- Craft innovative strategies to build on your success.
- Create enduring, sustainable growth for your center.
- Cultivate a stronger, more resilient leadership team.
Leadership Day Intensive
You believe in your team… and you believe in their ability to achieve more.
You’re a growth-minded leader with a capable team and a well-established center (maybe even multiple centers).
You’ve spent time creating systems and processes, cultivating a values-led culture, and investing in the development of your team members. Now, you’ve got your sights set on refining and building upon the pieces you’ve worked so hard to put in place—so you can ensure the long-term sustainability of your center.
But continuing to move forward means addressing the problems and skill gaps that are still present among your team. As confident as you are in your team’s abilities, you still notice room for growth in areas like:
- Accountability. They struggle to hold themselves and others accountable for their actions, meaning that difficult yet important conversations are often neglected.
- Boundaries. They lack confidence in setting healthy boundaries with teachers and parents, causing unneeded strain and overwhelm.
- Discernment. They don’t always recognize what to do in challenging situations and end up relying on you to make important decisions.
- Emotional Regulation. They tend to react to stressful situations rather than respond with solutions and a growth mindset, creating excess tension and negatively impacting decision making.
- Work-Life Integration. They struggle to find harmony between their professional and personal lives, causing stress, emotional exhaustion, and burnout.
You know your team can work through these challenges and achieve their full potential—but you aren’t sure how to raise the bar in a way that’s both fast
and sustainable.
You’re looking for the opportunity to level up your leadership team with a fresh perspective.
You’ve combed through online trainings, YouTube videos, podcast episodes, and other leadership resources that provide sporadic advice and surface-level tools.
What you haven’t had is the chance to put those lessons into the specific context of your center, in real time.
You’re looking for sustainable solutions—not surface-level fixes.
With the chance to roll up your sleeves and look at the challenges in your center from a fresh perspective, your team could finally:
- Foster accountability in themselves and others so they can take an active role in establishing a culture of growth in your center.
- Build the confidence to set healthy boundaries that minimize distractions, alleviate overwhelm, and enhance overall well-being.
- Cultivate the skills and self-trust necessary to become wise decision-makers so they can solve problems proactively and independently.
- Develop strategies for emotional regulation so they can respond calmly and logically to stressful situations and lead with kindness and candor.
- Create a more equal integration of their personal and professional lives, steering clear of burnout and advancing both their individual goals and their goals for the center.
You know your team is both capable and willing to address their shortcomings and become stronger leaders. You just need to invite the right environment to work through these challenges head on.
And you can create that opportunity for your center today.
Uplevel your team with a Schools of Excellence Leadership Day.
The Leadership Day is a custom, in-person training led by Schools of Excellence founder and CEOChanie Wilschanki. It’s designed to help you and your leadership and/or administrative team manage conflict, work collaboratively, and develop the emotional and relational intelligence necessary to ensure your center can adapt and excel.
But your center’s growth won’t be limited to a one-day training. Following your Leadership Day, Chanie will continue to collaborate with your team, employing her forward-thinking, methodical approach to further embed the skills you’ve learned into your center’s day-to-day operations.
The Leadership Day is your opportunity to dedicate focused attention to problem-solving and team-building so you can continue building a school of excellence and ensure the future of your center.
The Leadership Day is your opportunity to dedicate focused attention to problem-solving and team-building so you can continue building a school of excellence and ensure the future of your center
Check out more Schools of Excellence Stories
Inquire Today To Reserve Your Spot
Actualize your ambitions through customized training calibrated to the real-life workings of your center.
The Leadership Day isn't your average professional development training.
It’s a long-term, hands-on experience that’s highly customized to meet the specific needs and goals of your center.
Unlike one-size-fits all trainings or generic online modules, the Schools of Excellence Leadership Day helps you uplevel your team through:
- Tailored training that adapts seamlessly to the evolving dynamics of your team in real time.
- A forward-thinking, methodical approach to diagnosing and working through your center’s root cause issues.
- Chanie’s boots-on-the-ground training style, which ensures her ongoing alignment with your center’s developments.
