One Word. New Category.

Kory is a principal in Chicago.

When he got the keys to his school, the advice he received was essentially: don't screw it up. No roadmap. No mentor who had time for him. No development plan. Just a building, a staff, and the weight of every kid who walked through the door.

Sound familiar?

Kory found the Better Leaders Better Schools community. He went through the Entry Plan Intensive program. He joined the Ruckus Maker Mastermind. Then he got access to Digital Danny and he did something nobody else did.

He showed up. Every day. With a real question, a real situation, a real decision that needed thinking through.

Not once a week. Not when things got bad. Every single day.

1,015 conversations in 8 months.

Last February I called him. I wanted to know how he would describe what he'd been doing to someone he respected. Not what the tool was. What the practice was.

He didn't reach for "AI coaching." He didn't say "leadership development." He said:

"It's almost like your self mentor — a guide along the way where you're still doing the work."

You're still doing the work.

I sat with that for a long time.

Because here's what Kory named without knowing he was naming it: a brand new category in school leadership. One that had never had a word before. One that describes exactly what the most impactful principals I've ever coached have been doing quietly, consistently, without a name for it.

Selfmentorship.

One word. No hyphen. And it changes everything about how you think about your own development.

Here's what Selfmentorship is not: it's not reading more books. It's not attending another conference. It's not waiting for your district to fund a coaching program or your superintendent to finally prioritize principal development.

That’s permission-based development (and it gives your power away).

Here's what it is: the daily practice of driving your own growth. Turning your experience into wisdom in real time. Showing up to hard decisions with a thought partner instead of alone. Not waiting for permission to get better.

Play-It-Safe Principals accept permission-based development. They take what the system offers — four coaching sessions a year if they're lucky — and absorb the gap quietly.

Ruckus Makers do not. And therefore learn the art and science of Selfmentorship.

And this week it has a document.

The Selfmentorship manifesto is live on Substack right now. It's the most important thing I've published in ten years of Better Leaders Better Schools.

It tells Kory's full story. It names the problem the school leadership development system has never solved. And it lays out exactly what the practice of Selfmentorship looks like for a principal who's done waiting for someone else to hand them the answers.

You can read the full mini-book for free on the Ruckus Maker Substack 👇

I asked Digital Danny, “Spring break can be wild. Students and staff are losing focus. What can I do to reset the campus?”