🎙️ Episode 007

Courage Over Comfort | Holding Adults Accountable - Ep 07

Hosts: Courtney Acosta & Mario Acosta
Podcast: The EdLeadership Pair – Unfiltered Conversations for Today’s School Leaders

📘 Episode Overview

Hard conversations don’t ruin culture; avoidance does. In this episode, Courtney and Mario tackle one of the most difficult parts of school leadership: holding adults accountable while still protecting psychological safety. They unpack why leaders confuse “nice” with “kind,” why comfort is not the same as safety, and what happens to standards and trust when accountability is delayed. You’ll hear why high performers disengage first, how inaction creates a slow exit of your strongest people, and why students ultimately pay the price. The episode closes with a practical, repeatable framework: A.A.C.T. (Ask, Anchor, Cite, Tie) to help leaders lead tough conversations with clarity, dignity, and follow-through.

🧠 Big Ideas from the Conversation

  • Avoidance erodes culture quietly.

  • When leaders don’t address adult performance, the strongest people disengage and standards drop over time.

  • Being “nice” can be self-preservation; being “kind” requires clarity.

  • Clear expectations reduce defensiveness. Consistency makes accountability predictable instead of personal.

  • High performers watch what you tolerate. When low performance has no consequences, trust disappears and your best people eventually leave. Students feel the ripple effect.

  • Inner-circle accountability is hardest. Addressing an assistant principal, principal, or close colleague requires courage, evidence, and clean process.

  • Accountability is protection, not punishment. It protects culture, standards, and student success.

🎯 Leadership Actions Recommended in This Episode

1. Use the A.A.C.T. conversation flow Ask for clarity first (lower defensiveness and gain context), then Anchor the conversation to a written standard, Cite specific evidence (dates, times, examples, and support provided), and Tie the behavior to its impact on students, team workload, culture, or trust.

2. Separate safety from comfort. Create psychological safety through respect, dignity, and fair process—not by avoiding the truth. Set the norm that feedback is part of growth for everyone (teachers, leaders, and the inner circle).

3. Protect your high performers on purpose. If you’re not addressing recurring issues, your best people will notice first. Name the standard, follow through consistently, and stop asking high performers to “cover” for chronic underperformance.

4. Document like a professional, not a prosecutor. Accountability isn’t blocked by strong contracts—poor documentation is. Track evidence through agreed systems so expectations apply to everyone and due process is clear.

5. Revisit and reinforce. End every conversation with next steps and a scheduled follow-up. If performance improves, celebrate it. If it doesn’t, escalate supports and clarify consequences—with dignity.

6. Grow your own leadership bench. Intentionally develop future leaders inside your organization. Hire for values, coach for growth, and prepare people to eventually take your job.

🔗 Connect With Us

Join our growing community of school leaders navigating today’s challenges together. Let us know what topics you want us to tackle next.

🎙️ Episode 006

Progress Over Perfection | How Leaders Pilot, Sandbox, and Pivot – Ep 06

Hosts: Courtney Acosta & Mario Acosta
Podcast: The EdLeadership Pair – Unfiltered Conversations for Today’s School Leaders

📘 Episode Overview

Build the plane while flying it, without losing trust. Schools and districts rarely get perfect conditions, and waiting for total clarity usually means waiting too long. In this episode, Courtney and Mario unpack why iteration is not a sign of weak planning but is actually a core leadership skill. They explore the pressure leaders feel to have the “final version” before acting, and why momentum often matters more than certainty. Using practical examples (like pilots, sandboxes, and PLC implementation), they share how leaders can create safe spaces to test ideas, learn fast, and improve over time. The conversation also tackles a hard truth: leaders must be willing to abandon ideas that aren’t working before ego, time, or “pot commitment” traps the organization in a bad move. Finally, they close with a leadership mindset that protects trust: give away the credit when things go right and own the responsibility when they don’t.

🧠 Big Ideas from the Conversation

Iteration is a leadership skill, not a planning failure. Progress and momentum beat paralysis by perfection. Pilots reduce risk by testing with a small group, on a timeline, with clear success criteria. Sandboxes create psychological safety so teams can experiment, break things, and tell the truth about what doesn’t work. Culture is a litmus test: if the organization rejects a pilot, leaders must listen before scaling. Great leaders avoid being “pot committed”, they pivot when data and feedback show an idea isn’t right for this context. Trust grows when leaders share success with teams and absorb accountability when things go sideways.

