#values

In this episode of An Imperfect Leader: Leadership in (After) Action, Matt Robbins is my guest. Matt is the Superintendent of the Daviess County Public Schools in Daviess County, Kentucky. What’s different about Matt is that he didn’t follow a traditional route to the superintendency. His background is in finance. In this episode, we talk a little about how his past experiences help him in his current job. His After Action Review is one all superintendents should be prepared to deal with. What happens when you adopt new routing software for your bus system and it crashes? What happens when the crash occurs RIGHT before the school year begins and you have to postpone the start of school? A really good episode!

BIO: Matt Robbins serves as Superintendent of the Daviess County Public Schools, a district with nearly 12,000 students and 2,000 staff members in 12 elementary schools, three middle schools and three high schools. 

Matt serves as the team leader for the finance & operations training program for KASA’s NextGen new KY superintendent program and has done this for six years now.

Matt is also President of Kentucky’s Council for Better Education that ensures equity and adequacy of funding for Kentucky’s public schools. As a part of this work, Matt has most recently led Kentucky public schools districts in a lawsuit that involves funding private schools in Kentucky. That case is now on appeal before the Kentucky Supreme Court.

Matt led the Daviess County Public Schools district in completing a new five year strategic plan in June 2022. This was done in partnership with Studer Education and Dr. Deanna Ashby. This plan defines the district’s mission and vision along with charting a detailed plan of measurable actions that will guide the district through 2027 and beyond.

He previously served as the district’s assistant superintendent for finance and operations, overseeing a budget of $142.7 million. Under his leadership, the district’s finance, facilities, food services and transportation departments have earned “exemplary” ratings from the Kentucky Department of Education.

Matt served as senior accountant at Riney, Hancock & Co. CPAs from 1993-96 before joining the Owensboro Public Schools district as assistant superintendent for finance and maintenance in 1997. Since joining DCPS, Matt has also served as accounting manager, business manager and director of finance. He has a bachelor of science degree from the University of Kentucky and earned a master’s degree in education administration and superintendent endorsement from the University of Louisville in 2012.

Matt has been married for 21 years to his wife Luanne and has three children – Olivia, Lily Grace, and Brady. He loves spending time involved with youth sports, golf, and hunting. Matt has two dogs – Sophie (King Charles Cavalier Spaniel) and Reagan (English crème Golden Retriever). Matt is an enormous UK sports fan, particularly football and basketball. His favorite movies are Tombstone, Forest Gump, and Dead Poets Society. Matt enjoys all types of music and arts, including Bluegrass Music (ROMP festival), country music, modern pop, and artists such as Billy Joel, Elton John, Adelle, and Bruno Mars.

Jay juggles a lot of different roles in his life, from father of four to real estate investor to owner of a multi-location business. He discusses the principles that help him sort through the flood of options so he can choose well, from things that apply to all decisions to role-specific decision-making principles.
 

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Connect with Jay via LinkedIn at: www.linkedin.com/in/jay-hawkinsleadership2008  
 

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Bonus: check out his other podcast (Alpha Pack): https://kite.link/alpha-pack-podcast
If you like this podcast you will probably like that one, too. Who knows, you might even like it better! :) 

In this episode of An Imperfect Leader: Leadership in (After) Action, Dr. Kim Pietsch-Miller joins us. Dr. Pietsch-Miller is the Superintendent/CEO of Eastland-Fairfield Career and Technical Schools in Columbus, Ohio. I ask Kim to talk about the distinction between planning vs preparing (the topic of a recent article she wrote). Kim talks about establishing values with her community (and living them). Kim also describes the importance of serving children first, and how sometimes that requires courage. 

BIO: Dr. Kim Pietsch-Miller is the Superintendent/CEO of Eastland-Fairfield Career and Technical Schools in Columbus, OH. She was previously the superintendent of Bexley City Schools in Columbus, Ohio and prior to earning positions as superintendent, she served as Chief Academic Officer, as an assistant superintendent, a principal, an assistant principal, and an English teacher. Check out Kim's blog for inspired reflections on education and leadership.

