Understanding Oneself to Manage Oneself
“Truly knowing yourself is a powerful lever for initiating personal growth and development.” “When you know yourself well, you are better able to maximize your leadership potential. You will realize what’s been working for you and what’s not. You will gain clarity on how to leverage your strengths and overcome your weaknesses.” ~ John M. Manning
It is amazing to me how two entries in two entirely different books could be so alike in the entries today. In A Year With Peter Drucker (Maciariell, 2014) discussed “A Catalyst to Help People Manage Themselves and Move to the Second Half of Their Lives.” I titled my blog post about that entry “Managing Oneself.” Click here to read that post. In that study I learned that once we understand our strengths, our values, how we work, and areas in which we are likely to make a contribution, we are ready to manage ourselves in the second half of our lives. In today’s entry in The Disciplined Leader: Keeping Focus on What Really Matters (Manning, 2015), John Manning taught us that part of initiating a change or developing professionally begins with an analysis of ourselves. This analysis can then provide the necessary building blocks for continued improvement.
I have learned that in order to understand ourselves and our willingness to lead others we should also take a detailed look at what really drives us. What drives us will influence what we value and enjoy, our attitudes and behaviors in the workplace and is likely to provide insight into our strengths and talents. In order to lead others, we need to be able to relate to and connect with other people, their motivations, needs and aspirations and their deepest values and core beliefs. Before others are willing to be lead by us, they will want to connect to something within us – something that is authentic, real and true. This is why when we talk about leadership, we often focus on ‘authentic leadership’ or being an ‘authentic leader’. In order to be an authentic leader, we need to be a person that others can relate to. We need to know ourselves, our beliefs and core values and how they manifest in our attitudes, behaviours and actions and in the impact that we have on others. For this I would go back to what Drucker (Maciariello, 2014) argued were the four things we needed to understand for managing oneself:
- What are we good at – that is, our strengths.
- Managing oneself requires that we understand our values.
- We should understand how we work best – alone or with others as a team.
- Are we good at taking on unstructured tasks, or do we do better when we understand the structure at the outset?
I am going to try one of Manning’s (2015) Take Action! Tips and would encourage you to as well. Identify five changes in routines you could do tomorrow that are easy. I can think of five right of the bat that would make me a better leader. I’ll bet you can to!
References
Maciariello, J. A. (2014). A year with Peter Drucker: 52 weeks of coaching for leadership effectiveness. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.
Manning, J. (2015). The disciplined leader: 52 concise, powerful lessons. Oakland, CA: Barrett – Koehler Publishers, Inc.
Managing Oneself
This week’s entry is the last dealing with moving from success to significance in the last half of our life. In this entry Maciariello (2014) explains Drucker’s body of knowledge on “managing oneself.” Managing oneself requires that we understand four things:
- What are we good at – that is, our strengths.
- Managing oneself requires that we understand our values.
- We should understand how we work best – alone or with others as a team.
- Are we good at taking on unstructured tasks, or do we do better when we understand the structure at the outset?
Once we understand our strengths, our values, how we work, and areas in which we are likely to make a contribution, we are ready to manage ourselves in the second half of our lives. In order to reach significance, Drucker believed you could not do more that two or three initiatives; with one probably being the best focus (Maciariello, 2014). 
“Siginificance need not be a 180-degree course change. Instead , do some retrofitting so that you can apply your gifts in ways that allow you to spend more time on things related to what is in your box {your strengths and values}. And to do it in such a way as to reclaim the thrill of that first deal.” ~ Bob Buford
Today, knowledge workers are likely to outlive organizations, and the knowledge worker has mobility. Mobility is widely accepted in the United States, but the idea of outliving organizations is still a tougher pill to swallow. Drucker believed that boredom leads to an underutilization of our talents (Maciariello, 2014). We run the risk of what he called being “mentally finished.” Therefore managing oneself requires us to prepare for the second half of our life.
Reference
Maciariello, J. A. (2014). A year with Peter Drucker: 52 weeks of coaching for leadership effectiveness. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.
Significance Through Social Entrepreneurship
It is hard to believe there are only 10 lessons left in A Year With Peter Drucker (Maciariello, 2014) after this week’s entry. This means a couple of things: I am about to finish a book that has inspired a great deal of thought and action in me; and, we are only 10 weeks away from closing out 2015. This week’s lesson reminded me of the entrepreneurial spirit that brought about the social civil society we now have in the United States. The Salvation Army, CARE, Alcoholics Anonymous, Red Cross, Girl Scouts, and Lions club were all organized as the result of a service oriented entrepreneur recognizing a social need. In 2011 there were approximately 1.6 million tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) organizations in our great country. This 1.6 million was made up of private charities, private foundations, and religious institutions (Maciariello, 2014). Clearly social innovations is one of the distinguishing characteristics of American society.
