The Aspiring School Leader Podcast

Dr. Donovan Smalls II
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The Aspiring School Leader Podcast is the go-to show for educators ready to step into school leadership with clarity, confidence, and impact. Hosted by Dr. Donovan Smalls II, an assistant principal, best-selling author, and interview coach, this podcast helps aspiring school leaders get interview-ready & confidently land their first leadership role. Dr. Smalls supports educators with interview preparation, equipping them to step into new roles fully prepared and confident. Each episode delivers real-world insights, actionable strategies, and honest conversations about the challenges and opportunities that come with school leadership. Whether listeners are preparing for their first interview or already walking the halls as leaders-in-waiting, this podcast provides the tools and guidance they need to show up ready. For educators ready to elevate their impact beyond the classroom, this is the place to start. Ready to dive in? - Get my book Beyond The Classroom: https://tinyurl.com/mr23p86h  - Check out my Elevate Your Impact Interview Preparation Coaching Program: https://www.donovansmalls2.com/coaching  - Visit my website: https://www.donovansmalls2.com  - Email us at donovansmalls2@gmail.com 

  1. 4d ago

    Episode 45: Fix Your Interview Weaknesses Before It’s Too Late

    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

  2. Sep 23

    Episode 44: Why Will the INTERVIEW Committee Choose You? | The SECRET to Becoming a School Leader

    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

  3. Sep 17

    Episode 43: You Don’t Need More Interview Practice… You Need This

    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

  4. Sep 9

    Episode 42: How Do I Answer Leadership Interview Questions Without Experience?

    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

  5. Sep 2

    Episode 41: School Leadership Interview | Turn Rejection Into Redirection!

    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

  6. Aug 26

    Episode 40: New Assistant Principal? Here’s What to Expect in Your First Year

    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

  7. Aug 18

    Episode 39: How to Know If a School Leadership Job Is Right for You | Interview Tips

    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

  8. Aug 10

    Episode 38: How Qualified Candidates Can Stand Out in Leadership Interviews

    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

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The Aspiring School Leader Podcast is the go-to show for educators ready to step into school leadership with clarity, confidence, and impact. Hosted by Dr. Donovan Smalls II, an assistant principal, best-selling author, and interview coach, this podcast helps aspiring school leaders get interview-ready & confidently land their first leadership role. Dr. Smalls supports educators with interview preparation, equipping them to step into new roles fully prepared and confident. Each episode delivers real-world insights, actionable strategies, and honest conversations about the challenges and opportunities that come with school leadership. Whether listeners are preparing for their first interview or already walking the halls as leaders-in-waiting, this podcast provides the tools and guidance they need to show up ready. For educators ready to elevate their impact beyond the classroom, this is the place to start. Ready to dive in? - Get my book Beyond The Classroom: https://tinyurl.com/mr23p86h  - Check out my Elevate Your Impact Interview Preparation Coaching Program: https://www.donovansmalls2.com/coaching  - Visit my website: https://www.donovansmalls2.com  - Email us at donovansmalls2@gmail.com 

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