- Coaching centered around targeted questioning that will inspire your team to craft solutions attuned to your center’s distinct needs.
- A chance to level up your entire team’s leadership skills and mindsets, improving your collaboration and allowing you to move forward with confidence and excellence.
"I saw where my team was and where I wanted them to go, and I wanted their growth to be long lasting and meaningful to them individually."
Aliya Johnson-Roberts, Co-Owner & Director
Dig deep and develop solutions through a forward-thinking, adaptable approach.
The Leadership Day Intensive takes place over four steps.
Step 1: Leadership Assessment
Chanie and the Schools of Excellence team will assess your center’s leaders and administrative team to try and get an initial pulse on your center: its operations, its successes, and its areas for growth.
Step 2: Intake Call
During this kickoff call, Chanie will talk with you (and any other relevant members of your leadership team) to get clear on your center’s objectives for the program and the skills you most want your team to learn.
Step 3: Leadership Day
The heart of this program takes place when Chanie leads you and your team through a in-person Leadership Day. But your team won’t just spend the day listening passively. Instead, they’ll be active participants as they dig deep into each of the core objectives you and Chanie select together in advance of the training.
Some of the most common Leadership Day topics include:
- BRIDGE to Excellence (the 6 meta skills every strong leader needs: boundaries, relationship intelligence, individual advocacy, discernment, generosity, and emotional regulation)
- 5 Layers to Building a Culture of Retention
- Delegation Dip
- Org Charts
- Culture Tension Decoder
- Roles, Responsibilities & Goals
- Communication Standards + Boundaries
- Operational Issues
- Self-Identity
The day is structured around five key components: teaching, journaling, exercises, small group work, and role playing. Typically, your team will cycle through each of these components as they work through the day’s core objectives.
| Phase I: Teaching | Chanie teaches a key concept related to the core objective. |
|---|---|
| Phase II: Journaling | Team members journal their responses to reflective questions posed by Chanie. |
| Phase III: Exercises | Team members discuss their journal responses with partners. |
| Phase IV: Small Group Work | Chanie leads team members through a group roundtable to welcome various perspectives. |
| Phase V: Roleplaying | Team members participate in a role play activity to work through the concept. |
As you work through each core objective, Chanie will keep her finger on the pulse of your team’s dynamics and adapt her training as necessary to make sure your goals are being met. She’ll also offer real-time observations and insights to help you and your team get to the root of your culture challenges and develop solutions specifically tailored to your center.
In addition, Chanie will hold a midday check-in with you during lunch where you can ask questions, raise concerns, and discuss the progress of the training. Should your goals change, she’s prepared to change the day’s agenda to better suit your needs.
Step 4: Follow-Up
Because the skills you’ll learn will take time to implement, your Leadership Day experience won’t end when you walk out the door that day. Instead, you’ll receive 90 days of follow-up support that includes:
- 3 monthly calls with Chanie where you and your team can discuss your progress, identify roadblocks, and hold each other accountable for future success.
- Voxer access for direct communication with Chanie where you can ask questions as they come up in your center’s day-to-day.
Inquire now—space is limited!
If you’re ready to tackle your center’s challenges head on, uplevel your team, and propel your school toward excellence, inquire today to schedule your Leadership Day. As Chanie facilitates Leadership Day trainings in-person and on-site, opportunities are limited and are offered on a first come, first served basis.
Once you inquire, you’ll book a call with our team, where they can learn more about you and your center, your goals for your Leadership Day, and your availability. If we feel that you’re a good fit, we’ll discuss next steps.
"We do so many other things that aren't in our quality standards or requirements, that ensure we aren't treating ourselves like machines."
Aliya Johnson-Roberts, Co-Owner & Director
Meet your early childcare leadership expert: Chanie Wilschanski
Hi! I’m Chanie Wilschanski
I’m an early childhood leadership coach and the CEO of Schools of Excellence.
I’ve worked with hundreds of directors and school owners to build and sustain schools of excellence with higher staff retention and parent engagement, greater teacher motivation, and more collaborative cultures.
