Don’t Get It Wrong
When I graduated from college and got my first job as an educator and later when I became a principal I had several seasoned veterans give me the standard speech. Don’t let them see you smile until after Christmas break, don’t show your emotions and make sure you don’t give any leeway with your expectations. I listened to the advice I was receiving from the teachers and administrators around me that were leading in their buildings and I tried to follow that advice, but it just didn’t seem to work or fit my personality at all. Don’t get me wrong, not all of that advice was bad. Being grounded in my expectations with students and staff was very important, but those other things just didn’t hit the mark. I got it wrong with those things and years later I would make the necessary adjustments, but I wish I would have been confident enough to follow my instincts from the very beginning.
Leadership requires us to be clear and consistent. Those two things were the most important things for a young leader to learn and should have been my main focus. I didn’t need to change who I was. I could smile, share who I was, show appropriate emotions and build relationships as long as I maintained clear and consistent expectations, boundaries and procedures. When I followed that early advice I got it wrong. I didn’t rely on the thing that was my greatest asset, my own personality. I had a gift for humor and a calling to create community and build trusting relationships with my students and staff. The use of humor and fostering strong relationships requires you to use your emotions. The advice I was given and was trying to follow was in direct conflict with who I was and it was creating more problems than it was stability in my classroom and school.
The day would come when I would put it all together and realize that I could still be me as long as I was clear and consistent didn’t happen overnight. It took several years of trial and error, misery and joy, failure and success to build the formula that made the connection to what was required for me to be the best leader I could be. The answer ultimately came through my own reflection during a time where I was very unhappy and dissatisfied with my role as a leader. I realized I was trying to serve two philosophies. One built on the advice I was given by others and the other was built on my own core values and personality. It was really as simple as making a t-chart with two questions: What is working? and What isn’t working?
Once I had this list I got to work on what I could change. I started with the things I needed to focus on, the things I needed to eliminate that just didn’t work for me and the things that didn’t serve my students or staff. The answers to our problems are rarely complicated. We just need to take the time to slow down and do an honest reflection and evaluation on what’s wrong and how to improve it. Don’t get it wrong. Take the time to sit down and evaluate and reflect on the advice you are given even if it comes from experts in the field. You may need to try things out for a while to see if they fit, but the most important thing to remember is to be clear and consistent. As long as you’re able to do that you’ll have the ability and freedom to take some chances and figure out what works best for you.
Have a great week and remember when your commitment is greater than your feelings you get results.
