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Didn't get the job after your school leadership interview? Before moving on to your next opportunity, take a moment to ask for feedback. The right feedback can help you become a stronger candidate and improve your chances of landing your first leadership role. In this episode, Dr. Donovan Smalls II shares 3 important reasons why you should ask for feedback after an Assistant Principal interview or any school leadership interview. Learn how feedback can reveal your blind spots, strengthen your interview preparation, and help you turn rejection into personal and professional growth. If you have interviewed for a school leadership position but were not selected, this episode will help you understand what you can learn from that experience and how to prepare more effectively for your next opportunity. In This Episode: 00:00 Why You Should Ask for Feedback 02:35 Feedback Helps You See What You Can't See 05:36 Feedback Strengthens Your Next Interview 09:57 Turn Interview Rejection Into Growth Key Takeaways: • Understand how interview feedback reveals areas you may need to improve. • Identify weaknesses in your leadership interview answers. • Learn how to prepare for difficult and unexpected interview questions. • Use feedback to improve your communication and leadership skills. • Turn interview rejection into an opportunity for growth. • Prepare with greater confidence for your next interview. **What did you learn from your last interview experience?** Share your thoughts in the comments. Your experience may help another aspiring school leader. 👍🏾 Like this video if you found it helpful. 🔔 Subscribe for more practical advice on school leadership interviews and career growth. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📘 **PREORDER MY NEW BOOK** Land Your First School Leadership Role: A Practical Guide to Winning Interviews & Securing Your First Offer Preorder: https://www.donovansmalls2.com/product-page/interviewbook 📩 **JOIN THE INTERVIEW INSIDER NEWSLETTER** Get practical strategies and leadership story ideas to help you answer tough questions in your school leadership interview. Subscribe: https://www.donovansmalls2.com 🎯 **INTERVIEW READY GROUP COACHING** A four week live coaching program to help aspiring school leaders get interview ready, build strong leadership stories, and confidently land their first leadership role. Learn more: https://www.donovansmalls2.com/interviewready ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ **ABOUT DR. DONOVAN SMALLS II** Assistant Principal | Bestselling Author | Interview Coach Helping aspiring school leaders get interview ready & confidently land their first leadership role ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ **💡 TOPICS COVERED IN THIS VIDEO:** Why You Should Ask for Feedback After an Interview How Interview Feedback Reveals Your Blind Spots How to Strengthen Your Next School Leadership Interview Turning Interview Rejection Into Growth Preparing for Your Next Assistant Principal Interview #SchoolLeadership #AssistantPrincipal #LeadershipInterview #InterviewFeedback #InterviewPreparation #TeacherToLeader #EducationalLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment #CareerGrowth #InterviewTips

Struggling to show your impact in a school leader interview? In this episode, Dr. Donovan Smalls II shares the 5 leadership stories every aspiring school leader should have ready before the next interview. You can have the certifications, the experience and a resume packed with leadership accomplishments, but if you cannot communicate your impact, a hiring committee may never see your potential. People do not just hire your experience, they hire your story. Whether you are preparing for an assistant principal, principal or other school leadership interview, these are the 5 stories to prepare and the questions each one answers. 1. Your leadership journey story Questions it answers: Tell us about yourself. Why do you want to become a school leader? 2. A teacher growth or coaching story Questions it answers: Describe a time you coached a teacher. How do you support teacher development? 3. A student impact story Questions it answers: How have you improved student outcomes? Describe a time you advocated for students. 4. A challenge or conflict resolution story Questions it answers: Describe a difficult conversation you had with a colleague. How do you handle resistance to change? 5. A change or improvement story Questions it answers: Describe a change initiative you led. How do you approach school improvement? ⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 2:24 Story 1: Your Leadership Journey 4:39 Story 2: Teacher Growth or Coaching 6:29 Story 3: Student Impact 7:45 Story 4: Challenge or Conflict Resolution 10:59 Story 5: Change or Improvement ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📘 PREORDER MY NEW BOOK Land Your First School Leadership Role: A Practical Guide to Winning Interviews & Securing Your First Offer Preorder: https://www.donovansmalls2.com/product-page/interviewbook 📩 JOIN THE INTERVIEW INSIDER NEWSLETTER Get practical strategies to help you prepare for your school leadership interview. Subscribe: https://www.donovansmalls2.com 🎯 INTERVIEW READY GROUP COACHING A four week live coaching program to help aspiring school leaders get interview ready and confidently land their first leadership role. Learn more: https://www.donovansmalls2.com/interviewready ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT DR. DONOVAN SMALLS II Assistant Principal | Bestselling Author | Interview Coach Helping aspiring school leaders get interview ready & confidently land their first leadership role ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Listen & Connect 📺 YouTube → https://urlgeni.us/youtube/channel/L0Y2m 🎧 Apple Podcasts → https://tinyurl.com/mv7f683k 🎧 Spotify → https://tinyurl.com/4wydt4nr 👉🏾 Subscribe for more leadership interview strategies, career tips, and communication skills. