Leadership Insights with Dr. Albert Bramante

You loved your daily dose of inspiration with your Morning Boost. Now AWB Adventures brings you the complete picture. Bye. Welcome to AWB's Boost Bundle, where we've combined all the valuable insights from this week's episodes into one convenient Listen your leadership deep dive starts. Now welcome to your Morning Boost. Your daily leadership advice to help you lead your school community. Brought to you by AWB Education and sponsored by Grundmeier Leader Services, where together we are transforming education, one leader at a time. Now here's your host, Adam Bush. Happy Monday. I'm Adam Bush, and I'm thrilled to kick off this week with an exceptional guest who's going to share his insights that are not only relevant to the world of performing arts and everything else, but also are profoundly applicable to us as school leaders. This entire week, we have an immense pleasure of hosting Doctor Albert Bramonte. Today, Doctor Bermonte will be talking about the power of networking and the crucial importance of cultivating and keeping a strong, supportive professional circle. This is something that can either lift us up or hold us back, and doctor Bremonte is here to show us how to make it work for us. Well, thank you Adam for inviting me. To be here. Absolutely, thank you. So it's the important thing seal for any leader to do is to networ able to network, and that's whether you're working as a coworker or even even building a way through a company. The important thing is to network and to build connections in your field that can that can help you, but also that you can help other people. So some people feel. That networking can be transactional, heavily transactional, which in one aspect you could say that. But what I often approach networking is when you're meeting people, whether it's at a conference, a launching, or just even a scriptwork networking event, is to always approach that contact as a way for you just number one, just being interested in them without expecting anything in return. So what type of work are you doing? I'm curious what type of work are you doing? And be genuinely curious, not superficially garius, but genuinely curious about the type of work they're doing, and really important of communicating. So keeping good eye contact, you know, if you're in person, and just being an overall good, good listener is important. Get to know their name and say their name a couple of times, you know in the conversation, you know say like oh, you know, Jim, this was important or a Jena, or you know, like this is what I like what you said here. So because people like the sound that are on Nate in moderation mm hmm hmm. Yeah, because if it's successive, it becomes polital condescending. So the important thing. Is to develop the connection, and you want to develop a warm connection. So again it's not just hey, what can you do for me? It's more of I want to know what you're doing, so I'm curious what. Are you interested in? And that's kind of like a tip like if you kind of walk the approach with like you know, start like almost every question, well not every question, but most questions of hey, I'm curious. About you know, what did you do? What exactly are you working on the moment? And people love to talk for themselves, so you get them warmed up and then they're gonna turn and state and so what do you do? And there's your opening to to some degree, I'm tell them what you do and then you ask, you know, can you change information? I wouldn't recommend necessarily going up to somebody these strangers and say, you know, here's my card, and then it becomes a little okay, and really talk about what you're interested in. And then the important thing where a lot of people fail with networking is they don't follow up. You take a lot of people And now I was guilty of this too for a while, where I have a stack of business cards on my desk and I don't even remember you know some of these people. So the important thing is like right immediately, like even the next day, twenty four to forty eight hours, no more than forty eight hours, sending you a note. You know, Hey, I really mentioned their name. Hey, I really appreciate meaning you the other day. If it's any way I can support you, you know, please let me know. I'd love to keep in contact. And so what you're doing is you're developing warm contact over time because people want to see it to be a genuine connection, and I'm all about genuine that's not this fake transactional hey what can you do for me? Yeah, which happens a lot, you know, where sometimes people expect like, hey, how can you help me? And help me rather than if you approach it or how can I help you, people are going to be more open to hearing things. I mean, we know why you're going to a networking event. It's it's kind of you know understood the end role. You're going there to get people to help you out do. But I think if you approach it a less fell the way by building a genuine connection, not just a transactional what can you do for me type of things, but I want to get to know you genuinely and who are you? You know, what makes you tick and how can I help you? So this way, there's a one law on. Psychology called reciproce today, which is if you help somebody else or get some sort of interest, they're going to move