According to the Statistic Brain Institute, only 9.2% of people felt they were successful achieving their previous New Year’s Resolution. However, a new year always brings the promise of a fresh start. How will 2017 be different for you and your team/staff? How can you become a better leader? Odds are, if you care enough to read this, you are a good leader. Good leaders adapt their style over time for a variety of reasons ranging from new staff to new technology.
In the Sustainable Innovation Framework, I discussed making one small innovative change that has a big impact on students. Use this same method to make a tweak to your leadership. If you were to make one small change that can positively impact your staff, what would it be?
Find “ONE THING”
Use the questions below to help come up with “one thing” you can do differently that will have a big impact:
- What part of my daily routine is essential to my success as a leader? (Keep it up!)
- What essential function do I do every day that someone on my team can do for me, freeing up my time to be a better leader? (Empower your staff)
- What fills me up emotionally and physically about my job? Do you do what fills you up regularly to stay energized? (Happy you, happy staff)
- Is there something that prevents you from leading as you want to lead? (Prioritize – lead first)
Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful. -Margaret J. Wheatley
Time Hacks
In education, time is the chief complaint; there aren’t enough hours in the day, particularly for principals. Every principal I know covets time with staff and students over almost anything else.
Returning parent emails can take hours. If you are a G-Suite/Google Apps District, try using Google’s Collaborative Inbox with your administrative team so parents receive a response more quickly from an available administrator. Everyone in the group can see the interaction but the person with time responds or consults.
For the administrator on the go, use Google Keep (http://keep.google.com) to make lists, take notes, capture photos on the go (mobile version available for Android and iOS) and to keep you organized. Google Keep provides reminders and collaborative lists. Don’t forget to install the Google Keep Extension to take and tag notes while you are learning!
What’s My “one thing?”
You are reading it! Blogging provides a creative outlet for expressing what I learn and hopefully, globally contributing. Blogging refreshes my zest for learning! Visit my blog at https://hackedleadership.com.
Thank you also to AJ Juliani (@ajjuliani) for proposing the 30 Days of Blogging Challenge! If anyone is interested, please join us! http://ajjuliani.com/30-days-blogging-challenge/