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 💡 TOPICS COVERED IN THIS VIDEO: Why Great Candidates Tell Stories in Interviews 5 Leadership Stories Every Aspiring School Leader Needs Answering School Leadership Interview Questions With Stories Landing Your First School Leadership Role

Is memorizing answers enough to land your first school leadership role? Interview preparation for aspiring school leaders is about communicating your leadership with confidence, not reciting scripts. In this episode, Dr. Donovan Smalls II shares four things that consistently show up when it comes to candidates who get passed over and those who actually land the role. Learn how to organize your experience into a clear leadership story, back up every claim with a real example, and think like a school leader instead of a teacher. Discover why interview teams are not looking for people who simply know how to answer questions. They are looking for leaders they can believe in. Instead of memorizing answers, learn how clarity, storytelling, strategic thinking, and honest feedback from an interview coach can help you approach your next interview with a stronger leadership mindset. In This Episode: 00:00 Introduction 02:31 Clarity Creates Confidence 05:12 Stories Are More Powerful Than Statements 08:23 Preparation Changes the Way You Think 11:19 Feedback Speeds Up Growth If you’re an aspiring school leader, this episode will help you rethink your interview preparation and build confidence in your leadership journey. 👍🏾 Like this video if it helped you rethink your interview preparation. 💬 Comment below: Which of the four points do you need to work on the most? 🔔 Subscribe for more practical guidance on school leadership interviews, assistant principal interviews, and leadership development. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ About Dr. Donovan Smalls II: ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Assistant Principal | Best Selling Author | Interview Coach Dr. Donovan Smalls II helps aspiring school leaders become interview ready, strengthen their leadership confidence, and confidently land their first school leadership role. 📘 Grab Beyond the Classroom: https://shorturl.at/74Bgy 🎯 1:1 Leadership Interview Coaching: Preparing for your first school leadership role? Get personalized guidance to strengthen your interview skills and leadership confidence. Learn more: https://donovansmalls2.com/coaching ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Listen & Connect: ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📺 YouTube https://urlgeni.us/youtube/channel/L0Y2m 🎧 Apple Podcasts https://tinyurl.com/mv7f683k 🎧 Spotify https://tinyurl.com/4wydt4nr ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔔 Subscribe for weekly episodes on Leadership Interviews, Assistant Principal Interviews, School Leadership, Educational Leadership, Interview Preparation, Leadership Development, and Career Growth for aspiring school leaders. #SchoolLeadership #AssistantPrincipal #LeadershipInterview #InterviewPreparation #EducationalLeadership #TeacherToLeader #InterviewCoaching #CareerGrowth

Are too many interview tips confusing you? If you're preparing to land your first school leadership role, learning to trust your preparation is just as important as preparing your answers. In this episode, Dr. Donovan Smalls II explains how too much interview advice can create confusion, weaken your confidence, and make you question your leadership abilities. Learn how to choose the right mentors, stop overthinking your answers, and trust the experience and skills you already bring to the table. Discover why you don't need to sound like another leader to succeed in a school leadership interview. Instead, learn how to communicate your authentic leadership style, share your experiences with confidence, and approach your next interview with a clearer mindset. In This Episode: 00:00 Introduction 03:40 Choosing the Right Interview Advice 05:44 Trusting Your Interview Preparation 09:06 Embracing Your Authentic Leadership Style If you're an aspiring school leader, this episode will help you rethink your interview preparation and build confidence in your leadership journey. 👍🏾 Like this video if it helped you rethink your interview preparation. 💬 Comment below: Are you getting overwhelmed by too many interview tips? 🔔 Subscribe for more practical guidance on school leadership interviews, assistant principal interviews, and leadership development. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ About Dr. Donovan Smalls II: ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Assistant Principal | Best-Selling Author | Interview Coach Dr. Donovan Smalls II helps aspiring school leaders become interview-ready, strengthen their leadership confidence, and confidently land their first school leadership role. 