The Smart Thinking Podcast

Urs and Ted have an engaging conversation on the impact of Radical Humility when leading others. Urs shares empowering stories and processes that will help you help others. Ted's favorite part of the book is the idea that we can all be “tough on results and tender on people.”

Too often we hide upcoming shifts and changes from people for fear that we will create tension. This is just a wasted opportunity to support people. Listen as Ted shares the research and a process to support increasing predictability for those you serve by outlining what people can expect during the next cycle or school year. Summer is an incredible time to help people see the change and find the support for their own engagement and empowerment.    

What do people in transition need the most? Well, the greatest gift we can give them is empathy and predictability. Ted breaks down how to give a gift that will be meaningful and needed for the people graduating or transitioning as well as describes how to support people as they take on their newest challenge.  Simple process: Give clear expectations of how you will be there for them Recognize how hard they've worked to get where they are Tell them you love them Provide praise for the way in which they live their lives. Buy Ted's book as a graduation gift here!   

The month of May is filled with opportunities for recognition and especially within our schools. Take a listen as Ted shares a process to use to create intentional and meaningful recognition in your culture. The process will bring Rays of Recognition throughout your culture.  Click here for retreat registration.     

What is a genius? What is the impact of AI on our learning? How is our memory being impacted by digital technology? Why are little kids becoming more challenging? Find out in this conversation with Ted and Dr. Jared Horvath: neuroscientist, professor, author, documentary filmmaker, dad, and entrepreneur. https://www.lmeglobal.net  

Did you know that 60% of male teens have online gambled at least once? Our children have too many opportunities to make bad choices, create addiction, and find themselves in accelerated anxiety loops. Ted tackles the newest research and findings on online and app-based gambling and the impact on teens. He ends with a simple suggestion: TALK TO YOUR CHILDREN!    Summer leadership retreat registration: https://store.cesa6.org/products/smart-thinking-summer-leadership-retreat-in-person

Tired of all of the negativity? It can be hard not to be and negativity is fueled by uncertainty and there is a lot of that lately. Let's do something about it. Let's get optimistic (Think Olivia Newton-John)! Take a listen as we explore reflective questions to frame your day and bring renewed energy towards your mindset. Ted has a ton of energy on this episode and brings you a great way to frame your oncoming storms!   Stop by our store to purchase Ted's tools: https://store.cesa6.org/      

This week Ted continues to bring you texts to read and the theme this week is -- growing yourself. Leaders are readers and readers are leaders. This collection of texts will help you with your self-discipline, mindset, leadership behaviors, and reflections as a person for others. A great collection of texts to support you and allow you to grow. The books: Discipline is Destiny, Ryan Holiday The Let Them Theory, Mel Robbins MindCraft, Aaron Sadoff Radical Humility, Urs Koenig Meditation for Mortals, Oliver Burkeman Duke's Storm, Ted Neitzke  Buy Ted's book and tools here: https://store.cesa6.org/  

People are leaving their jobs and we need a proactive process that allows us to understand how to help. Ted explores the idea of stay interviews and explains the powerful impact that asking positively framed questions can have for leaders as they are seeking to retain staff. He then adds a twist at the end which will help students!     

55% of Americans (per GALLUP) indicate that they do not know what is expected of them at work. This is not good for stakeholders or leaders. This episode shares a process to help you help others seek clarity and become crystal clear of their expectations. The process begins with providing everyone choice and voice in their world so that they have permission to seek clarity and be engaged and empowered.

