Dr. Jim: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining us today. This is your friendly neighborhood talent strategy nerd, Dr. Jim. One of the more impactful lessons I learned from the tech startup world was an article written by Molly Graham about her time at Facebook. She was a key figure in building the culture of the organization and one of the big leaps of learning for her Was learning how to give away her Legos.
And if you get the chance to read the article, I would highly recommend that you read it. But the key lesson in that was that for her to grow as a professional and for the organization to grow as a prof as an organization and scale, it required everybody in the organization. To let go of their current positions and hand that off to somebody else that was up and coming so that they themselves could grow in their capabilities so that lesson and practice and learning about how to give away your Legos is really what sets the stage for you to grow now.
When you're talking about the K through 12 space, when you finally arrive in the big chair for the first time, learning how to let [00:01:00] go of your Legos is going to be a difficult lesson to learn because you've climbed the ranks being focused on results and managing teams effectively. Today we're going to talk about what.
First time superintendents need to be mindful of so that they're Creating the conditions for growth in their districts. So who's going to be joining us today to share that story with us? Today we have Dr. Aaron Pena who serves as the superintendent of the Burnett Consolidated Independent School District prior to this role He was the assistant superintendent for Midway Independent School District, and his career involves serving as a principal of various schools in Midway ISD and Waco ISD.
Aaron earned his bachelor's in science education from Baylor and a master of science in education administration from the University of Houston Clearlake. He completed his doctoral degree through the cooperative superintendency program at the University of Texas in Austin, and throughout his career Aaron has been recognized for his leadership and contributions in education. Aaron is married to a fellow educator, Patricia, and together they have [00:02:00] three daughters.
Aaron, welcome to the show.
Thank you. I'm so glad to be here.
I'm always interested in hearing about the stories of first time superintendents and how they navigated that pretty big career shift. Now, before we dive into that conversation, I think it's important for you to share with the listeners a little bit more about yourself more than what we covered in that couple minutes of the bio.
Dr. Jim: I think the first order of business is for you to share with the listeners maybe some of those foundational moments in your career that helped shaped you into the leader that you are today.
Dr. Aaron Pena: Sure. I got started off as a teacher. I very traditional trajectory, teacher, assistant principal, assistant soup, but one of the things I realized early on is I talked for three years, became an assistant principal at 26 and it was really young after a couple of years in that role.
I realized, yeah, I didn't have the teaching foundation that I needed, and I went back into the classroom from administration [00:03:00] for an additional three years just to build that solid instructional foundation a little more. It was a blessing, but it was tough, and that was one of the Pivotal moments that helped shape me.
Dr. Jim: It's interesting that you got into administration. If I understood you correctly, you went back into education because you felt that you didn't have the foundation to do the administrative leadership well from an educational perspective.
I would think that if I had to make that decision, if I were in your shoes, I would immediately be thinking about, Wow, this is going to shoot my career in the foot because I'm taking a step back. Did you experience that thought? And if you did, what were the things that you focused on to make sure that to reassure yourself that this was the right decision to make in the furtherance of your career advancement?
Dr. Aaron Pena: Yeah, that's a great question. I remember at the time struggling quite a bit with the decision. I realized that I wasn't able to offer teachers, what I [00:04:00] felt I should offer them. And I remember talking with Mike Mattis. I was at a training and I just went up to him and asked him for some advice on my career.
I was young, I respected him a lot. And I remember he said something to me that really got to me and caused me to start thinking in these terms. He said, Aaron, teachers need expertise in the field. Don't be in such a hurry to move up. And I recognize that I didn't have that expertise like I thought I did after just three years of teaching.
And so I wanted to offer teachers more. I wanted to be, this was, these were the years of, instructional leadership was like the big thing in leadership and education at the time. And I felt I wasn't a qualified instructional leader. Honestly, nobody ever told me that. But I felt it. There were times we were in conversations.
We were in team meetings and the Contributions that I had and I was able to give was [00:05:00] limited. And so I felt that you know what a tower or a career if you will is only as strong as the foundation and in education I think your foundation is going back to those early years Of teaching and learning because that's absolutely that's the business we're in and so I didn't really focus on the negatives.
I just focused on the positives. I'm going to learn to be a better teacher. I'm going to have done it so that then when I'm in. The leadership chair, and I can talk to teachers and hopefully coach teachers. I'll actually have something interesting and worthwhile to share. And so those three years, I went back into the classroom for an additional three years before going back into admin.
