Tag: Leadership Skills
How Cognitive Dissonance Helps and Hurts Your Change Efforts
Change is tough. We know that. Personal change, professional change, and organizational change can each be overwhelming. Especially when change is led by someone who doesn’t understand the five stages of change. In times like we’re experiencing now in Fall 2020, educational change includes all three areas of change (personal, professional, organizational). Here’s a quick…
5 Things That Plans Are Good For
Plans aren’t good for everything, and the complexity of a plan is inversely related to the success of its corresponding actions. Here are 5 things that plans are good for: Knowing what A/B test you’re running next. Having a foundation from which quick and decisive action can occur. Having a benchmark from which you make…
3 Lenses to Build Self-Awareness
Daniel Goleman, in his ground-breaking book*, showed us three lenses or perspectives to consider when increasing self-awareness: Emotional Self-Awareness: Labeling one’s own emotions and measuring their impact. Accurate Self-Assessment: Reflection is not enough. This is about reflecting accurately on our strengths and limitations. Self-Confidence: Understanding your worth and the value you’re able to bring to…
Increasing Empathy Skills in Conversation
Ever had that conversation that didn’t go as planned? Okay. That’s an easy question. Ever had that conversation where there was an underlying tension? The words were nice and correct, but the tension was present and unspoken. That is when empathy skills are needed. Empathy skills are techniques that pull out the underlying tension, and…
Management, Unlike Leadership
In yesterday’s episode, A Brief History of Management, I posed a series of questions without providing answers. I’d like to offer a few bullets to encourage you to embrace your managerial prowess without being shy about the shift. Management, unlike leadership, includes these important skill sets: Communication EfficiencyMeeting ManagementPersonnel CoordinationPlanning for RoadblocksMonitoring Strategic PlansFollow-UpResource AllocationEvent Organization Management might deal…
10 Obstacle Tackling Traits
In yesterday’s post, I shared 10 obstacles teachers face that limit their effectiveness and productivity. Here’s the list of 10 school leadership traits that take away or minimize those obstacles. Coaching Empowerment Inclusivity Visible Work Communication Mentorship Strategic Alignment Empathy Collaboration Decisiveness Listen to how to develop these 10 traits in Episodes 86 and 87…
10 Obstacles Teachers Face
There are many obstacles and challenges to overcome. Here are 10 obstacles your teachers face. More importantly, these are 10 obstacles you can have a direct impact on. Lack of Coaching Mismanagement Trust Workload Clarity Upward Mobility Perceived Disconnect Support Sabotage Cynicism Tomorrow, I’ll share 10 leadership traits that address these obstacles. Listen to the…
Learning to Be Confident
For some of us, it’s probably the hardest thing. Yeah, sure we all have areas of strength where we’re confident. But confidence in decision-making, confidence in your judgment, and confidence with humility – these things take time to learn. It’s the start of another school year. The path ahead is not a sprint. Remember to:…
Inevitable Results
Many outcomes are inevitable. Many results just happen. Average, for example, just happens. It takes no leadership to get there. Average just occurs. Status quo. Status quo is another result that is easy to maintain. Some end results are inevitable without reflective leadership. __________ If you’re interested in building habits of reflective leadership, I recommend…
Team Entropy
Apart from physics, entropy is defined as a lack of order or predictability; gradual decline into disorder. Entropy is a natural part of working as a team. Teams entropy occurs when work outpaces productivity. Team entropy occurs when teams move between the phases of problem-solving. The more movement, the more entropy. Movement doesn’t always equal…
Managing Up
In the recent Mafost Mashup episode (5 Ways to Jump Start Next School Year), I offered 5 strategies and 5 friends offered strategies to really level up over the summer break. One of these strategies was managing up, which is a crucial aspect of context switching (see link at the end). Not only does this…
August Amnesia
It’s coming to a school near you…hopefully, not yours. It’s the “what did we say we were going to do” syndrome. My gut says everyone in school leadership has experienced this, maybe even you. I know I have as a teacher and an administrator. August amnesia is another way of saying Organizational Memory Loss, which is…
Research on Empowerment
In a very thorough study, researchers (see link below) outlined the benefits of empowerment in the workplace. What I found interesting in the study was how the leadership strategy of empowerment was broken down into 5 concrete and operational terms. They are: Increased choice in work. Making the impact of the work visible. Working in…
When Groupthink Takes Hold
James Stoner conducted a study in 1961 about people in groups. It has been replicated hundreds of times since then. In the 1970s, Yale researcher Irving Janis continued the research. The term groupthink was born. How Does Groupthink Happen? What are the conditions for groupthink? A group is comprised of like-minded individuals A leader expresses…
Fear, Criticism, and the Real Monster
In a conversation about risk-taking, creativity, and failure, the question was asked, “Risk-takers have to be comfortable with failure as a potential consequence. How do leaders ‘get comfortable’ with failure?” I’d argue failure isn’t real. It’s criticism that’s real. That’s what we really fear. We all know failure is about learning and reiterating. Failure is…