more likely to help help you. Go return. A huge thank you to doctor Albert Bramonte for starting our week off. This is a great topic. I really appreciate this, such an impactful discussion. That's awesome stuff. The work you do is so vital and the support that you give our community is really what makes a difference. So thank you for joining us today. Look forward to the rest of this week. This is going to be great. Thank you well, Thank you listeners. Again, have a great Monday. Look forward to some more from doctor Albert Bramonte this entire week as we really dive into his mind and how we can help lead our schools and our buildings every single day. Thank you for listening. We will talk with you again tomorrow. You have been listening to your Morning Boost by AWB Education in partnership with Grunmeyer Leader Services. You can find out more about our services by clicking on the links in the description. Remember, you are doing this vital job that only a few can do. So until next time, thank you for your service to your Welcome to your Morning Boost, your daily leadership advice to help you lead your school community, brought to you by AWB Education and sponsored by Grundmeier Leader Services, where together we are transforming education, one leader at a time. Now here's your host, Adam Bush. Good morning and a very happy Tuesday to you. I'm Adam Bush and I'm so glad you've joined us for another Morning Boost with our incredible guest this week, doctor Albert Bramonte. Yesterday we dived in the power of building a supportive network, and today doctor Bramonte is going to expand on that by talking more about a more challenging aspect monitoring your social circle. This is about making conscious choices about who you let in your professional and personal orbit and ensuring those individuals are contributing to your growth and not hindering. This is a crucial topic for all leaders and I just I can't wait to hear his take. Okay, well, thank you Adam again and great to be a part of you guys again. So the one thing I want to talk to you about is really monitoring the social medical So yesterday we talked about the power of networking and how important that is and how to network, but I also want to talk about the quality now of your social cirical So it's important to have do it. You do need a supportive network, especially you know if you're a principal administrator, which can sometimes be a lonely profession because being you know, sometimes in charge of others or on the dop can. Sometimes be alone. So it's great to have a support network now once. For also importance to really monitor your connection, whether again you're a beginning leadership or genial leaders or in senior leadership, because very often we become almost the product of the company we keep. So if we're around people that are negative, that are complaining, or that are feeling sorry for themselves, or just simply have the victim mentality. What often happens is it'll start rubbing off onto us and we start responding in that same exact way. Now, on the other hand, if we around people that build us up, it can really help us to really develop our skills. So, especially if you're as you're beginning and you're on your journey of being a principal and superintendent, it's important to be around other principles and superintendents too, even those that have kind of like retired and maybe that are still somewhat involved, because you can learn a lot from that, can get a lot of wisdom and sometimes even like improve your learning curve on certain things that maybe you can do things that work, adopt systems at work, but also minimize some of the mistakes that may have been made over over the time being. So it's really important to network. But the important thing is to really care for the network that you're around. And if you start feeling yourself drained or even just getting a little bit of burnout, it might be an indication or sign that you may be in the wrong crowd or hanging out the wrong crowd or the wrong associates. So you want to be very careful and be very very mindful of that. And so what's important, you know, even though I talked about the power of networking, the power of having people, it's all always about at the end of the day, quality over quantity. So even if your social circle is a three or four people, Matt, that's better than to have. You know, the better have three four stylid connections than they have nine, ten, superficial or weaker connections. So really, at the end of the day, you want to be cultivating and monitoring your environment so that you are on the road to success and you're around people that build you up resident pull you down. Well, that that is really good advice to have. I know that it's hard sometimes to find enough people if you're in a smaller district or if you're in a rural district, but it certainly is important to seek those people out. I really appreciate those words of wisdom today. Thank you listeners. I appreciate hope you out a wonderful Tuesday. I have a great Tuesday, and we'll be back again tomorrow with more from Doctor Albert Bramonte as we continue this dive this week on trying to help you lead your school and your community. Again, thanks for listening, Doctor Bramonte will look forward to talking with you again tomorrow. Thank you, Adam, you have