Drucker (Maciariello, 2014) advised us that an opportunity set exists for successful leaders in the second half of life to create significance. If leaders, according to Drucker (Maciariello, 2014), have a develop a narrow focus they can find opportunities for utilizing their gifts in their communities, states, nation, and the world. To do this we need to analyze our own strengths, weaknesses, and core values. Drucker (2014) also spoke of how systematic innovation can be found when he said, “The unexpected – the unexpected success, the unexpected failure, the unexpected outside event; the incongruity – between reality as it actually is and reality as it is assumed to be or as it ‘ought to be’; innovation based on process need; changes in industry structure or market structure that catch everyone unawares. The second set of sources for innovative opportunity involve changes outside the enterprise or industry: demographics (population changes); changes in perception, mood, and meaning; new knowledge, both scientific and nonscientific (p. 333).” When reflecting on the lessons of Peter Drucker I was reminded of how Duke University was founded. Back in the 1920s, James P. Duke wanted to build a medical school and a hospital to provide medical resources, including doctors, to the Carolinas. Today, Duke University provides a place for extraordinary academic learning and research. This is accomplished through undergraduate and graduate schools, research centers and a variety of international programs. In Mr. Duke’s vision, leadership also involved harnessing the power of higher learning for the larger social good to meet the world’s great needs. Duke University is now widely recognized for its pioneering leadership in social entrepreneurship education, having provided essential and important legitimacy for the field by producing and facilitating academic research that has defined, informed, and advanced the field, and having delivered high quality courses to undergraduates and graduate and professional students eager to learn about the field. This is a pretty outstanding example of successful social entrepreneurship if you ask me.
We all need to take some time, especially as we reach halftime, to think about our “opportunity set” and what we need to learn to make a significant commitment, thus, ensuring a probability of success.
Reference
Maciariello, J. A. (2014). A year with Peter Drucker: 52 weeks of coaching for leadership effectiveness. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.
Don’t Worry, Be Happy!
This week’s entry in The Disciplined Leader (Manning, 2015) is a great one that we all have to diligently work on as leaders taking the responsibility of leading ourselves first in order to effectively lead others. The topic was that of managing our worries. This is one topic that we can all say we have experience with, right? If we are honest, this is something we all struggle with. Instead of mindlessly rushing through life, often stop during the day to ask yourself what really matters to become more aware of your inner world and the chatter in your mind (metacognition). Another very helpful way to calm anxiety and fear is to take the proverbial ‘fly on the wall’ perspective as an observer. When you experience these emotions, imagine stepping back as a third person observer and observing yourself and the situation at a distance. Distancing has proved to be one of the most effective ways to calm our fear. This mindfulness allows us to be very thoughtful in analyzing the situation to either develop a solution or realize no action or worry is necessary because it is out of our control.
“Worry is a toxic emotional condition that can feel like it’s choking us at times, even though most of what we worry about doesn’t ever happen.” ~ John Manning
Manning (2015) offers three suggestions for leaving your worries behind:
- Understand that worrying is not a solution. I am reminded of one of my favorite TV shows growing up: MacGyver. I’ll let you click on the link I’ve provided to get the details if your not familiar with the show. My takeaway and lesson I learned from watching the show was that MacGyver never let fear take over; he looked for the solution instead of staring at the problem. Then he would take action with his trusty Swiss Army knife and go to work. What a great lesson – if you have never watched an episode get one and let the learning begin.
- Surface your worries. Categorize into what you can control and what you cannot control. I always go one step further and think about what do I need to control and when do I need to worry about controlling it. In other words is it something that is a priority right now.
- Reduce worries. This involves being proactive. Taking control where you can. I use the example here of having a very tight and sound school safety plan. I can’t control what may happen, but with an outstanding plan that every staff member understands, I can eliminate constant worry.
Finally, just be mindful of priorities and use your problem solving skills to diminish your worries so you can be like MacGyver and look for solutions instead of mindlessly staring at the fear.
Reference
Manning, J. (2015). The disciplined leader: 52 concise, powerful lessons. Oakland, CA: Barrett – Koehler Publishers, Inc.