Gen Z and Gen Alpha are amazing and yet they are facing threats online that others generations could not have even imagined. Sextortion being one and this episode explores how to talk to young people about the threats they face in the 2020's. All of it by learning how to LEAN into difficult conversations with young people. Learn together Engage the topic Announce expectations Next steps  

Organizations create structure and people create culture. So how do we better support Gen Z in the workforce for a great culture? Take a listen as Ted breaks down strategies to support younger employees and colleagues - -oh heck -- these processes are actually good for everybody.  Describe how you set yourself up for the future. List programs and supports you need in your current season of life. Describe innovations you could support in your workplace to increase success.  Song: Better Days by Thomas LaVine

The RESCUE principle will help us increase the success of others as well as ourselves. Take a listen as Ted breaks down the behaviors of great friends and colleagues to support wellbeing, engagement, and the application of our strengths.  Resources Empathy Support their strengths Challenge Understand  Expectations Buy Ted's book Duke's Storm here.     

How good are you or your organization at proactively anticipating what could happen? This episode shares a process borrowed from emergency management and discusses the positive impact of using the wisdom of the crowd to proactively plan for the future. This way everyone understands their role and can support the system in better ways. Describe where you could apply this process to increase team ownership and understanding. List people that need to always be in the room when proactively planning. Describe a past experience that would have been more successful had you done a tabletop. Buy Duke's Storm here: https://store.cesa6.org/products/dukes-storm  

There is now a name to our buffalo... Duke! Ted is now the author of a children's book entitled: Duke's Storm: A Story of Courage. This episode is the story about the story and how Ted was "nudged" by a high school sophomore that had participated in his student leadership training. Listen and hear how their shared experience has created a beautiful book.  This episode details how multi-generational people can do great things together. Ted and Allison combined their talents to create an amazing book! Buy book here: https://store.cesa6.org/products/dukes-storm 

What is your process to provide energy whenever you are midway through a process, project or year? This process introduces an engaging practice to support what Ted calls MC Squared. Milestones, Communicated, and Celebrated for engagement and empowerment. All by playing BINGO!  List current initiatives that could use a boost. Describe how you provide energy midway in your classroom, school, department, or office. Determine how you're going to celebrate effort to bring energy   Resource: https://myfreebingocards.com    

This week Ted continues his tradition of bringing you books in the context of your life. This "pile" is all about you developing you! Listen as he breaks down five texts that are best read in order. These books will help you plan forward your life and leadership. The books: Build the Life You Want, Brooks and Winfrey (Not a country band) Principles, Dalio The Mountain is You, Wiest Tiny Habits, Fogg 10 to 25 The Science of Motivating Young People, Yeager Song: Somnolent Love, James Tutson

Did you know that only 1% of the people who make resolutions succeed after one year? Let's disrupt that pattern by taking a new approach. The approach? Resolution by committee. Get a group together to increase your success, hold each other accountable, and make micro changes for macro outcomes! List who your resolution committee will be. Describe your commitment to self growth and improvement. List the people who would benefit from this process. BONUS: describe how you will be different on December 31, 2025. Ted has also started a playlist that you can follow on Spotify

Great leaders apply empathy to every situation. They also practice self-empathy. This conversation with Meredith about her learning and tactics around overthinking will help you in many ways. First, empathy/self-empathy. Second, identifying what is going on in your heart and head. Third, providing you with strategies to support yourself and others. Finally, a language to help you claim and tame what causes you to be mentally or emotionally restless. Book: Get Out Of My Head. Inspiration for overthinkers in an anxious world. Meredith Arthur.  Meredith is the founder of Beautiful Voyager

As we close out 2025, there are opportunities to support reflection and planning. Take a listen on this spin of a classic Charles Dickens tale and how Ted created reflection prompts to support those that you lead.  Here are the prompts: Please share advice you would give yourself when visiting 14-year-old you. Please share advice you would give yourself when visiting you your first-year teaching/in your career. Please share something you successfully challenged and overcame this year. Please share a way in which someone else on our team impacted you this year. Please describe an area you want to learn more about, so your future self is more empowered. In a single word - describe your career when you retire.