been listening to your Morning Boost by AWB Education in partnership with Grundmeyer Leader Services. You can find out more about our services by clicking on the links in the description. Remember, you are doing this vital job that only a few can do. So until next time, thank you for your service to your Welcome to your Morning Boost, your daily leadership advice to help you lead your school community, brought to you by AWB Education and sponsored by Grundmeyer Leader Services, where together we are transforming education, one leader at a time. Now here's your host, Adam Bush. Good morning and a very happy Wednesday out there to you Boosters. I'm back again and thank you for joining again on your Morning Boost. We are fortunate to continue our conversation this week with doctor Albert Bramonte. Today he's tackling a topic that might feel a little counterintuitive, and that's the fear of success. As leaders were constantly pushing for success in our schools, our students and ourselves. But what happens when we're so close we get scared. Doctor Bramonte is going to help us understand why we sometimes self sabotage right on the brink of a major breakthrough and how to overcome that fear. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to our incredible guest, doctor Albert Bramonte, to walk us through his insights on this vital topic. Doctor Bremonte, that flora is all yours. Thank you, Adam. It is talented. It is a count of intuitive fear, but ultimately, at the end of the day, really roots to the idea of change. Fear of change. And this we see this a lot people with administer as rituals when they get promoted overnight. Maybe at one point they were the teacher and all of a sudden they're in charge of a district school and so now there's a lot of responsibility on your shoulder. And while that. Is exciting sometimes and a major accomplishment, it's scary at some point it there's a lot of changes that are going to be rooted into that. So what can happen is is change is scary because it's also about relationships to everything's going to change in your life, more workload, even more pressure that you're going to face now, more scrutiny than you might have if you were just a teacher or just a smaller scale supervisor. You have a lot more scrutiny to give a lot more eyes on you now and that can be scared. And how related to self sabotage is It's not like a conscious fear, but it comes to a point where our brain is there to keep us safe. So keeping us safe needs protecting us from fear. And if it's if we really fear that that excess responsibility, that extra obligation, just just the fact of more arriving someone uprooted buyer success, even that what it's going to do is protect us at all costs from that. And what we mean by protection, what that's going to look like is it'll help hold you back. So it's okay, what you was just going going to strive, We're going to keep ourselves at this level. I mean, I feel fake and that's what the brain craves, the safety and security, and so that can sometimes just hold us back. And that's why sometimes you'll see you know, and I'm sure for those of you listening. Can can even see this in students that you work with too, that really have that potential, they're not putting applying themselves. And the same thing goes for principle and superintendency. May have a teacher that you see has a lot of potential, but they're just not pulling their weight or they're just not reaching it, and that can be due to the fact that there's a little fear there, a little fear of the pressure of you know, my life is going to change, the relationships are going to change, my workload's going to change, and that in itself can be fundamentally scary. And what better way to protect us from again from that scary feeling is keeping us safe by not taking act and so in a sense, that's self sabotaging. That's what we see. Sometimes people get. So close and yet they take themselves out of the running. And so it could be missing the appointment or just not wanting to do it, and your brain will rationalize easily. I's gonna sit there and say, I'm fearful. It's gonna come out of reasons like maybe you don't want the position, or maybe you know it'll come up. It'll reflect itself about something wrong with the position or something's wrong with with whatever it is you're seeking. And so therefore it's like, okay, I won't do it. And what's really going on is that there's really fundamentally fear that's happening on some level. Now, fear in itself is a very productive mechanism. That's what keeps us alive for centuries, is fear because it tells us to avoid danger. Now, the dangers that we faced thousands of years ago does not affect us anymore because we're safe. We're in a more industrialized nation, you know, we have thousands, you know, and safety. But our brain is still the same reptilian way that it was, you know, a thousands of years ago. So when it perceives fear or perceived any type of disruption, it's gonna do everything in the power and protect you, which is again in some aspects of doing this job and maybe going on overdrove. So the important thing is, I guess even to recognize that that might be a possibility that if you feel yourself just not why can't I do anything right? Or why is why so close? But yet I keep messing up? Well, it may you