted home. And the best part was that the students were saying, I made
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  those cookies, or I was with my mom and dad and we made those at
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  home. Do you like them? So it really ended up being a nice
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  community way to engage and to support our teachers
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  in a different way. And so that's one of the things that I've had to
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  think about is in the absence of a large budget, how can we
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  get creative with how we're supporting teachers?
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  Just, you know, from a standpoint of sort
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  of the emotional social part of it,
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  it's also around instruction. So we've
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  tried to work with different tools to see if we can't
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  get like physical tutors in this building, what tools can
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  we use for math instruction? So we, um, used a
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  program last year. We were able to utilize some school funds to give
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  all of our students access to a mathematics program just
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  on math facts. So we were just, we were targeting one skill,
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  but it was across the building and we saw major improvements.
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  So we're really trying to think about how can we use funds
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  in different ways now that our budgets are really tight because the money
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  hasn't really changed. We're just kind of shifting how we're using it.
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  Yeah. A lot of creative problem solving around finances and education right
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  now. Yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately, that's where we
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  are. And I don't see that changing anytime soon. That's the value I
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  think of going to conferences and speaking with people in your district or in
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  other places, because you can really get some good ideas. For how you
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  can make school work that's best in your community.
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  Yeah, I think we're just gonna have to come at things from a totally different
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  perspective and look at how to, you know, really guard our resources
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  and use them well. Yeah.
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  What advice might you give to a new administrator who's just starting out in this
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  world? Ooh, this is a great question. What advice would
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  I give? I always tell new leaders, don't try to do
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  everything. That's something that I fell into
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  a trap. So, I guess this answered your other question as well. Like, what are
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  some misconceptions? I think that I came up trained to
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  do everything and to really,
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  you know, not have any boundaries and just to push, push, push.
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  And what ended up happening was I almost pushed myself out of the job
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  because I could not sustain myself. I was a new principal during
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  the onset of COVID-19. And so, there was a lot
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  going on and I really didn't know how to manage all of it. I just
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  continued to take on more and more to the point where I wasn't able to
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  do much of anything. And so, what I've learned to tell leaders is
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  this is not a job where one person can do everything.
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  That's not what this job was meant to look like. And it definitely
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  is not something that's sustainable. So, you have to utilize
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  the people in your buildings. You have to tap into the talent
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  that's already here. We're surrounded by amazing teachers and staff. Who have talents
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  and we need to utilize those talents and let
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  everyone share their gifts with the school. And so I just
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  encourage leaders to continue to find the gifts that everyone has and
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  give them opportunities to use them.
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  That's so beautifully put. Like, there are so many gifts in
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  a building. Let's, you know, put our everything aside and really tap
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  into those people. And people feel so honored. Too, when you ask them like,
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  oh, can you run this activity or can you help us plan this event?
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  Yes. And that's another thing was, as we're looking at
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  different schedules for the coming school year, as we're looking at right
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  now, you know, this time of year we're making adjustments. We're thinking about
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  how can we maximize the human resources, the wonderful people
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  that we have, and asking people that question, what do
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  you like to do? And Figuring out ways that people can do more
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  of it really helps people feel important
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  and that their work is valuable in the school. Yeah, that's wonderful.
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  Well, we're gonna shift into the rapid-fire portion. So in approximately 10
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  seconds or less, no pressure,
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  what's one strategy every administrator should have in their back
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  pocket? Ooh, I have no
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  idea. A strategy? I, I don't
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  know. That's a hard one. A go-to move that you have that you pull
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  out. A go-to move? I mean,
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  it's not a move. I'm just gonna say every administrator should have multiple pairs of
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  shoes in his or her office, period. They should definitely have multiple pairs of shoes
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  cuz there's too many different things that happen in a day. I love it.
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  And if my co-host Sandy was here, she would agree because we were at
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  a training and her shoe broke the other day. Yes. So.
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  Mm-hmm. Always have multiple pairs of shoes.
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  And if you had about 60 seconds alone with a new administrator,
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  what's something, a message you'd impart with them?
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  I would say continue to find the joy in this work. There are so
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  many challenges that happen on a daily basis, and we don't
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  spend enough time talking about what we love about this job and what's
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  going well. And so if we can find the points in our day
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  to do more of what we love with students and with our staff and families,
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  then that can really help to change how we view our jobs.
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  And so I would say find the joy in your work and keep
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  showing up every day. I love it. And I love your positivity
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  around all of this, and I really appreciate you taking time out
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  of your busy day to join us. Thank you for having me. It's been a
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  fun conversation. Rachel offers such wonderful advice for
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  our leaders. My favorite was, what are the gifts within your building and how might
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  you leverage leverage them. Thanks for listening
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  to another episode of C3. Be sure to follow us on social media.
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  C3, connecting coaches' cognition.
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  Whose thinking will you mediate today?