📘 Grab Beyond the Classroom: https://shorturl.at/74Bgy 🎯 1:1 Leadership Interview Coaching: Preparing for your first school leadership role? Get personalized guidance to strengthen your interview skills and leadership confidence. Learn more: https://donovansmalls2.com/coaching ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Listen & Connect: ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📺 YouTube https://urlgeni.us/youtube/channel/L0Y2m 🎧 Apple Podcasts https://tinyurl.com/mv7f683k 🎧 Spotify https://tinyurl.com/4wydt4nr ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔔 Subscribe for weekly episodes on Leadership Interviews, Assistant Principal Interviews, School Leadership, Educational Leadership, Interview Preparation, Leadership Development, and Career Growth for aspiring school leaders. #SchoolLeadership #AssistantPrincipal #LeadershipInterview #InterviewPreparation #EducationalLeadership #TeacherToLeader #LeadershipDevelopment #CareerGrowth

Are you an aspiring school leader trying to land your first Vice Principal role? Wondering what it takes to stand out in a grueling leadership interview? In this episode of The Aspiring School Leader Podcast, Dr. Donovan Smalls II talks with Chanel Rutty, a Vice Principal in Newark Public Schools, to explore her incredible journey from struggling with initial teaching exams to landing her dream administrative role in just 48 hours. Chanel gives strong advice on surviving a 7-hour interview, transitioning from charter to public schools, and the crucial mindset shift needed to ace your upcoming interview. 📌 Sections 00:00 Introduction: Meet Vice Principal Chanel Rutty 01:50 Chanel’s Inspiring Journey: From Failing Exams to Pre-K Teacher 04:42 Director vs. Vice Principal: What are the REAL differences? 09:22 Biggest lessons from Year 1 as an Elementary School VP 10:35 Charter School vs. Public School: The truth about work-life balance 15:22 How to stand out against other candidates in an AP interview 16:57 Surviving a grueling 7-HOUR leadership interview 18:48 How to make yourself marketable for administrative roles 21:45 The best advice for your first school leadership interview 22:55 The #1 Interview Mistake: Thinking like a teacher vs. a leader 23:58 Building School Culture: The power of "Community Walks" 26:08 How to connect with Chanel Rutty for mentoring If you’ve ever wondered what it really takes to transition from the classroom to an administrative role, this podcast will help you prepare for the challenges ahead and speak about your value with confidence. You will learn how to: ✅ Overcome career setbacks and find your true purpose in education ✅ Differentiate between the roles of a Director and a Vice Principal ✅ Survive intense, multi-part leadership interviews ✅ Shift your mindset to think (and answer) like a leader, not just a teacher ✅ Make yourself highly marketable to school districts ✅ Build authentic community relationships through "Community Walks" Great leaders are not born when they're given a title. They are learned via experience, connections, service and the ability to inspire others. 🔗 Connect with Chanel Rutty on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chanelrutty1908?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios About Dr. Donovan Smalls II : Assistant Principal | Bestselling Author | Interview Coach Dr. Donovan Smalls II helps aspiring school leaders get interview-ready and confidently land their first leadership role. 👉🏾 Learn More About 1:1 Leadership Interview Coaching: https://www.donovansmalls2.com/coaching 📘 Grab my book, Beyond the Classroom: https://shorturl.at/74Bgy Streaming on: 📺 YouTube 🔗 https://urlgeni.us/youtube/channel/L0Y2m 🎧 Apple Podcasts 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/mv7f683k 🎧 Spotify 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/4wydt4nr 🔔 Subscribe for weekly videos on: School Leadership, Assistant Principal Interviews, Educational Leadership, Leadership Development, Teacher Career Growth, Interview Preparation for Aspiring School Leaders. #SchoolLeadership #VicePrincipal #LeadershipInterview #AssistantPrincipal #AspiringSchoolLeaders #LeadershipinEducation #TeacherToAdmin

How do you uncover your interview strengths? One of the best ways to identify your strengths is to understand your vulnerabilities. By evaluating the areas that may be holding you back, you can better prepare for a school leadership interview, strengthen your responses, and become more intentional about communicating the leadership strengths you already possess. You may have years of teaching experience and plenty of interview questions to practice, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you are equipped to articulate your leadership effectively in an interview. Chapters: 00:00 — Do You Need Interview Coaching? 