On paper, I first began my journey in early childhood education teaching toddlers at the Preschool of the Arts in New York City. After 8 years, I went on to earn my Master’s in Early Childhood and Special Education, and in 2015 I transitioned into working with teachers and school leaders on how to become stronger leaders and foster excellence within their schools.
But in reality, my passion for early childhood education started as a child. With 8 brothers and sisters and hundreds of cousins, I was already running my own mini pre-school by the time I was 5. This experience taught me how to diagnose problems and develop systems and processes at an early age—like a bath-time system that gets kids in and out of the bathtub in under 10 minutes.
Over the years, I refined those skills and now use them to provide insight and expert guidance to school leaders just like you, so you can overcome your greatest challenges, build a stronger team, and transform your center.
What kind of impact can a Leadership Day have on your center?
Wondering if your team is a good fit
for a Leadership Day?
The Leadership Day is an intensive experience designed to help you build on the foundation you've already created in your center by elevating your team through skills development and relationship building.
It’s a great fit for your center if you:
- Are looking for long-term, forward-thinking solutions that can uplevel your team, rather than quick fixes or surface-level resources
- Have a well-established school with existing structure, organization, and processes
- Have a strong team that’s aligned with your center’s values and want to continue developing their skills and potential
- Are working toward increasing your impact by creating new programs or expanding to new locations and are evaluating and refining the long-term sustainability of your center
- Are thinking about or in the process of developing a succession plan for your center with those most equipped to carry the torch
It could also be a good fit for your center if you:
- Have a rapidly growing school with high enrollment and a steady flow of teachers who are a good fit for your center
- Have systems and processes in place but may need some guidance addressing bottlenecks and inefficiencies
- Have a solid team but still need to work on getting them aligned to the values of your center
- Are working on developing a growth plan for team members to address their skill gaps and develop their leadership skills
It’s probably NOT a good fit for your center if you:
- Are just starting out or have just gone through a difficult transition or crisis that has you stuck in survival mode
- Still need to build a solid foundation and lack the structure, organization, and processes to keep your school operating efficiently
"My team gave me back my time to spend with my family and to work on the business so that I can build it."
Aliya Johnson-Roberts, Co-Owner & Director
Answers to some of our most frequently asked questions by leaders like you.
What does the follow-up look like?
After your Leadership Day, you’ll receive 90 days of follow-up support with Chanie. This includes one 20–30 minute check-in call with Chanie once a month, plus Voxer access throughout the 90 days so you can ask Chanie in-the-moment questions as you and your team implement what you learned from the training.
Do you conduct the training on-site at my school? Or can we come to you?
Both options are available. Whether Chanie comes to you or you come to her, the Leadership Day training will be conducted live with your full leadership team present so Chanie can observe your team dynamics in-person and provide the best feedback and insight.
What day and time will you come?
The date of your Leadership Day will depend on Chanie’s availability. In general it’s scheduled on a day of your choosing several months in advance to create time to plan and give you the best experience possible. Many owners choose to schedule the training on an existing professional development day at their center.
Can my staff participate or is it only for my leadership and/or administrative team?
While this training is primarily designed for your leadership and/or administrative team, some past Leadership Days have included teachers as well. You’ll have the chance to discuss these options during your intake call with Chanie.
What will be the focus of the training?
The topic(s) of your Leadership Day training is entirely up to you and based on the needs of your particular team. During your intake call, Chanie will discuss several options and you can decide together what focus will be most beneficial for your center. Chanie may also offer on-the-spot coaching on the day of the training as she sees the need arise.
How much does a Leadership Day cost?
The investment will be discussed as part of your inquiry call.
"Having conversations about manipulation and boundaries helped my team become more of the individuals and leaders they want to be."
Aliya Johnson-Roberts, Co-Owner & Director
Build a team that can sustain your center and help you create a legacy.
Hosting a Leadership Day is your chance to dig deep, get to the root of your issues, and create solutions that will strengthen your leadership team and ensure the longevity of your center. It’s a one-of-a-kind opportunity with the power to create a positive ripple effect that will impact your school and community for years to come.
"There were some things going on personally between team members that were standing in the way of us progressing."
Aliya Johnson-Roberts, Co-Owner & Director