And I gave myself several goals. I remember one of them was because obviously I had already done my master's and I was thinking eventually I'll get my doctorate down the road one day, but I thought, gosh, I'm not going to wait to become a student of research. Until [00:06:00] then, I'm going to do it now. And so I gave myself a goal of reading a research article at least one every single week.
Jim, I didn't reach that goal. It would take me longer cause I didn't realize back then, man, these research articles are long. And so I would, about once a month I would read just research and I was just a student again. And it felt good. So when I went back into administration and became an assistant principal again, the second time I felt just so much more ready.
Dr. Jim: One of the things that I'm wondering is when you look at that experience that you had. And I would assume that you got bumped into the assistant principal role pretty quickly because you tend to be a high performing individual, and that's why you got bumped early after just three years.
What would, how has that shaped your advice to up and coming educators now who want to go the admin track, how do you coach and develop them? So they're not moving up too soon.
Dr. Aaron Pena: [00:07:00] Yeah, sure. I just when I'm talking to, I guess the up and comers, that's one of the things that I let them know. You've got to know what you're doing. You've got to know what you're talking about. And reading books, reading articles, like I mentioned, is a part of it, but living it. Experiencing it, going through the ups and downs with students, with parents the school of hard knocks and the things that teaches you is well worth it.
And so I tell folks, don't be in such a hurry to move up. There's plenty of time. You can have a long career and you can do a lot of things. But like I mentioned earlier, build that foundation. Become an excellent teacher. The other thing I encourage people to think about too is Or ask themselves is why should you move up?
What do you have to offer? Is it just your own ambition or is it that you're actually quite good at the level you are in [00:08:00] at the teaching and learning and then you have something to offer. So don't just run off, get a master's degree and move up for the sake of moving up. Have something to offer.
Dr. Jim: Now that's really good advice. I think one of the other things that it reminds me of is that when you're talking to and developing early career talent and. We've all been conditioned in this mentality that it's that you got to keep moving up and the question that I started asking when I broke myself out of that mindset to people who want to move up.
It's like, why do you want to move up? Are you comfortable with having other people? In control of your career progression, because the further up you move in an organization, the less control you have over your own career. Are you comfortable with that? And if you're not, you really shouldn't be looking at moving up until you figure out ways to be okay.
With giving away the control of your career. So really good stuff there. I'm going to [00:09:00] shift gears a little bit and get line of sight into the district that you're in. So you're a first time superintendent. Tell me a little bit more about the district that you took over
Dr. Aaron Pena: Vernon Consolidated is rural. However, it's pretty close to Austin, Texas. And so growth is coming, but it's still relatively small district. We have about 3, 200 students. And we are anticipating growth, but it's not here yet. And one of the things that we're looking at is constantly looking at that crystal ball and trying to figure out when is the growth coming because we see other areas around Austin like ours that are just a little bit ahead of us and have just started to grow.
To turn into fast growth districts, we're not quite there yet, but we know in the next 5, 10 years we're going to be adding a lot of students. And so we're rural. However, we have that influence of the big city just, 30, 40 [00:10:00] minutes away. And we're the best of both worlds. We're small town.
We have that small town feel. However, we do have a little bit of the. I guess the metropolitan type area as well and that influence as well. So man, I'm loving it. It's a fantastic place. The the small towns around the United States where everybody's just friendly and knows everyone that's us, that's Burnett, Texas.
Dr. Jim: So one of the things that i'm wondering about is when you're in An area that's projected to grow and you're planning for that growth It can be a difficult thing for the average person in the district to wrap their head around. So What are the conversations that you're having? To get people used to the idea of needing to invest in their districts in preparation for the growth that you're forecasting
Dr. Aaron Pena: It's interesting. We're in a little bit of a strange situation because the [00:11:00] growth has not hit yet. Although we see the signs and so my job right now is to help folks understand that we don't need to rush it. We're in a holding pattern right now. So we're not adding new buildings. We're looking further down the road for that growth to come.
But the last couple of years, we've actually declined just a little bit. So we're taking a small dip downwards. And so one of the things that I'm doing is talking to community groups and when they get in front of people and just sharing the facts with them helping them understand. The the enrollment numbers the last several years and also the projections or possible numbers in the future, but also we're taking a look at our capacity in each of our buildings for example, here in Burnett CISD, we have several of our buildings that are just at 60 percent capacity, and so we're able to absorb it.
Plenty of growth when it does start to come. And [00:12:00] so I think it's an education of the community just letting them know the current reality, we're in a good position, we're going to be fine and be ready for the growth, but we don't have to rush and make quick decisions right now.