02:08 – Information Does Not Equal Transformation 06:53 — You Can’t Improve What You Can’t See 09:46 — Confidence, Feedback & Interview Success In this episode, Dr. Donovan Smalls II discusses the importance of recognizing the areas that need improvement and how objective feedback, focused practice, and the right interview framework can help aspiring school leaders uncover their interview vulnerabilities, strengthen their weaknesses, and more clearly communicate their leadership strengths. You will learn: ✅ Why you can’t ace interviews only by gathering interview questions ✅ How to identify frequent interview blind spots ✅ How to frame your teaching experience as leadership ✅ Why feedback is better than memorizing answers ✅ Managing unexpected interview questions ✅ How deliberate practice can increase your interview confidence ✅ How interview coaching can make you perform better in the Leadership interview If you’re an aspiring school leader, a teacher getting ready for an assistant principal interview, or an educator working toward your first leadership job, this episode will help you approach your school leadership interview preparation with better clarity and confidence. 👉🏾 Learn More About 1:1 Leadership Interview Coaching: https://www.donovansmalls2.com/coaching 📘 Grab my book, Beyond the Classroom: https://shorturl.at/74Bgy ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ About Dr. Donovan Smalls II: Assistant Principal | Best Selling Author | Interview Coach Dr. Donovan Smalls II helps aspiring school leaders get interview ready & confidently land their first school leadership role. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Listen & Connect ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📺 YouTube 🔗 https://urlgeni.us/youtube/channel/L0Y2m 🎧 Apple Podcasts 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/mv7f683k 🎧 Spotify 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/4wydt4nr ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔔 Subscribe for weekly videos on Leadership Interviews, Assistant Principal Interviews, School Leadership, Educational Leadership, Interview Preparation, Leadership Development, and Career Growth for aspiring school leaders. #SchoolLeadership #LeadershipInterview #InterviewPreparation #AssistantPrincipal #EducationalLeadership

A school leadership interview is not only about your experience, your qualifications or the answers you give. It’s about how well you tell your leadership story, how you demonstrate your effect, and how you convince the interview committee you’re ready to lead. In this special episode of The Aspiring School Leader Podcast, Dr. Donovan Smalls II talks with Principal Kelin Mark Sr. to explore the journey from teacher to school leader and the disposition of aspiring leaders to thrive. Kelin Mark Sr., Principal with 24+ years in education, gives strong advice on leadership growth, interview prep, mentorship, developing relationships, and what separates the candidates that stand out from those who go missed. 📌 Sections 00:00 The Importance of Your Leadership Story 01:04 Classroom Teacher to School Principal: Kelin Mark’s Road to Leadership 04:43 Middle School Leadership Understanding 06:28 When to Think about Leadership as a Teacher 08:35 How to get leadership experience before an interview 11:05 Mentorship and the role in developing leadership 12:50 Leader Vs Manager: The Difference That Counts 18:32 How to make an interview board remember you 25:39 How to Build Confidence Before Your Leadership Interview 30:45 Why Family Engagement Matters in Schools Leadership 36:10 The Advice Every Aspiring Leader Needs to Hear If you’ve ever wondered if you have enough experience to be a school leader, this podcast will help you identify the leadership qualities you’re already growing and how to speak about your value with confidence. You will learn how to: ✅Transform your teaching into a powerful leadership tale ✅ Know what interview boards are really looking for ✅ Stand out from other candidates in leadership interviews ✅ Confidently and clearly describe your leadership style ✅ Move from being a task-oriented manager to a people-oriented leader ✅ Build authentic relationships with teachers, students and families ✅ Prepare to land your first school leadership role Great leaders are not born when they're given a title. They are learned via experience, connections, service and the ability to inspire others. About Dr. Donovan Smalls II : Assistant Principal | Bestselling Author | Interview Coach Dr. Donovan Smalls II helps aspiring school leaders prepare for interviews and boldly pursue leadership roles in education. 👉🏾 Learn More About 1:1 Leadership Interview Coaching: https://www.donovansmalls2.com/coaching 📘 Grab my book, Beyond the Classroom: https://shorturl.at/74Bgy Streaming on: 📺 YouTube 🔗 https://urlgeni.us/youtube/channel/L0Y2m 🎧 Apple Podcasts 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/mv7f683k 🎧 Spotify 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/4wydt4nr

A school leadership interview can make even a prepared candidate question their experience, strengths, and ability to lead. But often, the problem isn’t preparation, it’s confidence in your own leadership story. In this episode, Dr. Donovan Smalls II shares 3-mindset shifts to help aspiring school leaders build confidence before their next school leadership interview and communicate who they are, what they’ve accomplished, and what they bring to the table. