Rethinking the Open Door Policy as a Principal

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Does being a great principal mean being available all day, every day? In this episode, Barb challenges the traditional “open door policy” and the idea of people over paperwork and shares a more sustainable way to lead. Because when you’re constantly available, the work doesn’t disappear… it just follows you home. You’ll learn how focus blocks, visibility, and clear boundaries actually make you more supportive, not less,  while protecting your time, energy, and family life. If you’re tired of staying late and wondering why the work never ends, this conversation will help you lead with intention instead of urgency.

Sign up for The 8 to 4 Principal Group Coaching Intensive on February 7th and you will get a free one-on-one coaching session.

What is The Principal's Handbook?

Are you feeling swamped by the demands of being a principal? From juggling emails, calls, and decisions to boosting test scores and wading through endless paperwork, the pressure is real.

But imagine a scenario where you no longer feel this overwhelming stress. Picture yourself as a more resilient leader, concentrating on enhancing your school rather than merely coping with the daily tasks that currently consume your time.

I‘m Barb Flowers. Drawing upon my eight-year experience as an elementary principal, with a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and certification as a life coach, Along the way, I've mentored and coached school leaders, guiding them to change their mindset, set boundaries and focus on their own well-being while navigating their roles.

Each episode offers practical insights on time management, communication, overcoming overwhelm, boosting confidence, and fostering a positive mindset. We'll also discuss topics like working with stakeholders, implementing new initiatives, and managing discipline. Let's set boundaries, focus on well-being, and reignite your passion for being a principal. Welcome to "The Principal's Handbook."

I firmly believe that to be an impactful educator, you must first become a confident and well-rounded individual. Join us in this journey to empower and enhance your confidence as a school leader.

Rethinking the Open Door Policy as a Principal
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Speaker: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Principal's Handbook, your go-to resource for principals looking to revamp their leadership approach and prioritize self-care. I'm Barb Flowers, a certified life coach with eight years of experience as an elementary principal. Tune in each week as we delve into strategies for boosting mental resilience, managing time effectively, and nurturing overall wellness.

From tackling daily challenges to maintaining a healthy work-life balance. We'll navigate the complexities of school leadership together. Join me in fostering your sense of purpose as a principal and reigniting your passion for the job. Welcome to a podcast where your wellbeing is the top priority.

I.

Welcome everyone To The Principal's Handbook in today's episode. I'm talking about open door policies and I just wanted to have this conversation. I'm doing this as an extra episode that I'm putting out actually right before my group coaching intensive that starts tomorrow because

it has me thinking a lot about time [00:01:00] management and how principals think about time management. And it really started with last weekend. . I had a newer, , assistant principal who reposted one of my tiktoks, and I was like, why did you repost this TikTok? What was it about this TikTok?

Well, I went back and looked, the TikTok had 14,000 views on it. , And it was about an open door policy. I basically talked about this idea that if you have. Things going on, like you have a lot of work to get done. It's okay to have a conversation with your secretary and ask to, , please only contact you if you have emergencies.

Shut your door, get some work done. And this ap basically reposted it, saying she disagreed because she wants to be available for her staff and students all the time. And I don't think that's a bad thing. She comes from a very, very good place. And I've been in that situation as a new administrator. Where I really wanted to make sure that I'm always supporting teachers and students, and I still feel that way.

In administration [00:02:00] all these years later, I still feel very strongly that I wanna support the students and the teachers that I lead. But now my mindset has really shifted about what does support mean for people? Does it mean. That I'm always available for them. , I think it's a good question to think about and ask yourself , is it helpful to be available all the time?

And the reason I say this is because I've read in a lot of leadership books, people over paperwork, people over paperwork and leaders that I really value. But I want you to think about this. When we say people over paperwork, what we're actually choosing is. People over ourselves, people over our families, people over our long-term health.

Because if you say people over paperwork, you're really saying that I can't get any paperwork done at school, which is part of the job as a principal. And if you can't get it done at school, it's gotta get done sometime. And so what that means is it's gotta get done at home. And so that's taking away time from.

[00:03:00] Your family and things that you wanna do, and I have programs called the eight to four Principal. My newest one is the eight to four principal group coaching intensive. I'm all about leaving at four o'clock. That doesn't mean that I never take work home, I really rarely do. But there are times where I over schedule observations and I have a ton of observations that I'm trying to get done.

So I might have to do a writeup at home for an observation or. I just wanna do my newsletter at home because it's quiet and I can do it in 10 minutes versus getting interrupted at school. There are times that I do that. It just depends if I want to do that, basically, that's the difference. However, if we're bringing every piece of paperwork.

Home and we're not doing any of it at school. We really are choosing work and the people at school over everything else in our lives, and we're not showing up as the best version of ourselves. I think it's really interesting because. I was in a different elementary school and really that was my journey towards setting [00:04:00] boundaries and all of that, and I feel like I always had really good boundaries at that school because I tell this story a lot.

I had a baby my first year as an ap, so I had a baby and a 2-year-old at home. As an ap and then when I took over as principal, I was recently divorced, I had to leave at four. It wasn't an option for me to stay every night till six.

I didn't have. People that were watching my kids, I had to be home. And so I always just like to think about this idea of setting boundaries and what does that mean for your staff. And my staff was always great about it. But as I've taken over a new school, when I met my staff and my opening staff meeting, I really had a long conversation about what boundaries mean for me.

, And one of the reasons that I do that, and I feel so strongly, is I want teachers to have boundaries. And so when I model the boundaries. Then teachers feel like they can too. And I have to say, my staff has been great about it. It's not that they never text me at night or anything like that. They just know that if they email me, I'm not going to [00:05:00] respond at night.