Dr. Jim: When I opened the show, I talked about how in the startup world, one of the big aha moments for building people and culture and Facebook was when leaders at all levels of the organization recognized that they needed to give away their responsibility in order to create the conditions for growth within their organization.
And the reason why that stood out to me is that's one of the toughest lessons for new leaders at any level to adjust accordingly based on their new circumstances. So tell me about what you were experiencing when you first took over this role as superintendent in your district.
Dr. Aaron Pena: There's this phenomenon called status quo bias. And we [00:13:00] know what that is. It's this. Reversion to what's familiar, we tend to seek the safety and the security of what we've always done and been good at. And when I got in this role, the superintendency, I came from being an assistant superintendent where I had a lot of success and we.
Had a student outcomes. We could point to, a lot of the bragging rights. And to be quite honest, I was pretty good at it. So the tendency was for me to revert back to that previous. Type of role. And the other thing that made it even more complicated is actually love it. I love teaching and learning.
I love instruction. I love getting in there with leaders and teachers and figuring out how to get better results with kids. But I also started to realize that was no longer my role. Those duties and responsibilities are now someone else's within the organization. And I went through a grieving process, where I [00:14:00] started to realize that the superintendency is different.
I'm no longer just the assistant superintendent or a deputy now with. Added responsibilities. I've got the extra things to do or broader lands, but essentially it's the same thing. I had to make a paradigm shift that it's a very different role and I have to become, I had to accept it so that then I can learn.
to love it.
Dr. Jim: So you just mentioned that, it's a very different role. You thought when you were getting into the role that it would just be You know, a broader scoped version of the assistant superintendent role, but you realize that wasn't the case. I'm paraphrasing. What was different about it?
What, how did your job change that caused you to shift how you thought and how you showed up?
Dr. Aaron Pena: I think the re I started feeling overwhelmed by the role. I started feeling, I remember having some sleepless nights early on thinking, Oh my [00:15:00] goodness, I can't do this. I cannot do everything. And I started feeling. The weight of those cabinet level responsibilities, district level responsibilities, plus the responsibilities of the superintendent.
All of a sudden I became very aware that the accountability had changed for myself. So I was no longer. Held responsible for his results of a certain area, like when I was assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction say, now I was responsible for everything, anything went wrong. If we didn't get results in one area, if we're having situations negative situations in transportation or, operational things.
It all comes back on me and I started feeling very overwhelmed. And I remember reading an article. By a lady named Lindsay Wharton. She's president of the Holdsworth Center. She wrote an article called Beyond Impossible, [00:16:00] and she talked about a superintendent within his first couple of years and describing what he was going through, and I was thinking.
Oh, my gosh. That's me. I'm starting. It wasn't quite that bad, but I was feeling the stress of like, how I can't do this. I don't see myself doing this for 10 years. And thankfully, that article gave me that paradigm shift, I'm trying to do two jobs. I'm trying to be an assistant superintendent or a deputy and superintendent, and I've got to let go of those previous responsibilities and trust others to do that work and become the district leader, which is primarily an outward facing role rather than an inward facing role.
Dr. Jim: It's interesting that you mentioned that transition that you're going through, and it's a difficult transition to to make. But one of the things that I would imagine would be challenging Is that is learning that letting go process. So if you're used to in your earlier career being pretty hands [00:17:00] on and now you have to shift all of that responsibility down to create space for your new role, that's going to be tough.
So how did you set the stage? To let go of those responsibilities and let others take that over. What were the things that you did to make sure that you were handing off in good positions for those folks to be successful with their added responsibilities.
Dr. Aaron Pena: Truthfully, it starts with just sheer stubbornness of will. I had to make myself change how I, who I was spending my time with and how and what I was doing and just calendar external facing time into my week. And so just one of the things that I. I tend to do is I have to break things down into just practical steps.
And so what I started doing was looking at my calendar and I remember after reading that article and talking to [00:18:00] mentors about this very topic, I started looking at my time and just going through the next couple of weeks. And taking a look at all of the kind of the inward facing meetings and tasks that I had set up versus the outward facing and I started making that deliberate change that shift towards making sure I was getting out into the community, talking with external stakeholders, dealing with parents, community members and community organizations and things like that.
Now, as far as my cabinet goes, and I'm still in that process, but it's building up their capacity. Becoming more of a mentor for them, like I mentioned before, when I went from teaching into the assistant principal role, I wanted to have something to offer while back in that role again, I need to have something to offer my cabinet members, but I'm not going in and doing the job for them.
I'm helping to guide [00:19:00] them. I ask a lot of questions. I. Want them to think and justify their strategy so that they're learning to, they're doing that metacognition and thinking about their own thinking and the decisions that they're making. Another thing is just trust. I've got to be okay with stepping back.