This episode is a great conversation between Emily, Tim and Ted about all things recognition, engagement and how using your Clifton Strengths can amplify the world around you. Listen in for great new research, tips for coaching others and some new ways to support others.  The research on great recognition practices. It must be: Fulfilling Authentic Equitable Embedded Personalized   

Have you ever asked a kid for advice? If not, you should start. Take a listen as Ted shares the wisdom of nearly 200 middle school students. These young people gave great advice for the adults in their lives. Use his process to amplify your teams, friends and family this Thanksgiving.  Describe the advice you'll take from the students. List who would benefit from getting this type of advice. Describe how you could use this process to elevate others.  

Join Ted and listen to him with what might be the most enthusiasm he's had yet on the podcast. He found a new Google tool called NotebookLM and he breaks down the power of this AI for use in leadership, organizations, and classrooms. There is a AI generated podcast within the podcast. Super smart thinking this week. List application you have for NotebookLM. Describe your wonderings around applying AI in your work. List you worries about applying storm generating technologies. Click here to take you to NotebookLM Click here to take you to CESA 6 AI trainings  

A behavior ignored, is a behavior reinforced. In your culture what are you expecting and what are you tolerating? Listen as Ted describes a mindset and tool to help you have the needed conversations so that your culture grows in a positive way and people are either coached up to the expectations or coached out of the situation.   List the people coming with you and who is not Describe what you need to do in order to grow your invitation list Describe what you need to do different within your culture    

When people are stubborn it is usually for a good reason. Likely fear of change or of the unknown consequences of taking the "risk." Take a listen as Ted explore how to support good people who seem unwilling to change or move into the direction of the storm they are facing.  List people who can help you move past a stubborn moment you are facing. Describe how you can support others who have the wrong gear but right mindset. List the ways in which you can support others in finding their way.

Transactional relationships and mindsets create disengagement, sadness, and resentment. Transactional thinking is the opposite of leadership and keeping score needs to stop. Listen as Ted explores how to shift to a zero-zero mindset and support a positive narrative in your noggin and help you  -  help others grow. Describe where in your life you are keeping score List the people in your life that need to be modeled 0-0 Describe how you can lead with a 0-0 mindset        

Recess might actually be the process to help children learn more, decrease classroom behavioral issues, and increase teacher retention. Wait, how could that be? In this episode Ted shares research that shows how increasing recess -  decreases all the negative things occurring in school and increases all of the positive things. The answer for improvement has likely been in front of us the entire time (recess). However, we're going to need to be buffaloes and charge into several storms to create the ideal conditions.

Listen as Ted shares great resources to help you grow and support others. These resources are building off of themes presented this season on the podcast and will help you support parents, fuel your inner buffalo and frame your mindset.   Studies: The Evolving Needs of Working Parent's: Kindercare Study Walton Family Foundation Voices of Gen Z Study: Gallup/Walton Family Foundation Books: Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents, Lindsay Gibson The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt Twelve and A Half, Gary Vaynerchuk The Happiest Man on Earth, Eddie Jaku Albums: Coldplay: Moon Music Leon Bridges: Leon  

How does your system support parents? Too often we are casting blame on the parents and not recognizing the opportunities and responsibilities we have to empower parents. Take a listen as Ted challenges us to create systems of support and empowerment while the children are on their educational journey. You can't meet unspoken expectations and parenting is an anxiety riddled journey and everyone has questions. That anxiety turns to defensiveness very quickly, so let's make navigating schools less worrisome and help parents support their children in new ways. 

Are you wise enough to be a Sage? YES! This week join us as we discuss the IMPACT our words can have on others as Ted reviews the people who've impacted him and how we can all grow from those around us. Listen to the very end..... for some really sage advice.  Here are the 180 degree cards for purchase: https://store.cesa6.org/products/buffalo-note-cards List the sages in your life Describe your ability to support others with your collected wisdom List who needs you to step into their storm with IMPACT?

How well do you celebrate failure? In this episode, Ted discusses how we can all learn from slime mold to get ourselves into a routine of never losing and instead, always learning. The road to excellence has no destination and is filled with failures. To keep moving forward -  we have to celebrate all the learning! We're never losing -- we're always learning. Describe where you can apply slime mold strategies. List where this process would be helpful in increasing risk. Describe a recent failure that should be celebrated.

