We’re taught that lying is bad from an early age. Yet as adults, it seems that not everyone fully adheres to the principle of honesty and integrity. The least offensive lie is one that is made in error. A mistake. Leaving out important facts is often used to commit a lie of omission. Refusing …
Sometimes winning isn’t
Let’s face it. We all like to win. And we hate to lose. That is because from an early age, we are conditioned to believe winning is good and losing is bad. As a verb, “lose” means to be deprived of something. As an adjective, “losing” refers to suffering or defeat. Of course, we cannot …
Self-Care for (School) Leaders (and anyone reading this)
School administrators regularly engage with students, staff and families who are in crisis, are experiencing depression, anxiety or a host of other mental health ailments. However, the pandemic and recent social unrest have secured trauma and mental health a place at the top of the leaderboard. As a result, it is more important than ever …
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What is your “it?”
I was recently talking with some colleagues about climate and culture, and how to build or maintain it when so many people are working remotely. Climate refers to how people feel about their job or their work, their sense of purpose in an organization, and their happiness or satisfaction. Between climate and culture, climate is …
Admit mistakes before someone exaggerates the story.
I’ve learned a ton about leadership by making mistakes. One in particular was around twenty years ago. I was very early into my career as a school administrator and the district was working to pass a high stakes referendum. As a member of the administrative team, one of the volunteer/community service roles I had was …
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The first step is talking about it.
I’m probably the last one person who should proclaim to understand race, equity and bias. I’m a middle-aged white guy, who grew up in a middle-class mostly white neighborhood, went to a middle class mostly white school and most of my acquaintances are middle-class white people. Sure, I have friends who are black, friends who …
FOR Equity?
For the better part of my adult life, I’ve asserted to everyone I encounter that there’s always a gray area. What I am referring to is a belief that there are always multiple “right” answers in nearly every situation. I’ve written about it, I’ve led with it and I’ve tried to live it. However, as …
What is leadership?
We all have people in our lives--past and present--who we considered “leaders.” And if you’re like me, you have likely spent years striving to be like those people you have admired. But what IS leadership? And how do we know it when we see it? Better yet, what is GOOD leadership, and how can we …
Where service and leadership UNITE
The following is a message I shared with my team recently. I thought it also appropriate to share here. There’s really no easy way to start this, other than saying that we’ve seen a dark side of humanity in the past couple weeks. Helplessness, outrage, frustration, hate, and other words seem to be commonly understood …
Point and Click
I started taking photos consistently about seven years ago. On an iPhone. I dabbled in photography prior to that, but digital camera technology was still pretty new, WIFI wasn’t as accessible and having the right software and wires made the process clunky and, frankly, a bit of a hassle. Everything changed for me, however, when …