And delegating and trusting now there are different levels of delegation and we can get into that. Maybe another time. So learning my folks. To determine which ones can have that higher level of delegation, I can, I know this thing is going to be handled well and which ones need more guidance along the way and more check ins along the way.
Dr. Jim: I like how you shifted into that mentorship model. I think one of the things that I would imagine would be difficult in making that shift is resisting the urge to jump in when you're talking through, Hey, what's going on? How are you thinking about handling [00:20:00] the situation? It can be really easy for those of us who have experience to jump in and say, Oh, that's a terrible idea.
Don't do that. Do this. What were the things that you did to keep yourself from jumping into quickly as people were working through their learning process as you were acting as a mentor?
Dr. Aaron Pena: lots and lots of self talk self reflection and ask exactly what you asked me. I asked myself that question, am I getting too involved at the granular level? In this particular situation am I taking the ownership and then therefore the responsibility onto myself when a member of my team should have that?
So I asked myself those questions, but another thing is I have mentors. These are just folks who I've worked with along the way, and I'll call people up and just, maybe a retired superintendent and just. Share a situation and they will ask me those type of questions and hold me accountable to This shift that I [00:21:00] know that I need to be making . And I think the sum is I have to accept the role. So I realized that there's a difference, went through the grieving process, and now I accept it and know that I'm going to be a better superintendent if I can make this shift. So I'm looking at it through that lens now.
Dr. Jim: When I think about the mentoring work that you're doing, it's gotta be an intentional exercise. So how have you built intentionality into your schedule so that you're always carving out time to develop those leaders underneath you?
Dr. Aaron Pena: so I always have a pulse on the projects that we're working on, and I'm in constant communication with the point person, which is usually a member of my cabin. And so if we're working on a particular project, something that's coming up I'm. Checking in with them, and I ask a lot of questions, how things are going.
Have you thought about this? Tell me your process for that. And so just constant communication. We're really fortunate that since we're a smaller school district, we're all in [00:22:00] the same building, and it just takes me 10 seconds to just walk across the hall or down the hall and talk with someone. And, the old you Open door policy.
We all have open door policies. We can pop in at any time. My secretary knows that if a member of my cabinet needs me for any reason, unless there's something really important going on and I can't be interrupted, just come on in, doesn't matter what I'm working on. But then we also have. Those meetings where, we have the weekly cabinet meetings and then I touch base with each individually once a month and so we have those times.
But the agendas are very much the same. We take a look at the projects and initiatives that a particular cabinet member has working on. And it's not just me, but other members of the cabinet can also ask those questions. And they also ask. If the person needs help with anything, because we do have a team approach anything that we're working on, everybody is willing to jump in and [00:23:00] help and at least be a thinker in the process with them.
Dr. Jim: So far in this conversation, we've covered kind of the shifts that you need to make as a superintendent to develop the people underneath you, but the superintendency role has three facets. You have your district development that includes everybody that rolls into you at the district level.
There's also a board alignment. exercise that you have to go through. And oftentimes the board and the cabinet can be on different pages. So tell me a little bit more about how you created space to make sure that the board and cabinet are going in the same direction.
Dr. Aaron Pena: For us, the board is elected by the community and represents the community and the board, the seven members of the board, along with me, the superintendent, make up that team of eight. And when we get together and have those exercises to develop board priorities, for example, we do that as a team. And I [00:24:00] always think and remember that they represent the entire community.
So they set the direction and the priorities for the district. Now it's my job to mobilize the cabinet. For us to reach those priorities, for us to head towards accomplishing those goals. So there really isn't going to be a cabinet tendency to move in one direction when the board is wanting to move in another direction.
Instead, it's my job to align the cabinet and the entire organization, essentially, with those board priorities and where the community wants us to head. So It sounds simple. It isn't simple. There is a lot that goes into having those conversations and making sure that we understand what the vision is, what the mission is of the organization.
It sounds a cliche type of a thing. But understanding your vision and [00:25:00] ensuring that all the leaders within the organization are aligned to it is a very real thing. And so again, it's my job as a superintendent to make sure that we are aligning the efforts. You've heard of random acts of improvement.
That's an enemy of greatness. I believe we want to make sure that all that we're doing is moving us. Towards the mission and the vision of the school district and the board priorities are the practicals to helping us get there.
Dr. Jim: When you look at aligning the district to board and community priorities, how does that shape your day to day in terms of your communications with the board and also your communication with the community?
