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Colleagues,
MVP: Be careful making up explanations, they probably aren’t accurate. At a training last week, I shared photos of cover drafts for my upcoming book, A School Leader’s Guide to Reclaiming Purpose. This morning I received an email from a colleague, who was part of that training, apologizing for “unsolicited” feedback she had offered about the cover. She said she regretted her comment and it was obvious she had spent time worrying about it. I don’t remember her making a comment. What happened?
These bullets may or may not apply to my colleague (you know who you are and I know that you are AWESOME), but they certainly apply to me. Time and time again I make up stuff to explain things for which I lack information. Time and time again, my negative story is completely false. Today’s intention: Listen to yourself. Attend to the stories you make up. Remind yourself that you lack information, and that your conclusions may be erroneous. Cheers! Frederick
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Colleagues,
MVP: Leadership takes different forms and we grow when we can appreciate them. Whenever I do a leadership styles workshop, I begin with an activity to help people understand there is no single best style and that all styles have value. It is a forced choice activity where people choose between:
Each step of the way, I ask people to share why they chose the way they did, with the purpose of highlighting that each choice has different strengths. In a training I did last week, most people chose a hammer, which is typical. Why a hammer?
When I asked someone on the nails side to explain why they chose nails they said this: “It is the nails that hold everything together.” The people who had chosen hammers all paused and became very thoughtful. It can be difficult to appreciate the power of leaders who are not like you, but learning to see their strength is invaluable. Today’s intention: Think about the people around you who lead in different ways, and pause to appreciate the different forms leadership takes. Cheers! Frederick Colleagues, MVP: People in the same organization may be experiencing very different levels of stress. We are in an age when our systems are consistently under stress. Last week I was working with an organization being pressured on all fronts – over regulated, under resourced, with increasing needs for its services but diminishing support from the state. During the training I wanted people to have their stress and emotions validated in a way that provided them deeper understanding as to why they felt as they did. There is no easy fix for their situation, but the more we can understand a thing, the better equipped we are to deal with it. So, we looked at the six dimensions of organizations and how misalignment between people, purpose, structures, and resources created stress. We also discussed how to quantify that stress based on the degree of turbulence (see image).  I go into this more deeply in today’s episode of The Assistant Principal Podcast, but here is the takeaway I want to share with you…
Within the same organization, different people are experiencing different levels of turbulence. Please do not assume that everyone feels the same stress you do. Watch, listen, and then respond appropriately. Note that people experiencing extreme turbulence have very little capacity to engage in change initiatives. Today’s intention: Consider printing and posting the image of turbulence and using it to reflect on where people in your organization might be. Consider sharing it to develop some common language. Cheers! Frederick Colleagues,
MVP: If you want to understand why something is, try to understand why it began. In November of 2020, I caught COVID. I was in rough shape for a couple weeks and then began a steady but slow, full recovery. Almost. While I was sick, I lost all taste and smell. Thankfully, my taste and smell have returned. Almost. Coffee still lacks taste. Some days I can taste it a little, but other days, like today, there is no coffee flavor. But I still drink coffee every morning. Why? To fully understand why I still drink coffee, we need to understand why I began drinking it in the first place. That’s a discussion for another time or place, but the lesson is this… If you want to understand why something is, try to understand why it began. Cheers! Frederick Colleagues,
MVP: Make your choices intentionally. This week’s messages started with me bemoaning how a couple small events had me in a negative state, and that my way of dealing with it was to dig in and force myself to complete something meaningful. Today, this strategy worked. My day is back on track and I am feeling better. Admittedly, I am not always successful in turning my mood around. Today, the tipping point was making an intentional choice to dig into something I knew had to be done and to commit to completing it. As with yesterday’s message – intention is so critical. Even when we make poor choices (is four monster cookies too many?), when we make them intentionally there is a value that comes with owning our choices. Today’s intention: Have a GREAT weekend, Be nice to others, and to yourself. Cheers! Frederick |
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