Join Ted as he discusses the importance of having a process that allows for people to contribute instead of simply complaining. The tool and mindset are simple- operate in “AND” mode not “BUT” mode. This episode has a bonus process tool using wisdom and conjunctions to create a great cultural reflection process (this is what happens when Ted has an idea while recording).  List where this process would benefit the most Describe your ability to move from “yeah but” to “and” List the people who would go noticed if you employed processes like this. Song: Brad & Kate- Flame

Behind every Olympian is a story. Listen as Ted breaks down how to become fans of all of those you serve. Every child, colleague, friend and loved one has a complicated story and it is always unique. What if we had a way to learn that story?  It would be like when we watch the Olympics and learn the Olympians "whole" story and suddenly we become that persons fan. Describe your biggest fan List the people in your life that will need a fan List who you can interview in order to understand their story    

Welcome to Season 7! On this episode Ted shares a process to help you preplan for the unexpected. Ted describes the behaviors needed to have an engaged group of leaders and talks about an accident where he observed random buffalo leaders charge into a WAHBL situation. Listen as he discusses the best of the buffaloes -- a 3rd grade teacher who was everything to everyone at this accident scene. Burning cars, buffaloes, and process! Describe who in your life is always willing to run to the storm. List the behaviors of the people who run to the storm. Describe what you can do different in order to grow your courage to charge.    

In this episode Ted shares the importance of doing a personal strategic review in the summer by utilizing process and taking clarity breaks. Too often we are not taking time to reflect on what works, what needs iteration and what we need to stop doing in our lives. Take a listen as he shares a simple and tested process to support you growing forward. List when you will take clarity breaks. Describe who can run your strategic plan out with you. Describe where you will build your plan?

Too often in summer or between projects we employ retreats to look at results and we create a bunch of documents that rarely get deployed.  This usually occurs because people are using lagging data and negotiating on what the culture will allow. This episode will help frame the need for cultural languages and tools to ensure that what we want to stick - -stays stuck and works. Organizations create binders of steps and yet they fail to start with an evaluation of the organization to measure for capacity, desire, or the skills to employ the changes. No longer! Describe your change process. List the tools you can use to empower those you serve. Describe where the opportunities are to use processes to support lasting change.

Ted is sharing books that he believes must be read this summer to help us all grow as leaders. Especially, those that serve children or have children. The curated list of texts are meant to be read in order to help each of us grow. There is a growing crisis on how children are learning and behaving, and these books will help you help the children in your life. Take a listen as Ted shares seven books – in order – that you need to read this summer.   Psych, The Story of the Human Mind: Paul Bloom Radical Respect, How to Work Together Better: Kim Scott Hidden Potential: Adam Grant Meditations: Marcus Aurelius The Anxious Generation, How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness: Jonathan Haidt The Body Keeps The Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma: Bessel Van Der Kolk Bryson the Brave Bison: Davenport, Freshwater, and Cowdrey

When the seasons change, it provides us the opportunity to seek improvement through process. Take a listen as Ted describes a process to help you find the joy in your life. We choose to enJOY our work and there are two hungers we have to feed- ourselves and our passions.   Describe what your passions are. List the people who could be coached to reflect upon their passions. List who you trust to guide you through a reflective process. Describe how you can increase your own ability to be engaged and self-empowered.    

How do we get more children and adults to read? Take a listen as Ted shares a strategy for increasing the amount of children reading. It all boils down to one key idea -- if we want children to read - -the adults have to read! List who you should read with. Describe the books you like to read verses the books others like to read. . List the books you'd like to read with others. 

How will you remember this school year? Take a listen as Ted explains a process to use to help you and your system reflect - with intention - in an effort to create a realistic memory of the year. Learn how to identify the peaks, the pits and the transitions so that you can celebrate and acknowledge the real journey and use the information to better serve your classroom, school or system in the future.   Describe how you can increase the awareness of others while on the journey. List who would benefit from reviewing the peaks, pits, and transitions. Describe how you can solidify the memory of the end. 