Dr. Aaron Pena: So one of the things that's very unique to the role of the superintendent is I'm the only person who I'm the only person who has the responsibility of understanding the community and going to. Community groups going to chamber meetings, going to rotary, [00:26:00] talking with stakeholders and being a listener so that I understand when the board is set in their priorities.
And when the board is passionate about certain things, I understand why, because they're also part of that community voice. And so then. When I bring it back to the practicals of the day to day work, I have the filter of what is important to our community. And if anything is coming against that and anything is potentially misaligned or pulling us in a different direction, I then have to make sure that we stay within those boundaries set by.
The community at large and the community groups, parents and organizations. So practically, some of the things that we do is every Friday and lots of superintendents do this, we give a board update, but it's organized by the board priorities. So obviously we have a board priority that deals [00:27:00] with, the HR piece and the human capital.
We have a board priority that deals with the operational financial stewardship, and then another one for student learning. And so everything that we are communicating to the board and the board is communicating back to me and to the organization is filtered through. Those priorities, which is what we know is important to our community.
And those are the goals that we're going after.
Dr. Jim: Really great conversation so far, Aaron. And what I'd like you to do is take a step back and think about, Everything that you've experienced and learned from the time that you got in the seat.
And I want you to speak to that first time superintendent that is preparing to take over the role as we're speaking right now. What are the key things in your experience that you feel is important for them to know about and understand as they make that transition into that new role as [00:28:00] superintendent?
Dr. Aaron Pena: I would first. Advise for folks going into the superintendency before you get the job. You're going to study the district. You're going to study the demographics, but you're going to know the data, but you got to know the pulse of the community. It's not enough to just know the numbers.
It's not enough to just know what you, glean off of the website. But if you can get in there and really just go to the restaurants drive around, listen to the conversations. No. What does this community really believe in? What makes them tick? Because you don't want to end up in. A community where you're just not going to fit.
There's really not a whole lot you can do about that. Once you've made that decision. So make sure that you're going to value what they value as well. But once you get the role. Understand that you're not in it alone. You don't have to do it alone. As a matter of fact, I would have go as far as [00:29:00] saying you better not do it alone.
You need to have mentors. I would advise to new superintendents to have some veterans out there who you can just pick up the phone and call and say, I've got a situation, help talk me through this, but also have. Other contemporaries, people who are currently in the chair, maybe they have, 2345 years ahead of you, but you need to have people who are in your corner because you know that saying it's lonely at the top.
It's really true. It is lonely being a superintendent. There's nobody in the organization that has your role and only other superintendents or folks who have done it in the past are going to truly understand. And so I would advise just Pull those people in, have a circle of folks you can count on and be vulnerable with those people.
Tell them what's really going on. If you run into a situation you need help with, then get out, make those phone calls, have those meetings and [00:30:00] get the help. You're not in this by yourself.
Dr. Jim: That's great advice, Aaron. Thanks for sharing that. If people want to continue the conversation, what's the best way for them to get in touch with you?
Dr. Aaron Pena: Yeah, sure. My email is on my website. Call email me at any time. I'm also on X, AJ Pena, and I'm on LinkedIn and AJ Pena. Those are easy ways to get in touch with me.
Dr. Jim: Great stuff. We'll make sure to drop some of your particulars in the show notes so that people can get ahold of you. And I appreciate you hanging out with us and sharing with us your experience. It can be a tough transition to make, and you're pretty fresh in the role. So you're actually going through that transition as we speak on a day to day basis.
So it's an interesting lens that that you offered us. When I think about this conversation that we had, one of the things that was really important that you brought out was being deliberate about stepping back in the process to create space for your cabinet and leaders underneath you.
And you mentioned early on that part of the reason that you [00:31:00] were having some sleepless nights is because you were taking on two different roles at the same time and when you're. Having a split focus in any sort of context, if you're, if you have your attention divided across multiple things, you can never really do anything well.
And that was the aha moment for you, where you started pushing things down and becoming more of a mentor to your team to create development opportunities for them. And I think for any new leader at any stage of their career, when you get that next big step. You're going to need to take a step back and assess what are the things that I can hand down that are no longer my job because that can be used as development opportunities while you focus on the new things that are in your span of control that you didn't have to take care of before.
So I think that's an important mindset shift that I wanted to highlight as we wind down the show. For those of you who have been listening to this conversation, we appreciate you hanging out. If you like the discussion, make sure you leave us a review on your favorite podcast player. If you haven't already done so, [00:32:00] make sure you join our K through 12 leadership community. And then tune in next time where we'll have another great leader hanging out with us and sharing with us the game changing insights that helped them build a high performing team.