Hall of Fame Induction was not the coolest part of my day!

Some of you might know that I was inducted to the Riverside County Hall of Fame this Past weekend.  I was inducted due to the sport (soccer) achievements in my career as well as being a good role model for the youth of the area.  It was a very cool walk down memory lane!  During the symbolic ceremony it was cool to receive a medal, remove tape that covered my name on a 7 foot bronze plaque (the 7' plaque was not dedicated soley to me, it had lots of other names on it.  I was not that good). 
    However, the coolest part of my day was watching 2 young ladies that I coached 16 years ago be inducted as well.  16 years ago, as a coach, is when I started learning what it meant to be a leader.  It is funny that the readings for this week were about not teaching the way we were taught, but teaching the way the youth will learn.  Trust me, this has value in sports as well.  I did not coach these young ladies the same way i was taught.  When I tried, it backfired.... so I changed my style.  And it obviously had some impact on these young ladies.
    As a leader I am more often prouder of the accomplishments of my staff/players/mentees than I am of the things I accomplished in life.  This could be a good indication of true leadership?  Maybe?  When advising my staff I find that my experiences simply lay a groundwork that we are able, together, to redefine and make sense for the current society/culture of the work we do.  I take my successes (but mostly my failures, pass it on and smile with pride when it turns into something bigger and better!  It is this young population that we need to learn from.  Share our lessons and watch what they do with it. Don't force our way upon them... AND WE might actually learn something!

Redefining Success for Kids... I got an A+ in failure!

I was watching the trailer to Race to Nowhere and I was sparked by the line "We need to redefine success for kids..."  I am scared for what k-12 will be for my children if things don't find renewed emphasis on creativity, playgrounds, skinned up knees, curiousity...   The pressure is so intense that it almost seems unfair and mean.
      We are raising little adults and not children anymore.  (Generalization coming...) These kids jump through all the advanced placement classes, clubs and organizations, volunteer, compete and be better than the other person, etc HOOPS and when they get to college they don't know how to engage/play nicely.   Mistakes were evil when these kids are growing up, don't make mistakes, if you do, hide it at all costs.  Don't let people see you are weak, because you might not get into a good college.  Yikes!  As an educator I have always lived by the following-- "The struggle is not in helping people be successful, but helping them be successful in their failure."  We learn more from our blunders than from our successes, why is it then that we have such a hard time when our children fail.  I did.  A LOT and still do....   maybe we are too block headed (as a society) to admit that we have been screwing up our education system.  Can't fail, can't admit we made a mistake... really?  Or is it that we don't like being told what to do?  We tend to be ok with the change we choose, but if someone else tells us what to do, we put up a fight... hmmm.

Like onions, we have layers... & and an insight that almost made me cry!

So the conversation the other day touched on an interesting topic for me...  the idea of building upon previous layers of knowledge and being better able to make connections.
       I looked back for a view minutes in the rearview mirror of my leadership experience and had a moment of sadness.  The sadness I felt was a realization that I am sometimes so busy that I forget to reflect on my leadership-life.  After a tough day, it is home to the family, a glass of wine or beer and brain shut off.  NO intentional building upon the layers of knowledge gained from the day.  This "whoa is me" was swiftly followed by a side smile and giggle.  I am so excited that I am enrolled in an EdD program and surrounded by people who ask questions and provide insights.   It seems that this year's course work is, as Patrick stated, going to be about thinking and building upon the layers.  I have been quite successful in my journey to the position I am in...  but the past 4-6 years I have been on auto-pilot and not challenging myself to, dare I put it in print, Change.
          The most important layer effect that I have seen is in my progress in k-12 language and knowledge.  Before it was all "Greek" to me and I was lost in all the conversations about NCLB, etc...  recently, a comfort has settled in.  Finding my leadership voice in the confidence I now have in being able to follow conversations.  Yay for me!  But it is also funny, thinking about my leadership voice last year when I was nervous to say the wrong thing... how often is this in our daily norm?  As leaders we are constantly thrown into the unknown....  maybe it is the ability to act through nervousness that separates the true leader from the wanna-be?  (To be continued...)

New professional Growth Goals

This is an easy one... just the other day I saw all the technology stuff flying around my email "inbox" and I was scared.  My goal is to intentionally spend additional time "On-line" becoming more familiar with this "stuff."  I know I tend to smirk when I see an older person fumble with the simplest of cell phone technology...  I realized that the younger staff members might be doing the same thing to me when I ask how to navigate a WIKI.
Goal:  Not be be intimidated of technology, since I get to choose whether or not I am intimidated.  I will now call it CURIOUS!

Leadership Decisions

So I took the "C" model of Leadership in decision making (plus other key points from the class discussion) and shared it with my staff I supervise in the residence halls during our bi-weekly meeting.  I treated it like a TED.com lecture.  I entitled it a "Tiny Teach"---8 minutes, no questions, no interruptions.  I let them know that we could connect at a later date during a 1:1 meeting or via phone/email.  I addressed Command, Consult, Consensus, Convenience and the Constructive Conflict.  It went well.  Listening to this i realized how simple it can be to explain the work that I do, if I sit and think about what I do do.  Sometimes we get so overwhelmed with work (albeit enjoying the chaos) we forget to sit back and reflect on the meaning/learning.  Later in the week I was walking with the 3 youngest/greenest of my staff and asked them what their take-a-way was.  They loved the "Your ego will get you the job in the interview, but the moment it shows up again, YOU ARE TOAST!"  I could see this coming since the moment I made this simple comment in the lecture, the demeanor of the staff members changed, including the Master's Degree folks.  They also enjoyed the piece about choosing your attitude.  It reminded me that we at times, we take our young staffs intelligence for granted.  They tend to be very book smart, you know, SAT scores of 1600, 4.2 GPAs, but the little things that can make you a success or failure in the work force is not always shared enough....  the real world is experienced in the real world... not in a book.... but they are great tools to have in your leadership toolbox!