Creating A Vision of Our Greatest Desires
“Take a little control over your career…I am talking about career planning in the sense of: What do I have to learn, what are my strengths, how can I build on them, where do I belong, do I really belong in this company? One must take responsibility of asking oneself these questions from time to time, and acting on the answers…You build on your strengths so they stand you in good stead when you need them.” ~ Peter Drucker
In this week’s entry in A Year With Peter Drucker (Maciariello, 2014) continues with the theme of going from success to significance. Drucker posited that the knowledge society we now live in creates such an opportunity (Maciariello, 2014). We need to remember, however, that sometime we are not able to fulfill our greatest desires for significance even if we are successful in our present position, job, or career. Remember, success does not necessarily equal significance. In fact, most times it does not. Many times we are so busy working on success, as measured by salary, title, employer, and awards, that we lose the vision of what would make us truly happy.
The question then becomes: “Where do I belong?” We all have cultural interests, but we are reminded that as we enter the second half of our life those interests are driven more by a sense of doing and contributing. This is a great thing, but we need to make sure we plan for this and prepare ourselves (Maciariello, 2014). That may mean studying, taking part in professional development, volunteering in a position to gain experience, or a host of other ways of learning. Drucker broke these new ways of finding significance into to categories (Maciariello, 2014):
- Parallel Career: Taking a position in a church or some other social sector organization using your top skills and talents for the betterment of others.
- Social Entrepreneurs: Using significant financial resources or contacts to make a difference by solving social issues.
Often it is our duty to do what we are good at even though we would rather do something else. There may come a time when we are mostly free of our obligations and can do what we truly love. I would have to point to my father in-law, Fritz Behrens, as an example of someone who has found significance. In fact we just had a conversation last night about his next steps – I must point out he is in his mid-eighties! He has been on boards that have done significant great things in Anderson, Indiana. He also served the City of Anderson after selling his successful family business. Additionally, he has been of tremendous service to his church. He led the building of a new church, and in my opinion a great church business model would be for him to serve as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the church. With his great business sense, unwavering faith, and ability to build relationships he could run (financial and operations) a church of considerable size on a couple of days a week. Plus, he is a a point where he could do it for nothing in terms of salary. Think about that – that’s significance. It is really hard to find a senior minister who is good in all the areas of pastoring a church: oratory skills, outreach, ministering to youth, financial management, and operations management. So, why not go find the greatest pastor with the skills, that in my opinion, matter most: oratory skills and ministering. Then, let a second halfer like my father in-law manage the church with his tremendous skills. I am still amazed that more churches don’t do this.
“Develop a genuine, true, major outside interest. Not a hobby, a genuine interest, which permits you to live in a different world, with different peers whose opinions are meaningful to you.”…”{O}ne needs a true outside interest, not just water-skiing. It not only develops your strengths, it helps to protect you against the inevitable shocks.” ~ Peter Drucker
Heath’s Newest Addition To The Herd Purchased At The 2015 World Dairy Expo
Engage in career planning by clearly identifying your strengths and values. Continue to develop your strengths. Early in life, plan for a second career. Consider volunteer work that may itself provide the transition to a second career or provide enough fulfillment to achieve significance. What will it take in your career to allow you to seriously explore opportunities to move from success to significance, assuming you cannot do so from where you are right now?
Reference
Maciariello, J. A. (2014). A year with Peter Drucker: 52 weeks of coaching for leadership effectiveness. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.
The Sheer Guts of Leadership!
It’s hard to believe it is already time for Lesson #2 in our learning with John Manning in The Disciplined Leader. Without courage it is impossible to focus on what really matters (Manning, 2015). In my case of having now taken on the exciting and important work of leadership of two failing schools, I can tell you courage (or just sheer guts) is a necessary prerequisite skill. Courage is necessary just to get me through those days when I say, “What the heck am I doing here!” You ever had one of those days? If you haven’t I honesty feel sorry for you because you truly have not been in what Theodore Roosevelt called the “arena.” His entire thought is in the picture above. Doing significant work that matters puts us in that “arena” and makes us vulnerable and the focus of our critics. I love how Manning (2015) puts it: “…great leadership isn’t about facing fears but taking positive action in spite of your fears” (p. 17).
Manning (2015) gives us three great ways to find our “sheer guts:”
- Look the Fear in It’s Face. In other words, recognizing your fear and then determining what you need to discipline in order to act against the fear. In my case I know I need to study to obtain current information, pertinent data, facts, figures prior to a media interview, panel discussion, presentation, or speech to overcome any fear of not knowing an answer to a question.
