Colleagues,
MVP: The most important meetings focus on growing people, and they should be scheduled at times that minimize distractions and maximize engagement. We all have lots of meetings, but there should be one or two regular meetings that are essential to organizational success. Since better people = better organizational outcomes, meetings that are focused on developing people are critical. In six days, the first episode of Quadrant2 comes out. The focus is on putting the structures in place that will help create leadership team meetings that are focused on growing teachers (ILT meetings in ed-jargon). One of the biggest barriers to ILT meetings is interruptions. There are all kinds of “emergencies” that can pull people out of the meeting, as well as the distractions that push themselves into the meetings (email, texts, tik tok 🤣). An ILT meeting without all members being fully attentive is a bad meeting. One of the strategies we will look at is simply choosing the right time to schedule the meeting. For school teams, reviewing their data on when there are the fewest discipline issues and parent calls is a good start to finding a time that is less likely to be interrupted. What about your meetings? Are you choosing the most important one and scheduling it at a strategic time to limit distractions and catch people at their best? BTW, Quadrant2 is my new bi-weekly micro-journal for school leaders. You can learn more here. Cheers! Frederick
0 Comments
Colleagues,
MVP: It is very easy to spend time organizing without helping anyone or improving your organization. Every Monday I start the week by organizing it. I check to-do items from my last leadership meeting, check my project documents, my reminder list, etc… I then, somehow, wind up trying to “catch up” on all my communications, which have somehow grown exponentially over the past couple of months. Last Monday I spent several hours organizing my work for the week. I did get some things done, but nothing that helped me grow anyone or move my organization forward. Were there some pieces that will pay dividends? Yes. Did I spend too much time organizing? Yes. It is okay to be organized, it is essential to be organized, but remember – getting organized, by itself, doesn’t help you grow people or become a better leader. Cheers! Frederick Colleagues,
MVP: It doesn’t need to be excellent if it isn’t that important. Save your energy for things that really matter. Last weekend we had the opportunity to raft down the Ocoee River with our son Lance as our guide. Of course, it was an awesome time, but it was especially cool because this was Lance’s first time guiding the upper portion of the river. When going down the river, there are specific paths, called lines, that a raft guide tries to run. Hitting a clean line means everything goes like it is supposed to. Lance did hit some really good lines and it was a thrill. When a guide doesn’t hit a clean line, different things can happen. Many times, a sloppy line may still be clean enough, in that nothing bad happens. However, a bad line in the wrong place can result in having people in the water (swimmers), and that can be a very bad thing, especially in rocky rapids. Guides always try to run clean lines, but they also know that every line doesn’t need to be perfect, unless the consequences are very high. As leaders, sometimes we get too focused on running clean lines when it doesn’t really matter. We need to focus our energy on growing people, not making great reports or presentations, or forms. If you are into outdoor adventure, you can see some of Lance’s trips here. Cheers! Frederick |
Categories
All
Archives
April 2024
|