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Colleagues,
MVP: Being a strategic leader is not a one-way journey. It is a series of round trips of falling back into urgent mode and escaping again. And again. And again. Yesterday I asked where you were in your leadership journey - if you were in the same place last year, and if you had a plan for change. My questions were a bit misleading because I implied that the journey is linear and one-way, but that isn’t the truth. Yes, some of you may be permanently stuck in the black hole of urgency. And yes, some of you may be in stage two managing your priorities and being strategically reactive, but not quite been able to move to being a strategic leader. For the rest of us, who have been able to practice strategic leadership, we know the journey is not linear, but cyclical. We dance in the different stages on different days or even within the same day. On Saturday I wrote about my failure to adhere to the third principle of strategic leadership – progress instead of action. I made a simple thing complicated. I asked a colleague to share the link to The Assistant Principal Podcast with his assistant principals. Instead of making progress by simply sending the link, I focused on action by creating a complicated document describing my email lists and podcast. After 45 minutes, I hadn’t sent my colleague the link and what I created was too complex for the intended task! Does this sound like you? The Daily Intention: Again, monitor the quadrants your activities fall into and at the end of the day reflect on where you are in your journey. Cheers! Frederick
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Colleagues,
MVP: There are three stages of a leader’s journey. Which one are you in? Back in September I did a webinar on escaping the black hole of urgency. We looked at leadership as being a journey. In the first stage of the journey, we blast off and move into leadership with aspirations of making a difference, serving others, and improving our organization. But early in the journey we get pulled off course and sucked into the black hole of urgency. In the second stage, we implement key strategies for escaping the pull of that black hole, and we begin to get back on course. In the third stage, we begin accelerating towards our goal by implementing the principles of strategic leadership (purpose not urgency, problems before symptoms, progress instead of action, people over tasks). Pause and think:
The Daily Intention: Monitor what quadrants you are working in? Print off a copy of the Eisenhower Matrix here if that would help. Cheers! Frederick Colleagues,
MVP: Acting out of habit can be ineffective when things change. A year ago, we added a cabinet to our kitchen and rearranged where things were. The silverware drawer was moved from the opposite side of the kitchen to a drawer in the new cabinet, right next to the dishwasher. We have lived in this house for 17 years and old habits are hard to break. This morning when I went to put away a clean fork, I went to the drawer that it used to be in. I didn’t realize my mistake until I opened the drawer and saw spatulas and ladles. We moved the silverware almost a year ago, and I am still defaulting to old patterns. With a new situation, the old pattern doesn’t work. I can’t speak to every profession, but in education things have changed. Our old patterns of teacher recruitment and development, and of student discipline aren’t serving us well. Things have changed. This week, be mindful of what you do. Are you using old strategies that aren’t working? Be mindful, listen. Look, and reflect. Cheers! Frederick Colleagues, I know it is Saturday, but I just had to share this – I hope it makes you laugh! I asked a friend to share a link to The Assistant Principal Podcast with all of his assistant principals. All I needed to do was to create an email and say, “here’s the link” and paste it in. This literally would have taken me 60 seconds. But I began thinking:
Forty-five minutes later I produced the attachment below.  Guess what?
It was too much info, so I simply sent my friend a link to the podcast. Why did I do anything more than A-B, MVP? I was in urgent mode trying to complete many tasks, and when I got this idea, it too became urgent. Being intentional when life and leadership are crazy is difficult. But the story doesn’t end there! As I write this message to you, I am supposed to be working on a quadrant 2 priority! Did I mess up again? Not really, because the thought that I could bring a lesson and laughter into your life brings me joy and finding joy in my work was my intention for today. If this email made you smile, please consider doing one of these things:
Cheers! Frederick Colleagues,
MVP: SOP value increases with the complexity of the task. Yesterday I discussed a standard operating process (SOP) related to making video calls. It is a handy little tool that I developed during the pandemic. However, where SOPs become more valuable is in helping others to do things that are at the top end of their skills, or which they have not done before. For The Assistant Principal Podcast we have a long and complex process that tells each person involved in production what to do each step of the way. If we have a breakdown in the podcast process we can find the exact step where the breakdown occurred and either fix the step, build in supports, or work with the person who made the error. By using a complex SOP, it is easier to bring in new people and have them execute with minimal training. There is a lot more to unpack, but not here. You can get my free SOP guide here. If you have a story about how an SOP has helped you, please consider sharing the story and a copy of the SOP with me by clicking here. Cheers! Frederick |
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