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 Your Confidence Starts With Your Story 02:59 Own the Uniqueness of Your Journey 06:37 Lead Your Interview With Your Strengths 09:07 Recognize the Leadership You Already Carry If you’ve ever walked into a school leadership interview wondering whether you’re the strongest candidate, this episode will help you stop focusing on what you lack and start recognizing the leadership you already demonstrate. You’ll learn how to: ✅ Embrace your unique journey and experiences ✅ Communicate your strengths with confidence ✅ Answer leadership questions from a leadership perspective ✅ Stop comparing your experience to other candidates ✅ Recognize leadership skills you already demonstrate through mentoring, collaboration, problem-solving, and initiative ✅ Show up to your interview with confidence, clarity, and ownership You don’t become a leader when you get the title. You expand the leader you already are. 🎯 Need Support Preparing for Your Leadership Interview? If you’re an aspiring school leader preparing to land your first school leadership role, personalized coaching can help you practice scenario-based questions, clarify your leadership story, and receive targeted feedback before the real interview. 👉🏾Learn More About 1:1 Leadership Interview Coaching: https://www.donovansmalls2.com/coaching 📘 Grab my book, Beyond the Classroom: https://shorturl.at/74Bgy  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ About Dr. Donovan Smalls II: Assistant Principal | Best Selling Author | Interview Coach Dr. Donovan Smalls II helps aspiring school leaders get interview ready & confidently land their first school leadership role. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Listen & Connect ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📺 YouTube 🔗 https://urlgeni.us/youtube/channel/L0Y2m 🎧 Apple Podcasts 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/mv7f683k 🎧 Spotify 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/4wydt4nr ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔔 Subscribe for weekly videos on Leadership Interviews, Assistant Principal Interviews, School Leadership, Educational Leadership, Interview Preparation, Leadership Development, and Career Growth for aspiring school leaders. #SchoolLeadership #LeadershipInterview #InterviewPreparation #AssistantPrincipal #AspiringSchoolLeaders

Leadership interview questions can feel intimidating when you don't have formal leadership experience. In this episode, Dr. Donovan Smalls II shows aspiring school leaders how to turn their teaching experiences into strong leadership interview answers. ⏱️ CHAPTERS: 00:00 — Answer Leadership Questions Without Experience 02:43 — Stop Thinking About Titles, Start Thinking About Decisions 05:52 — Answer From the Leadership Lens 08:30 — Show Your Influence You may have never been an Assistant Principal, supervisor, or academic coach—but that doesn't mean you don't have leadership experience. The key is learning how to communicate your experience through a leadership lens and demonstrate your ability to make sound decisions, influence others, and create meaningful impact. In this episode, you'll learn 3 practical strategies to answer school leadership interview questions with confidence: ✅ Stop thinking about titles and start thinking about decisions ✅ Answer leadership interview questions from a leadership lens ✅ Show your influence and the impact of your actions You'll also learn how to use experiences such as coaching teachers, mentoring colleagues, resolving conflicts, collaborating with teams, and serving on school committees to demonstrate leadership—even when you haven't held a formal leadership position. If you’re an aspiring school leader, this episode will help you communicate your experience in a way that sounds like a school leader. 🎯 PREPARING FOR YOUR SCHOOL LEADERSHIP INTERVIEW? If you're preparing to land your first school leadership role, don't underestimate the leadership experience you already have. Your challenge isn't always a lack of experience. Sometimes it's knowing how to frame your experience, communicate your leadership thinking, and demonstrate your impact during the interview. 🎯 1:1 Interview Preparation Coaching If you're preparing for your first leadership role and want personalized interview coaching, learn more here: https://www.donovansmalls2.com/coaching 👋🏾 ABOUT DR. DONOVAN SMALLS II: Assistant Principal | Best-Selling Author | Interview Coach Dr. Donovan Smalls II helps aspiring school leaders get interview-ready & confidently land their first leadership role. 📘 Grab Beyond the Classroom: https://shorturl.at/74Bgy 🔗 LISTEN & CONNECT: 📺 YouTube 🔗 https://urlgeni.us/youtube/channel/L0Y2m 🎧 Apple Podcasts 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/mv7f683k 🎧 Spotify 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/4wydt4nr 🔔 Subscribe for weekly episodes on interview preparation for aspiring school leaders! #SchoolLeadership #AssistantPrincipalInterview #LeadershipInterview #EducationalLeadership #AspiringSchoolLeader #InterviewPreparation #LeadershipDevelopment

