Colleagues,
This is another message inspired by Tuesday’s APEx webinar. One premise of being a strategic leader is that you spend more of your time doing the things that only you can do and less of your time doing what others can do. For servant leaders, this presents a conundrum. One way to show appreciation and value for your people is to take stuff off of their plates. For example, as a principal I may need some information from each teacher in my building. Instead of asking each person to provide that information, I choose to look it up myself. That takes me a lot more time, but it allows each teacher more time to plan lessons and provide feedback to students, and it shows that I value their time. However, spending a couple of hours looking up information that others could do more efficiently isn’t a great use of a leader’s time. Part of the challenge is how we interpret the concept of servant leadership. If we overemphasize servant, then we can become too focused on doing things for other people. Servant leadership is a two-word concept – servant and leadership. Servant leadership is not about leading others by serving them, it is about serving others by leading them. The benefit of servant leadership comes when you lead in ways that help others grow. More on that tomorrow. Do good and be well, Frederick
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Colleagues,
One way colleges are adapting to the pandemic is by offering students greater latitude in choosing to take classes pass/fail. Many universities have allowed students to take courses pass/fail (P/F) before, but now students can choose more courses and they can make the choice later. So, why would you want to take a course pass/fail instead of for a grade? The answer is economics. Resources such as time and energy are finite. If earning an A would require more time and energy than earning a pass, then choosing the P/F option allows you to reinvest that time and energy somewhere else. This is a critical point. Yesterday we had the first (ever!) APEx webinar for a great group of assistant principals. The focus was on being more intentional about choices and one of the strategies we talked about was “give it a C.” The premise is that some things don’t need to be great, they just need to be good enough. My garden fence didn’t need to be a work of art, it just needed to keep the cat out. My dish towel just needs to get stuff dry; I don’t care what it looks like. My ice cream… well, that’s a different story. You get the point. Some things just need to be completed and the degree of quality above a basic level doesn’t matter. What’s on your to-do list that really doesn’t need to be a work of art, that just needs to be done? Give it a C, and then invest your saved energy into something more important – like developing your people. Do good and be well, Frederick Colleagues,
Welcome to December. Thirty-one more days and we can begin printing “I survived 2020” T-shirts. Wait, where was I? This thought popped into my head while writing yesterday’s message. There were two small pop-ups in the top right corner of my computer screen. One was a text from one of my kids and the other was a reminder to back up my computer. I had read both of them but didn’t bother closing them as I wanted to go straight into writing. However, at least three times I realized that my eyes had wandered to that upper right corner to look at the pop-ups. Why? The truth is that I don’t know why. I just know it happened, and this has helped me become more aware of distractions in my environment. Our modern workplaces and tools are designed to grab our attention, even when it is counterproductive. And each little distraction or attention kidnapper has negative consequences for our work. Every time we get distracted, it takes mental energy and time to get back to our task. Furthermore… Wait, where was I? You get the picture. Eliminate some distractions and turn off some notifications this week. Your leadership will improve. Do good and be well, Frederick |
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