know, yes, you are. You know that may be somewhere true, that you are doing things that may be taking out of running. But the important thing is to look at them. Why. Why is? And maybe there's something that's been addressed and that might be the fear fear of leveling up. Wow, what a fascinating topic, This idea that we can be afraid of success, not just failure. I mean that's something a lot of us can relate to. That's that's impressive. Well, thank you for your advice on recognizing those moments and pushing through that fear. It's a powerful reminder that true leadership means being brave enough to embrace new heights even when it's uncomfortable. So that's really good. I love that today. Thank you doctor Bremonte for that incredibly insightful discussion. Appreciate you joining us again. We've got a couple more days this week. Just love these topics. You've got a lot of great insight for us today. So thanks again for your willingness to explore these challenging topics. It's what makes your work so impactful. And listeners, if you want to get more on doctor Bramonte's work, you can reach out to him. He could be contacted or you can see his web page at Albert Bremonte dot com. He's got a lot of really good stuff out there. You've got a lot of podcasts out there too. There's a lot of really really good topics that can relate to our work as school administrators. So take the time to reach out listeners and get a little bit more of his work out there. But otherwise, thank you for listening. Have a wonderful Wednesday. We will talk with you again tomorrow. You have been listening to your Morning Boost by AWB Education in partnership with Grunmeyer Leaders Services. You can find out more about our services by clicking on the links. In the description. Remember, you are doing this vital job that only a few can do. So until next time, thank you for your service to your Welcome to your Morning Boost, your daily leadership advice to help you lead your school community, brought to you by AWB Education and sponsored by Grundmeier Leader Services, where together we are transforming education, one leader at a time. Now here's your host, Adam Bush. Good morning and a very happy Thursday to you. Welcome back to your Morning Boost. I'm Adam Bush and it's a pleasure to have you here. We are continuing our phenomenal week with doctor Albert Bramonte, and today he's going to talk about a quality that is foundational to effective leadership, and that is developing resilience and grit. In the world of education, where we face daily challenges and setbacks, these qualities are not just nice to have, they are absolutely essential. Doctor Bramonte is going to give us some practical advice on how we can cultivate these traits in ourselves and our teams. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to our incredible guest, doctor Albert Bramonte, to walk us through as insights on this vital topic. Thanks for being here again. Today and thank you Adam for having me. So the important thing if we look at the word resilience, it's kind of like the ability to bounce back and to adapt and not only adapt, but let them make the. Stronger these experiences. So especially with education, because the idea of resilience is extremely important in leadership because we need to model that for the staff we oversee. And then also that's that's gonna then crickle down to the students. In a couple of different degrees so we want to model being able to bounce back from setbacks and being able to handle challenges and obstacles that come away which they are going through. That to the human experience. So and then grit refers to just and a sense of persevering, keeping up with challenges, because as a leader, you're gonna be faced with a whole host of challenges. And while there's a lot of prestige sometimes being a leader, there's also a lot of responsibilities and there's going to be challenges thrown your way, and especially when you're responsible for somebody or other for a team, there may be even challenges that you're not even really directly involved with that are going to affect you, like you know, if there's problems within the team communicating, you know, even on a downward level, and it. Crickles down into the students. So you're gonna be partially responsible, just like you know, me owning a business, if my employees mess up, it's unresponsible. Yep. Yeah, So there's gonna be that. So it's gonna be challenges, and we need to be prepared for that and not to fold when they have it, but but to balance back. And that doesn't mean that. We don't get emotionally affected or or even bothered by it by someone Well, let's I think that's a mouthful thing, not to get bothered by it. But I think the important thing is to be able to say, what can I learn from miss or how can I improve this so it's better the next time. So that's the important thing. And and it's it's so important. Because the one thing when we're faced with. Challenge is we can't fold, we can't break down, because we're, especially as leaders, your models as to how other people should be responding. So your teachers, you know, or your you know, employees are gonna want to see somebody who's strong, who can at least lead them because if you're gonna panic, they're gonna panic, and students are gonna pack and. That's gonna be a mess. And