🎯 Leadership Actions Recommended in This Episode

1. Name the work as Version 1 (and say what Version 2 will improve) Communicate that improvement is a learning process. Set expectations that the work will be refined as data and feedback come in.

2. Design pilots with guardrails Pick a small group, set a short timeline, define what “working” means, and identify the measures you’ll use to decide whether to scale, revise, or stop.

3. Build a sandbox with psychological safety Create a low-stakes space to test tools and processes. Make it safe for early adopters to report failures without fear, and celebrate the learning.

4. Let culture speak before you scale Share early pilot results with adjacent teams and listen closely. Enthusiasm is a green light; resistance is information to address, not something to bulldoze.

5. Avoid “pot commitment” Set decision points where you will pause and evaluate. If the data says it’s not working, pivot quickly and don’t throw good time after bad time to protect ego.

6. Protect trust through ownership Give away the credit when the work succeeds, and take responsibility when it doesn’t. That combination strengthens followership and keeps people willing to try again.

🔗 Connect With Us

Join our growing community of school leaders navigating today’s challenges together. Let us know what topics you want us to tackle next.

🎙️ Episode 005

Don't Be The Bottleneck | How Leaders Build Strong Teams - Ep. 05

Hosts: Courtney Acosta & Mario Acosta
Podcast: The EdLeadership Pair – Unfiltered Conversations for Today’s School Leaders

📘 Episode Overview

Leaders often say they want strong teams, but then unintentionally build systems where every decision runs through them. When that happens, the system becomes fragile, burnout accelerates, and progress slows. In this episode, Courtney and Mario unpack why leadership burnout is rarely about the workload itself. It’s about carrying too much of it alone. Drawing on real experiences from rural districts, large high schools, and district leadership roles, they explore how leaders can build functional teams regardless of school size or title structure.

The conversation moves beyond generic “teamwork” talk and into practical leadership design: identifying who belongs on your leadership team, avoiding micromanagement traps, distributing expertise, and creating systems that function even when the leader steps away. Courtney and Mario also share concrete strategies for running effective leadership team meetings, including agenda design, decision-making norms, escalation practices, and how to stop unproductive spirals without shutting people down. At its core, this episode challenges leaders to ask a hard question: If the school only runs smoothly when you’re there, is your leadership actually sustainable?

🧠 Big Ideas from the Conversation

  • Strong leaders don’t hold all the decisions; they distribute them.

  • Leadership burnout comes from isolation, not effort.

  • Every school has a team, even when it doesn’t have formal titles.

  • Micromanagement creates bottlenecks, not quality.

  • Distributive leadership speeds decisions and protects organizations from turnover.

  • Leaders must decide what they need to know deeply versus what they need visibility into.

  • If one person holds all the knowledge, the system is already at risk.

  • Effective teams require structure, not just trust.

  • Meeting agendas shape culture and decision-making.

  • Schools that collapse when leaders leave are signaling a design problem.

🎯 Leadership Actions Recommended in This Episode

1. Redefine who counts as your leadership team

Look beyond titles. Teachers, administrative assistants, registrars, counselors, students, and parents all hold critical system knowledge. Leadership teams are about function, not hierarchy.

2. Audit where decisions bottleneck

Identify areas where everything must run through you. Ask: What decisions could be owned, supported, or shared without sacrificing quality?

3. Practice distributive leadership intentionally

Ensure more than one person understands every critical process. Build depth, backups, and shared ownership to protect against turnover and burnout.

4. Shift from “doing” to “watching”

Leaders should activate others to do the work while maintaining visibility, accountability, and support. Step in only when systems break or barriers appear.

5. Structure leadership meetings to protect time and thinking

Use agendas built around three categories: Informational (read ahead) Action (decisions already made) Discussion (where collective thinking matters most)

6. Facilitate productive struggle...then decide

Encourage debate, dissent, and multiple perspectives — but know when to stop discussion, make a decision, and move forward.

7. Build psychological safety with clear norms

Create space for escalation, vulnerability, and quieter voices. Use tools like digital parking lots and intentional facilitation to ensure all perspectives are heard.

8. Design systems that survive your absence

If you can’t leave campus, attend training, or take a vacation without things falling apart, that’s a signal to redistribute leadership and strengthen systems.

🔗 Connect With Us

Join our growing community of school leaders navigating today’s challenges together. Let us know what topics you want us to tackle next.