, And I feel like they do the same. They have really good boundaries at the school that I work at. And so I think a lot of that comes from modeling it and really encouraging that with teachers. So just thinking about, this idea of an open door policy and having to work all night. What are you modeling for other people?

And the other thing about it that I always say is just because I choose to do focus blocks where I get some work done at school, , I shut my office and maybe say, Hey, I'm gonna get this newsletter done, or I'm gonna finish this observation right up, shutting my door for 15 minutes unless it's an emergency, I just need this time.

That doesn't mean I'm not visible. I'm super visible throughout the day, which actually makes when I shut my door, not a big deal. So I make sure to get in classrooms every day. I'm outside in the morning. I'm outside in the afternoon. I do a lot of recess duties as an elementary principal. , I'm seeing teachers and kids all day, and so the nice part about that is because they [00:06:00] know I'm so visible, they become used to that.

And so really, if there's a problem, they typically wait till I get in their classroom or they wait till they see me because they know they're going to see me. So it's not like all these people are coming to me with emergencies in my office because I'm visible all day. So that's another thing to think about when you're thinking about an open door policy.

Is it because you're in your office all day and you need an open door? If you're out and about and you're seeing people and you're getting in classrooms. There's time for that where they're going to talk to you, they're going to find things, , that they need. Now that's not to say that I'm working and something happens.

I'm gonna open my door and handle it. And again, it's not that I'm shutting my door for two hours to get work done, but it's just focus blocks that I'm setting time to get things done so that I can get it done at school. And. The important thing here is that you're getting work done at school, so you can leave at four, so you can go home.

You can actually rejuvenate, have time for yourself, and come to work better the next day [00:07:00] for the people that you lead, for your students, for your staff. If you're working 12 hours a day, I'm going to tell you right now, you're going to be burnt out.

You're going to be tired. You might snap at people you're not showing up as your best self. So when we talk about this idea of being available all the time again. That's not sustainable. And the whole goal, when I talk about the eight to four principal in my course, or now the eight to four principal group coaching, the whole goal is to create a role that's sustainable for you.

I always think about my elementary principal when I was a principal, he. Was retired and then had been the principal at the building I was at for like 15 years. So he had been in administration, I think by the time he left, he had 50 years in education and he was not burnt out. He had a lot of routines and systems.

He left every day at four o'clock, and he spent a lot of time being visible. But I'll never forget every day from, I think it was like 1230 to one, after all the lunch blocks were done, he [00:08:00] shut his door, had a half hour lunch. And had time for himself and nobody bothered him for that half hour. And I remember having incidents come up during that time and we just told the secretary, Hey, as soon as his time is up, can you have him come see me

in my room? I have some things that need to be handled right away. And you know, from one to three, we still had two hours to handle them. Everybody was safe. It wasn't like it needed handled that second, that he couldn't have that 30 minutes. It just became part of the culture and something that we all respected in him was that he took that time , and we have to think, teachers have lunches, teachers have planning. They understand for the most part, teachers are like, sit and eat your lunch. I'll come talk to you later. You know, if they see me eating. So I just want you to think about this idea.

If you're constantly thinking people over paperwork, I have to have my door open all the time. What does that mean for your life outside of school? What does that mean for the sustainability of the role? What does that mean for just your own overall health and you showing up as your best [00:09:00] self for the people that you lead?

So I just wanna end on that, . And I also wanna just share really quick an offer that I have for group coaching. Right now I have the eight to four principal group coaching intensive that is starting tomorrow.

We are meeting on Sundays at 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM There's four group coaching calls, and what we are doing during this time is really focusing on how to help you create a more sustainable role as a principal and figure out what is going on for you that might be keeping you at work late all the time.

My goal is to help you leave work by four. Okay, so my goal is to help principals not be working all the time so that you can be the best version of yourself. And so that group coaching intensive starts tomorrow. And if you're interested in being part of that, I am actually offering just today a one day only offer where you get a free coaching session with me.

If you sign up today, February 7th. . So by midnight today, February 7th. If you [00:10:00] sign up for the eight to four principal group coaching intensive, you're going to get a free 45 minute coaching session with me

and you're also going to get those four group coaching calls. , If you're staying after work every night, or if you're struggling with this idea of an open door policy, maybe you have the mindset that you have to be the last car in the parking lot. If that's you, join us because I really want to help you make this role more sustainable. What we're going to be talking about in this four week coaching intensive is week one, we're talking about cutting through the urgency.

I'm planning that out and it is going to be so good I have a framework where we're going to be talking about how do you decide if something's urgent? How do you go from, ,, this cycle of urgency to being a more intentional leader. Week two, we're talking about designing a workday That works.

We're going to give you a structure and help you design a workday. That really fits your work, your building, and also your lifestyle so that you can get home when you want to get home. And then week three, we're talking about [00:11:00] prioritizing and delegating without guilt. So if you find that you're doing everything and you're not a great delegator or prioritizer, join us because we're going to be talking about that.

And then week four, ending the day without taking work home. I'm not only talking about physical work, but I'm also talking about leaving school without the mental clutter that happens when we're thinking about work all evening.

So if you want to join us, sign up today. Today is the last day that I'm offering for my podcast listeners. This one extra coaching session that's an individual coaching session for 45 minutes. So join us for the eight to four principal group coaching intensive. I only have 10 spots and some are already filled up. So, sign up today. I have the link in the show notes. I hope you'll join us because this could be life changing for you and help you create a more sustainable role. All right, I hope everybody has a great weekend.

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