so, you know, grit is also important because there's going to be setbacks. And one of the best I think teachers of grit and perseverance are children. So for those of you who are parents, which I imagine there's a good number of you listening that are parents. If you remember when your child toddler was growing up and they were learning to walk, how many times did they fall down? How many times did they stumble or have a hard time standing upright and then taking your steps and falling out? I would imagine it could be en upwards of hundreds of times. You never seen an iNFiNiT or toddler say I can't walk anymore true, or a parent who says, you know, walking is not for you. We overcome that. Now for some reason we fold. We don't have that same level that that So like a couple of times when we get set back, we haven't donecy the fault or to say I quit. So the important thing is there is kind of like learning to fail forward in a sense. So what can you learn from these experiences, because that's what it's going to keep you going in day in and day out. So rather than wanting to quit and you get burnt out, it's it sort of turns into how can I become a better person or how can this experience help me better? Because that's what it is. It takes up perseverance. You know, there's people who sometimes failed so many times, but it was that last time that they pushed forward, they actually took off from and propelled. So the important thing is doubt. If we want our students sins, thealy we've got to model that too. So there's whole idea is to bounce back from our setbacks and let them teach us new things, but not affect. It's in an why So that's what I mean by resilience. Great, Yeah, that's good. I appreciate that reminder that it's not about being tough enough to never fail. It's about having that inner strength to give back up after every fall. That's your analogy of a young child is absolutely perfect. That's wonderful. Again, Yeah, it's really good. I appreciate your topics this week. This is awesome. Good, good topic today. Remind us that moments aren't failures, they are opportunities, right, and it's another opportunity to grow and get ready for that next challenge. Huge. Thank you again to doctor Albert Bramonte for these motivating discussions and today's on resilience and grit. The work you do is just so vital and the work we do as school leaders is also vital. So that ability to bounce back is what's going to make all the difference. Thank you everybody. Hope you have a wonderful Thursday. Doctor Bremonte will be back again tomorrow for one last episode to join us this week. I can't wait to see what he's got in store for us for Friday. But again, thanks for listening. We will talk with you again tomorrow. You have been listening to your Morning boost by AWB Education in partnership with Grunmeyer Leader Services. You can find out more about our services by clicking on the links in the description. Remember, you are doing this vital job that only a few can do. So until next time, thank you for your service to your community. Good morning, in a very happy Friday to all of you. We've made it to the end of the week. I'm excited to close out this incredible week with our guest, Doctor Albert Bamonte, has been here all week giving us just tons of great guidance. Again, a quick reminder, if you want to know more about doctor Bramonte's work, you can find his stuff at Albertbamonte dot com. That is Albert Bramante dot com. A lot of great stuff there on his web page. But reach out to him if you're looking for a partner or just want another chance to talk with somebody who's got some great sites. As he has shared this week, we have talked about networking, We've talked about overcoming fear and building resilience. In today, doctor Bramonte is going to bring it all together by talking about a very powerful concept, and that is taking action rather than living in that world of someday. This is about moving past the planning and the dreaming and actually doing the work. It's a perfect topic to inspire us as we head into the weekend with a renewed sense of purpose. Where is your kid headed after high school? We are from carpool to college. Two accomplished educators, college and career consultants and parents who guide families through the entire journey from freshman year planning to senior year's success. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to our incredible guests to finish up the week for us. So, Doctor Albert Bramonte, thank you again for being here. I look forward to what you got for us today on this vital topic. Well, thank you again, Adam Braving me. I'm so happy to be here to share the week with you. So the one thing and when I see the incredible worder someday, how many times if you said to years old. You know, someday I'm going to write my book, or someday I'm going to do this project, or someday I'm gonna work. I'm there, the idea here, and I'm gonna disrupt you by saying that that'll it'll never get done. That that's just starting the truth about it. If you keep with that mantra on someday, it'll never get done. So the important thing. Is to take action, and even if it's small steps. So start breaking down whatever it is you want to do what every's saying, because I'm a going to do and break it into steps like small sets. And when you break it down