Join me today as I share with you three ideas on why we don't do what we say and what to do to start.  Why is that we have lofty goals, intentions and resolutions at the start of every year and by February we revert back to doing what we have always done.  The hardest part about transformation and change is not doing the same thing that you did the day before.  How do we break the habit of familiar?  How do we break the habit of comfort?   How do we break the habit of ease?  Lets start doing what we say we are going to do by implementing these 3 ideas into our life. 

My hope is that we are creating a community by way of this podcast.  I wish I could get this work into the hands of every woman I know. Maybe you could help me. Who do you want to do this life with? Maybe you click the 3 dots, copy the link and send this to them. Or if you want to love doing this life better - book your first session with me for free - www.leahroling.com/contact

Values are your life guiding principles.
Our values help us define the person we want to be.
You are already living some values - those things that have influenced your decisions over these years.
Make those values yours by consciously identifying and/or choosing them and consider if they are still serving you to be the person you want to be.
Commit to living your values by walking away from things that are not in sync with your values.
Be attracted by the things that are in line with your values.

In this episode I’m joined by Patrick “PJ” Brady.  PJ is the founder of Brave Smart Kind, a company that started out as a way for him to teach his 3 daughters English.  He also wanted to redefine the word “beautiful” to mean something that people feel on the inside, something to help them develop confidence, something they could control.

We had an amazing conversation about what it means to have “values” and “how do you define them”. We also talked about the education system, our concerns and where we see opportunities. If you are a parent that is concerned about what is happening in the world, but also encouraged by the possibilities we can co-created to educate our kids to be more brave, smart and kind, you’ll love this episode!


Episode Topic

5:16 | PJ reflects on what Brene Brown’s “survival guide” quote means to him
6:59 | Why the darkness in the world is actually a blessing in disguise
8:15 | Why values should be defined at a young age, not after you “become” a leader
10:36 | How to help your kids define their own values
16:34 | What to do when you are unclear on your own personal values
26:08 | Do your personal and corporate values need to be the same?
30:16 | How values played a major role in Trevor selling his agency
33:54 | Shouldn’t we be teaching this stuff to our damn kids in school
44:44 | Should your education be conditional on the neighborhood you live in?
47:59 | When PJ runs for King of the World…this is what he’ll do…


Episode Quotes

“I try to raise my girls with courage, critical thought and kindness.  And, every single time it goes back to some kind of childhood trauma or joy, the lessons that I learned in childhood have been the saving grace for myself and my kids…even though they don’t know it yet.” - PJ Brady

“As a parent looking at how this world is right now on a macro level, it gets everyone questioning everything.  I think it’s a blessing.  Even some of the really dark, bad things we see happening.” - Trevor Turnbull

“The founder of the company that bought my agency created value statements. It played a big part in why I sold my business. Every time I thought about the pros and cons of selling, I went back to these and it played a big part in my decision.” - Trevor Turnbull

“If one of your values is - put people first. People will start to question the values if all of a sudden you are making decisions that aren’t putting the people first.  What happens when you have an issue that puts one person against another person?” - PJ Brady

“When I run for King Of The World, my platform is going to be…fund the shit out of education. Can we please take all this money we are spending and start at the foundational level and stop taking money away from education.” - PJ Brady 

“I remember hearing recently that we used to trust our politicians and laugh at our comedians.  Now, we trust our comedians and laugh at our politicians.  So true :).” - Trevor Turnbull

“Anytime we do values and they introduce me to the marketing team, I know we are in trouble right away.” - PJ Brady


Episode Resources Mentioned

LeaderInMe.org
UpWithPeople.org


Guest Contact Info

BraveSmartKind.com
Connect with PJ on LinkedIn
Follow Brave Smart Kind on Facebook
Subscribe to Brave Smart Kind on Youtube