School leadership interview rejection can feel personal, but what if that “no” isn't rejection at all? What if it's redirection? Many aspiring school leaders spend hours preparing interview questions, researching districts, and memorizing leadership frameworks. But there’s one question that can make all the difference: Who am I as a leader? Because when you know who you are before you walk into a school leadership interview, a closed door doesn't have to define you. Instead, you can learn from the experience, stay confident, and recognize when you're being redirected toward the right leadership opportunity. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 Who Am I as a Leader? 02:29 Rejection or Redirection? 05:17 What Kind of Leader Am I Becoming? 08:24 When Success Feeds Your Ego In this episode, Dr. Donovan Smalls II shares three powerful reflection lenses to help aspiring school leaders develop a stronger leadership identity before their next interview. You'll learn: ✅ Turn rejection into redirection instead of allowing one interview outcome to define you ✅ Understand who you're becoming as a school leader ✅ Identify your core leadership values, principles, and motivations ✅ Recognize whether a school, district, or leadership role truly aligns with you ✅ Stop chasing every leadership opportunity and start pursuing the right opportunities ✅ Build confidence without allowing success to feed your ego ✅ Lead through influence instead of authority ✅ Become a confident, humble, and authentic leader who isn't threatened by the strengths of others If you're preparing to land your first school leadership role, remember: the goal isn't just to give the right answers. The goal is to know who you are before you sit in that interview chair. Your leadership will ultimately flow from your identity. The more rooted you are in your values and principles, the less a “no” can shake you. 🎯 Preparing for Your First Leadership Role? ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ If you want personalized support to become interview ready, confident, and authentic, explore 1:1 Leadership Interview Coaching with Dr. Donovan Smalls II. Learn More About 1:1 Leadership Interview Coaching 📘 Grab my book, Beyond the Classroom: https://shorturl.at/74Bgy Get more leadership insights from Dr. Donovan Smalls II: https://www.donovansmalls2.com/coaching ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ About Dr. Donovan Smalls II ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Assistant Principal | Best Selling Author | Interview Coach Dr. Donovan Smalls II helps aspiring school leaders become interview ready, strengthen their leadership confidence, and confidently land their first school leadership role. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Listen & Connect ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📺 YouTube 🔗 https://urlgeni.us/youtube/channel/L0Y2m 🎧 Apple Podcasts 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/mv7f683k 🎧 Spotify 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/4wydt4nr

New Assistant Principal? Here’s what to expect in your first year of school leadership—from managing emotional challenges to leading adults and growing into your new role. CHAPTERS: 00:00 — What New Assistant Principals Should Expect 01:51 — The Emotional Roller Coaster of Leadership 07:35 — Leading & Managing Adults 11:23 — Give Yourself Grace While You Grow Stepping into your first Assistant Principal role is exciting, but leadership can be very different from what you imagined. Your days may be unpredictable, difficult conversations may arise, and leading adults requires a different set of skills than leading students. In this episode, Dr. Donovan Smalls II shares 3 essential lessons every new Assistant Principal should understand: ✅ Be ready for the emotional roller coaster of leadership ✅ Learn how to lead and manage adults through trust and influence ✅ Give yourself grace while you learn, reflect, and grow You'll also learn why being a great classroom teacher doesn't automatically mean you'll be a great school leader—and why experience, relationships, emotional intelligence, and reflection are essential to becoming an effective assistant principal. Whether you're a new assistant principal or an aspiring school leader, this episode will help you better understand what your first year in school leadership may look like. 🎯 PREPARING FOR YOUR SCHOOL LEADERSHIP INTERVIEW? Learn how to strengthen your interview responses, communicate your leadership experience, and confidently land your first leadership role. 🎯 1:1 Interview Coaching If you're preparing for your first leadership role and want personalized interview coaching, learn more here: https://www.donovansmalls2.com/coaching 👋🏾 ABOUT DR. DONOVAN SMALLS II: Assistant Principal | Best-Selling Author | Interview Coach Dr. Donovan Smalls II helps aspiring school leaders get interview-ready & confidently land their first leadership role. 📘 Grab my book, Beyond the Classroom: https://shorturl.at/74Bgy   Streaming on: 📺 YouTube 🔗 https://urlgeni.us/youtube/channel/L0Y2m 🎧 Apple Podcasts 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/mv7f683k 🎧 Spotify 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/4wydt4nr 👉🏾 Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell for more school leadership interview prep and leadership readiness strategies. 🔔 Subscribe for weekly episodes on school leadership interview preparation specifically geared toward aspiring school leaders. #AssistantPrincipal #SchoolLeadership #EducationalLeadership #AssistantPrincipalInterview #LeadershipDevelopment #AspiringSchoolLeader #interview