🎙️ Episode 004

AI and School Policy | Protecting Learning - Ep. 04

Hosts: Courtney Acosta & Mario Acosta
Podcast: The EdLeadership Pair – Unfiltered Conversations for Today’s School Leaders

📘 Episode Overview

AAI policy isn’t about controlling technology — it’s about protecting learning. In this episode, Courtney and Mario continue their conversation on AI in schools by shifting the focus from classroom use to system-level policy decisions. Using recent research, real-world district examples, and legal risk scenarios, they explore why many school systems are dangerously underprepared for AI and what leaders must do now to protect students, staff, and instructional integrity. The conversation unpacks emerging research from MIT and other scholars on cognitive load, learning depth, and memory recall when students over-rely on AI tools. Courtney and Mario then connect that research directly to policy implications — including academic integrity, unreliable AI detection tools, data privacy risks, community readiness, and professional development expectations. Rather than promoting fear-based restrictions, this episode makes the case for clear, values-driven, research-informed AI policies that guide teachers, students, and administrators toward responsible, learning-centered use of AI.

🧠 Big Ideas from the Conversation

  • AI policy exists to protect learning, not control behavior.

  • Unreliable AI detection tools create serious legal and ethical risks.

  • Over-reliance on AI leads to shallow processing and weaker long-term learning.

  • Human thinking must begin and end every AI interaction.

  • Policy cannot be created in isolation from parents, students, and teachers.

  • Elementary, middle, and high school AI use must look different.

  • Data privacy violations are one of the biggest unseen AI risks in schools.

  • Most students and teachers currently have no clear guidance on AI use.

  • One-size-fits-all AI policies fail at the classroom level.

  • Professional learning around AI must be ongoing, embedded, and differentiated.

🎯 Leadership Actions Recommended in This Episode

1. Define the problem your AI policy is solving - Before writing policy, clarify your purpose: academic integrity, instructional quality, data privacy, staff efficiency, student preparedness — or all of the above. Policy without clarity creates confusion and risk.

2. Establish clear use categories - Explicitly define what AI use is allowed, limited, conditional, or prohibited, differentiated by role (students, teachers, administrators) and by grade band (elementary, middle, high school).

3. Do not rely on AI detection tools for discipline - AI detectors are inconsistent and unreliable. Using them as the sole evidence for academic misconduct exposes schools to lawsuits and long-term student harm.

4. Protect student data aggressively - Set strict guardrails around what data can never be entered into AI tools. Train staff on FERPA-aligned practices before encouraging AI use in PLCs or instructional planning.

5. Learn from districts already leading - Study existing models from districts like Chicago Public Schools, Dallas ISD, and state-level guidance such as Washington’s H–AI–H framework (Human → AI → Human).

6. Involve your community early - Parents, students, and teachers must be part of AI policy conversations. Surprising communities with AI policies invites backlash and erodes trust.

7. Commit to ongoing professional learning - AI training cannot be a one-time module. Leaders must plan for continuous, differentiated professional development that meets educators where they are.

8. Leverage AI to help build the policy itself - Use AI as a starting tool to draft frameworks, prompts, and guiding questions — then apply human judgment, values, and reflection before implementation.

🔗 Connect With Us

Join our growing community of school leaders navigating today’s challenges together. Let us know what topics you want us to tackle next.

🎙️ Episode 003

AI in Schools | Leadership Decisions That Matter - Ep. 03

Hosts: Courtney Acosta & Mario Acosta
Podcast: The EdLeadership Pair – Unfiltered Conversations for Today’s School Leaders

📘 Episode Overview

AI isn’t waiting for permission to enter schools. The leadership question is whether we shape its use ahead of time—through assessment redesign, transparent expectations, and community-ready policy—or whether we react after problems explode.

The episode argues that AI doesn’t have to kill learning or critical thinking… unless we keep assigning work that only asks students to produce answers. AI didn’t “invent” cheating, it exposed old problems, the real solution is assessment redesign. Detection tools are unreliable. The episode offers leaders a set of assessment moves that restore validity and preserve thinking.

