When I began The Tuesday Table, I thought I would write about MTSS, school culture, professional development, and systems of leadership.

Instead, I found myself writing about grief, faith, caregiving, courage, and starting again.

For a moment, I wondered if I had moved away from my original purpose. Then I realized:

I have not been writing about life instead of leadership. I have been writing about the life that shaped my leadership.

For more than 25 years, I have served students, families, and educators as a teacher, Dean of Students, and principal.

In each role, I learned that leadership is not only about instruction, expectations, and systems. It is also about recognizing and supporting the people within them.

I have been the leader expected to hold everything together while carrying grief, trauma, stress, and personal responsibilities of my own. Those experiences changed how I see leadership.

Schools need strong systems, but those systems serve real people—people who may be grieving, overwhelmed, exhausted, or quietly carrying something no one else can see.

That is why MTSS must be more than meetings and spreadsheets. School culture must be more than a slogan. Professional development must be relevant and useful. Leadership support must go beyond telling people to practice self-care.

Before we can strengthen a system, we must see the people inside it.

That truth is at the heart of the leadership-support framework I created. It grew from one question that continues to guide my work:

Who supports those who support everyone else?

In the coming weeks, I will share more about the framework and how it can help schools create stronger, more supportive environments.

But before we discuss its structure, I want you to understand its heart.

It was created from lived experience—not theory alone.

Because effective leadership is not only about what we accomplish. It is also about how we care for the people helping us accomplish it.

Around the Table

Have you ever been expected to support everyone else while quietly carrying something of your own?

A Thought to Purpose Challenge

Think about one system in your school or organization.

Does it only communicate what people are expected to do—or does it also provide the support they need to do it well?

Until next Tuesday…

Keep creating. Keep believing. Keep living with purpose.

— Kim M. Waller Founder/CEO, More Than Just A Thought LLC Where Creativity Meets Purpose To God be the Glory!