Ever wonder how memory is impacted by emotions, or how the amount of books in your home informs your child's intellectual skills, or how electronics are impacting development or what AI is doing to the brain? Wonder no longer -- these and many more questions are answered in this conversation with Jared as we explore the brain and his newest research and discoveries.  Find him: https://www.youtube.com/@JaredCooney Song: Andrew Hoyt - Dance with Somebody   

We all need to be both leaders and followers and we can do that if we CARE. Listen as Ted explains the need for us each to be in two lanes at once - lead and follow. CARE is a simple way of explaining what a good follower does.   Collaborate Accept responsibility Resilient Engagement with intention

Listen as Ted reminds us of the power of listening to the "nudges." This is the 300th episode of the podcast and Ted walks through how important it is to listen to the ideas of others and shares a simple process to support coaching yourself to higher levels of engagement and happiness. Song: Sunflower Bouquet by Anderson Coates - Golden Bear Studios   Reflections:  List the "should's" you heard this past week. Describe who in your life nudges you towards excellence. List the people and the nudges that have changed your life.  

Too often in our organizations, we forget to provide the leadership so that we have a strong cultural understanding of our journey. As a result, we need a process. Join Ted as he explains why and how to create a unified story(narrative) so that more people can celebrate all they've done together so that you can end the year together!    Process prompts:  Celebrations (Internal) Celebrations (External) Grow my engagement Professional development WE need Elephants in the room Recognitions Can you believe?

What is your process for advocating for yourself and your strengths? Too often other people judge us and do not understand us so we need a process to help others see our strengths. Join Ted as he shares a process to employ for you to create your own self advocacy plan or IAP.  Identify your strengths and soft strengths. Describe who in your world needs to be coached to self-advocacy. List ways in which you can support others through their strengths and weaknesses.

This conversation with author and mental fitness guru Greg Harden is going to change you, your leadership and maybe even your life. His book is fantastic, his career is amazing, and this conversation is a game changer. Take a listen as Greg and Ted – two obnoxious optimists – discuss how to support your own journey and how to focus on being your own best friend.   Book: Stay Sane in an Insane World: How To Control the Controllables and Thrive

Join us for a discussion of how an emergency surgery supercharged Ted's belief that empathy is the greatest leadership quality. Hear as he discusses the great care he received and how the healthcare workers supporting him diminished his vulnerability by being empathetic. You'll be inspired to think about how you matter in the moments when others need you the most!  Describe the last time you felt vulnerable and how you overcame that emotion List the people in your life that would benefit from your empathy Describe how you can increase your empathy in your actions  

What is your intentional process to ensure you get the best from an interaction with someone else? Seriously, people you like, people you work with, people you over and even people on the opposite side of politics? Join us a for a great conversation where Craig and Ted trade a ton of strategies and tactics to support you in developing a stronger ability to have great conversations. 

As we look to the start of spring and a break for many of us, I want to give you some texts to read to invest in yourself and others! This list of texts is best read in the order explained and below. However, each book, by itself, is fantastic!   Stay Sane In An Insane World, Greg Harden A New Kind Of Diversity, Tim Elmore Yes To The Mess, Frank Barrett How To Know A Person, David Brooks The Little Liar, Mitch Albom Maybe, Kobi Yamada

Gallup has so many great resources and one of my favorites is the Clifton Strength Finder. Join me for a conversation with Dr. Tim Hodges who over sees the Clifton Strengths Institute and learn how to apply your strengths and utilize the tool in new and rewarding ways. 

Maybe we all need to learn a new habit. Short-term memory when leading. In other words, how to move ourselves along quickly so that we don't get trapped in a narrative that causes us more stress and pressure. Well, as Ted Lasso says: be a goldfish.   Use the four f's to get you there: fast, forgive, forget and forward!