🧠 Big Ideas from the Conversation

1. AI is inevitable, your leadership stance must be proactive.

2. Stop relying on detection as the primary strategy. Redesign assessment instead.

3. Make learning visible again: drafts, conferencing, oral defense, in-class starts.

4. Adopt transparency norms: tool used, prompts given, edits made.

5. Policy must be co-built with stakeholders, especially parents and students.

6. Use AI to reduce burnout, not remove teachers. Automate tasks, preserve judgment.

7. Shift outcomes upward: justification, application, critique, transfer.

🎯 Leadership Actions Recommended in This Episode

1. AI is inevitable—your leadership stance must be proactive.

2. Stop relying on detection as the primary strategy. Redesign assessment instead.

3. Make learning visible again: drafts, conferencing, oral defense, in-class starts.

4. Adopt transparency norms: tool used, prompts given, edits made.

5. Policy must be co-built with stakeholders—especially parents and students.

6. Use AI to reduce burnout, not remove teachers. Automate tasks, preserve judgment.

7. Shift outcomes upward: justification, application, critique, transfer.

🔗 Connect With Us

Join our growing community of school leaders navigating today’s challenges together. Let us know what topics you want us to tackle next.

🎙️ Episode 002

Developing School Leaders: The Books That Shaped Us

Hosts: Courtney Acosta & Mario Acosta
Podcast: The EdLeadership Pair – Unfiltered Conversations for Today’s School Leaders

📘 Episode Overview

Does reading really matter for school leaders who are already overwhelmed by the demands of the job?

In this episode, Courtney and Mario make a compelling case that reading is not optional for effective leadership—it is essential. They share the books that most shaped their own leadership journeys, why those texts mattered at critical moments in their careers, and how the ideas inside those books directly influenced how they led people, managed change, and protected school culture.

Rather than focusing on education-only texts, this conversation explores business, history, and change-management books that translate powerfully into school leadership contexts. Along the way, Courtney and Mario unpack lessons about systems, culture, dignity, consistency, trust, and developing future leaders from within.

📚 Books Featured in This Episode

  • Work Rules! – Laszlo Bock
    Why systems matter, why culture eats strategy for breakfast, and when to “let the inmates run the asylum.”

  • Our Iceberg Is Melting – John Kotter
    A simple parable that explains why organizations resist change and how leaders can build momentum through the willing.

  • Lincoln on Leadership – Donald T. Phillips
    Leadership lessons from Abraham Lincoln, with a focus on humility, dignity, consistency, and trusted advisors.

  • Built to Last – Jim Collins & Jerry Porras
    What visionary organizations do differently—and why culture, core ideology, and internal leadership pipelines matter.

🧠 Big Ideas from the Conversation

  • Reading expands perspective. Leaders who stop reading eventually lead in isolation.

  • Systems protect organizations. Sustainable success cannot depend on individual heroes.

  • Culture resists change by default. Momentum must be built with the willing, not forced on everyone.

  • Dignity preserves relationships. Strong leaders challenge ideas without destroying people.

  • Consistency beats charisma. Discipline and follow-through matter more than chasing every new initiative.

  • Great leaders grow replacements. The strongest cultures build leadership capacity from within.

🎯 Leadership Actions Recommended in This Episode

1. Build systems, not dependency on individuals
Audit your campus or district processes and ask: What would break if one person left tomorrow? Prioritize systematizing critical work so success is not personality-dependent.

2. Start change with the willing
When leading change, identify staff members who already see the need. Pilot, refine, and build momentum before asking the entire organization to move.

3. Protect dignity during disagreement
Commit to addressing conflict without humiliation. Leaders can hold firm to expectations while still allowing people to save face and maintain relationships.

4. Identify your “Grant”
Find a trusted advisor who will tell you the hard truth, challenge your thinking, and remain loyal once decisions are made. Leadership is too complex to do alone.

5. Practice disciplined consistency
Resist chasing every new initiative. Decide what matters most, then protect your staff by staying focused and consistent over time.

6. Grow your own leadership bench
Intentionally develop future leaders inside your organization. Hire for values, coach for growth, and prepare people to eventually take your job.

🔗 Connect With Us

Join our growing community of school leaders navigating today’s challenges together. Let us know what topics you want us to tackle next.

Things We Wish We’d Known as New Leaders | Hard Truths: The EdLeadership Pair – Ep. 01

Episode summary: We discuss contemporary issues that today's school leaders face. We offer insights and advice for leaders and share some of our favorite leadership experiences. You will also catch a few married couple jokes sprinkled throughout : )

In this episode, we discuss things we wish we had known as new leaders. We share practical strategies and ideas for leaders of all experience levels to help them solve some of today's most difficult leadership challenges.

Connect with us on Instagram  @TheEdLeadershipPair