on these steps, start setting yourself putting it on the calendar. Okay, i will do this step one by this state, step two by the state. Because the important thing is when you put it on your calendar, it becomes real. It's not just a concept, it's a real thing. So and it helps. You be accountable. And that's the big thing, is accountability because now by a certain day you have to have it. And you know, of course, give or take if it's not exactly that date. But the important thing is you're taking that action as as it's happening. So you want to live in a state of action, not just you know, living life on the sidelines because and this is gonna I'm gonna get a little haavy for a second here. They a lot of psychologists, you know, work with people in their deathbed, when they're facing you know, their last moments. And the biggest or some anguish is wasn't like, okay, the mistakes that I made, or the fullest decisions I made, or the reckless decisions I made. The biggest source of English regret and torture are the missed opportunities. What they didn't do. Maybe they didn't take enough vacation, they didn't create something that they were interested in, they didn't go off in their life they wanted. So the important thing is to take action. So I can't stress that enough. And by putting it on your calendar. So rather than saying, well, you know, I'm gonna do this, start breaking it down the task. And this is going back earlier. Just because I was talking about support system. I mentioned the importance of the support system. This is another way you can leverage that because you can hold each other accountable. So rather than saying I'm gonna do this, you tell each other by what date you know this step will be done by, and then you check in and say, hey, you know today you said you would. Do this, how is that going. So it keeps that accountability open because that's the only way things are going to get done if you put it on your calendar as an actual day, because someday is not one of the seven days of the week. It doesn't exist, and it's it's impossible to do that. So take action so you don't wind up regretting not doing something. So but I really can stress enough. And I don't mean to do lists because a lot of people have to do lists, but actual calendar. So putting things on your calendar will make it real and it'll create opportunities for you. And I know you know when I first writing my book, I procrastinated for a long time. This is an antidote to procrastination. Actually, by taking action and putting things on you there and it'll raise yourself esteem. You'll feel much better about yourself. I'm more likely to be like a domino effect because now when one thing is done, you're excited, You're going to be more eager to move forward towards steps two three, and eventually complete the project and then be likely to do more things because it's now a springboard for more things. So really take action. I can't stress that enough, and not to get out of the Sunday world. Hi, I'm doctor Lisa Hill, a longtime educator of nearly forty years as a teacher, counselor, professor and vice principal, and I've seen just about everything public schools can throw at you, and now I'm sharing my tales on my comedy podcast, Vice Principal Unofficed. It's where school leadership meets laugh out loud. Stories from underwear required, parent teacher conferences yes really, two staff launch confessions, and more you won't believe. I'm telling it all with humor and a whole lot of heart. I also tackle the serious stuff too, like what schools really need to change and those behind the scenes moments no one talks about. So if you're ready to laugh, learn, and maybe even cry little, but mostly laugh, join me and my ninety year old mom, my unofficial co host on Vice Principal on Office. New episodes drop bi weekly on Apple, podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast picks. Trust me, this is one detention you'll actually look forward to. Yeah, that's it's a good reminder. True impact happens when we transition from ideas to action. That's just awesome stuff. All week long, this has been this has been great. You've really challenged us to identify things that are little things that can make a huge difference in the work that we do. I really appreciate your your message to us this week, doctor Bramonte. It's been really awesome. Again, a huge thank you. Final thank you for this Friday to doctor Albert Bramonte for joining us this week and sharing a lot of your wisdom. Your work is a gift to so many. I really appreciate your time and effort today. Well, thank you. You, bet well, Thank you listeners again, have a wonderful Friday, have an even better weekend. The work you do is so so valuable, and there's just only so few that can really do the work, so thank you for being one of the few. We'll be back here again next week with more episodes of your Morning Boost, So thanks again for listening. We will talk with you again next week. Thank you for tuning into AWB's Boost Bundle. We trust this collection of your Morning Boost episodes has given you a powerful end to your week. For more daily inspiration and actionable advice, be sure to subscribe to your Morning Boost wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see you next week. For more ways to amplify your leadership, bo