A school leadership job is about more than getting an offer—it’s about finding the right school, district, and leadership environment for you. In this episode, Dr. Donovan Smalls II shares how aspiring school leaders can evaluate a leadership opportunity before saying yes. Chapters: 00:00 You’re Interviewing Them, Too 02:33 Know What You’re Looking For 07:12 Ask Questions That Reveal the Culture 09:33 Remember the Value You Bring When preparing for a school leadership interview, it’s easy to focus entirely on proving yourself to the interview panel. But remember…you’re interviewing them, too. This episode will help you approach your next leadership interview with confidence, clarity, and discernment, by learning how to: ✅ Evaluate whether a school leadership job is right for you ✅ Ask questions that reveal the school’s culture ✅ Understand whether the district supports leadership growth ✅ Recognize the value and experience you bring to the table You’ll learn how to determine whether a school leadership position aligns with your long-term goals, leadership growth, values, and ability to make a meaningful impact on students, staff, and families. If you need personalized support with your leadership interview preparation, let’s explore 1:1 coaching below. 👉🏾 1:1 Leadership Interview Coaching: https://donovansmalls2.com/coaching 📘 Beyond the Classroom https://shorturl.at/74Bgy About Dr. Donovan Smalls II: Assistant Principal | Best-Selling Author | Interview Coach Dr. Donovan Smalls II helps aspiring school leaders become interview-ready, strengthen their leadership confidence, and confidently land their first school leadership role. Streaming on: 📺 YouTube 🔗 https://urlgeni.us/youtube/channel/L0Y2m 🎧 Apple Podcasts 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/mv7f683k 🎧 Spotify 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/4wydt4nr 🔔 Subscribe for weekly videos on Leadership Interviews, Assistant Principal Interviews, School Leadership, Educational Leadership, Interview Preparation, Leadership Development, and Career Growth for aspiring school leaders. #SchoolLeadership #LeadershipInterview #InterviewPreparation #AssistantPrincipal #AspiringSchoolLeaders

School leadership interview success takes more than experience and qualifications. In this episode, Dr. Donovan Smalls II shares 3 powerful leadership interview strategies to help aspiring school leaders answer with confidence, reduce interview anxiety, and position themselves as the leader a district wants to hire. Two candidates can have similar experience, qualifications, and resumes—but one gets the job while the other doesn't. Often, the difference isn't experience. It's strategy. ⏱️ Chapters: 00:00 — Why Qualified Candidates Fail Leadership Interviews 01:56 — Strategy #1: Know the District Before You Sell Yourself 06:38 — Strategy #2: Think Beyond the Question 09:27 — Strategy #3: Control the Narrative If you're preparing to land your first school leadership role, this video will help you: ✅ Research the district before you sell yourself ✅ Connect your experience to the district's goals and needs ✅ Understand what interview questions are really designed to reveal ✅ Answer unexpected leadership interview questions with confidence ✅ Use frameworks instead of memorizing answers ✅ Reduce interview anxiety and communicate your leadership more effectively ✅ Control the narrative and leave the interview with a clear leadership message 🎯 Ready to Prepare for Your Leadership Interview? If you have a strong resume and the experience to lead, but need additional support preparing for your next school leadership interview, Dr. Donovan Smalls II's 4-week interview preparation coaching program, Elevate Your Impact, can help you: • Clarify and confidently communicate your leadership story • Practice scenario-based leadership interview questions • Receive real-time coaching and targeted feedback • Complete a full one-on-one mock leadership interview 👉🏾 1:1 Leadership Interview Coaching: https://donovansmalls2.com/coaching 📘 Beyond the Classroom https://shorturl.at/74Bgy About Dr. Donovan Smalls II: Assistant Principal | Best-Selling Author | Interview Coach Dr. Donovan Smalls II helps aspiring school leaders become interview-ready, strengthen their leadership confidence, and confidently land their first school leadership role. Streaming on: 📺 YouTube 🔗 https://urlgeni.us/youtube/channel/L0Y2m 🎧 Apple Podcasts 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/mv7f683k 🎧 Spotify 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/4wydt4nr 🔔 Subscribe for weekly videos on Leadership Interviews, Assistant Principal Interviews, School Leadership, Educational Leadership, Interview Preparation, Leadership Development, and Career Growth for aspiring school leaders. #SchoolLeadership #LeadershipInterview #AssistantPrincipal #InterviewPreparation #EducationalLeadership

Leadership Interview Tips for Aspiring School Leadership Interview Success. Learn what hiring committees want to hear in leadership interviews. You don't need a stronger resume. You need stronger interview answers. The candidates who consistently earn leadership roles aren't always the most experienced—they're the ones who clearly communicate how their leadership changes outcomes for teachers, students, and the entire school community. If you're preparing for your first leadership interview, these three principles will completely change how you approach your next interview. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ **INSIDE THIS EPISODE** 00:00 | The mistake that weakens great interview answers 00:24 | Why hiring committees think differently than candidates 03:08 | Principle #1 — You shouldn't always be the hero 06:18 | Principle #2 — Think beyond your classroom 12:16 | Principle #3 — Put students at the center of every answer 14:24 | The interview framework every aspiring school leader should remember ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ **WHY THIS MATTERS** Hiring committees aren't simply looking for someone who can manage a school. They're looking for someone who can develop teachers, inspire people, and improve student outcomes. That's the difference between sounding qualified...and sounding like the leader they're ready to hire. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ **IN THIS VIDEO, YOU'LL DISCOVER** • The three things hiring committees actually want to hear • Why talking about yourself too much weakens your interview answers • How to communicate leadership impact instead of accomplishments • How to connect classroom success to school-wide leadership • The mindset shift that separates teachers from future school leaders • Why student-centered leadership creates unforgettable interview answers • How to position yourself as someone who develops people—not just manages them ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ **ONE IDEA TO REMEMBER** Great leadership interviews aren't about proving how impressive you are. They're about proving how many lives your leadership will improve. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ **ABOUT DR. DONOVAN SMALLS II** Assistant Principal | Best-Selling Author | Interview Coach Dr. Donovan Smalls II helps aspiring school leaders strengthen their interview skills, communicate their leadership story with confidence, and successfully transition into their first leadership role. Beyond the Classroom https://shorturl.at/74Bgy Interview Coaching https://donovansmalls2.com/coaching  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ LISTEN & CONNECT YouTube https://urlgeni.us/youtube/channel/L0Y2m Apple Podcasts https://tinyurl.com/mv7f683k Spotify https://tinyurl.com/4wydt4nr ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Subscribe for weekly content on leadership interviews, assistant principal interviews, school leadership, educational leadership, leadership development, interview preparation, and career growth for aspiring school leaders.

Preparing to land your first leadership role? This episode reveals the #1 mistake aspiring school leaders make and how a student-centered leadership approach can help you stand out with interview committees. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ **CHAPTERS** ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 00:00 – The #1 Interview Mistake 00:24 – Why Most Leadership Interview Answers Fall Short 03:08 – Principle #1: Stop Making Yourself the Hero 06:18 – Principle #2: Connect Classroom Impact to School-wide Impact 12:16 – Principle #3: Make Students the Center of Your Leadership Philosophy 14:24 – Three Principles That Transform Interview Answers 14:51 – Leadership Interview Coaching ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Many aspiring school leaders miss out on leadership opportunities—not because they lack experience, but because they communicate leadership the wrong way. In this episode, you'll learn three practical leadership interview principles that will help you answer interview questions with confidence, demonstrate student-centered leadership, and leave hiring committees with a lasting impression. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ **WHAT YOU'LL LEARN** ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✔ The #1 leadership interview mistake aspiring school leaders make ✔ Why hiring committees look beyond leadership skills and experience ✔ How to stop making yourself the hero in your interview answers ✔ How to connect your classroom experience to schoolwide leadership ✔ Why student-centered leadership creates stronger interview answers ✔ How to develop a leadership philosophy that hiring committees remember ✔ How to communicate leadership impact instead of listing accomplishments ✔ What separates great teachers from great school leaders during interviews Great interview answers don't just explain **how you lead.** They explain **who benefits from your leadership.** ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ **About Dr. Donovan Smalls II** ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Assistant Principal | Best-Selling Author | Interview Coach Dr. Donovan Smalls II helps aspiring school leaders become interview-ready, strengthen their leadership confidence, and confidently land their first school leadership role. 📘 **Grab Beyond the Classroom** https://shorturl.at/74Bgy 🎯 **1:1 Leadership Interview Coaching** If you're preparing for your first leadership role and want personalized interview coaching, learn more here: https://donovansmalls2.com/coaching ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ **Listen & Connect** ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📺 YouTube https://urlgeni.us/youtube/channel/L0Y2m 🎧 Apple Podcasts https://tinyurl.com/mv7f683k 🎧 Spotify https://tinyurl.com/4wydt4nr ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔔 Subscribe for weekly videos on **Leadership Interviews, Assistant Principal Interviews, School Leadership, Educational Leadership, Interview Preparation, Leadership Development,** and **Career Growth** for aspiring school leaders.