- Create a Plan of Attack. In my case I have trusted professionals I can go to, as advisers, to help me analyze what information I might need and help me to obtain the information I need for the example I used above. Then I study! But, as Manning (2015) points out: “to admit you do not always have the answer is more a show of strength than weakness” (p. 19).
- Acknowledge When You Succeed. I learned a long time ago that we need to learn to be nice to ourselves. In other words we need to show compassion for ourselves when we are not perfect, make mistakes, or when things go well, too. Scrutinize and self-reflect on what went well and how we made that happen and how to repeat the process.
In the “Take Action” part of this week’s entry, Manning (2015) advises us to look to a role model for courage. That leader for me is Indiana Speaker of the House, Brian Bosma. He has taken many courageous stances during his career, but when it comes to education, he has an unwavering belief in School Choice and doing what’s right for Indiana’s children. These are things that I also believe very strongly in. When the Speaker appointed me to the Indiana State Board of Education I asked him what success in that role would look like to him. He had a simple, three word, but very powerful answer: “Consensus to Implementation.” Think about this answer. Really, doesn’t it take a great deal of courage to go through the process of reaching consensus and doing the hard work of implementation. This was a tremendous leadership lesson for me and I use it daily in evaluating myself and other leaders I come in contact with. The Speaker modeled this when he formed his Education Kitchen Cabinet this past year to act as a sounding board on education issues. It was exciting to experience him actively listening and processing all of the different views and opinions. Whether you agree with Speaker Bosma’s or my core beliefs or politics is really irrelevant here. The most important lesson here is that he models the three ways Manning (2015) has described having what I am calling, “The Sheer Guts of Leadership.”
Reference
Manning, J. (2015). The disciplined leader: 52 concise, powerful lessons. Oakland, CA: Barrett – Koehler Publishers, Inc.
Push Me – Pull Me Leadership
This past week a discussion came up about how do we get young leaders to grow. Leadership growth happens when there is stretch. By stretch I mean being put in an uncomfortable place – In other words, pushed. But, is pushing always the best approach?
It is very easy as a leader to push our high flyers. The old adage “we give the most projects and responsibility to the busiest and most competent people because they get things done and get them done right,” is all too true. But really, we need to make sure that we are pushing all of our team members. We just need to make sure we are differentiating the way we are pushing, or as I will discuss here, occasionally pulling too. I am reminded of a story back from my early teaching days. I would like to share it with you here:
At the time of this story I was an agriculture science teacher and FFA advisor. Needless to say, I was very competitive in FFA contests and really pushed students hard to success. We had many state champions and many students that went on to successful careers based on the foundations that began in those contests, or Career Development Events as they are called now. But, that’s not what the focus is here.
The focus here is on a student name Suzie (I have changed the name). Suzie was very talented and over the course of her high school career won three state FFA championships. That is not an easy task. As you can guess, I pushed Suzie very hard. Let me reiterate here for emphasis that Pushing was what I was doing until she came to me in tears one day and said the words that would change my life as a leader forever. She said, “Big E (that’s what they called me back then) sometimes you need to pull me up along side of you once in a while instead of pushing all the time.”
Wow, I was devastated! How stupid I had been. I was so glad Suzie had given me this slap in the face, however, because it changed me and gave me a new perspective as a leader. From that time on I would always remember how important it is to pull those I serve up alongside myself and work shoulder to shoulder while at the same time pushing occasionally, too.
Suzie had taught me how to lead in such a way that followers would choose to act. Pulling a person in motivation means creating conditions that they choose themselves. It means showing them how something else will be beneficial to them. It means them deciding rather than just you deciding. Push and pull are a matched pair: pushing is the stick to the carrot of pulling. It is discovery as opposed to the ordering of push methods. It is creating desire rather than creating fear. It is creating attraction rather than repulsion.
While the objectives of PUSH and PULL are the same, the way that one goes about achieving these objectives is very different. The objective is the same, but the approach is very different. To help pull it is important to help those we lead to set goals with a reasonable chance of achievement, but not so easy as to lack challenge. We must also have people develop their own specific plans for how they will accomplish their goals; then jointly review these plans and provide our input. Regularly ask people how they’re progressing in reaching their goals and ask what you can do to help them achieve or exceed their goals. I believe it is important to express confidence in the individual’s ability to reach goals. We must follow up regularly on progress and reinforce all movement in the right direction. Demonstrate enthusiasm to our teams by talking about why the organization’s goals are important and encouraging others to set challenging individual goals.
So how do we move from the push style of leadership to a pull leadership style. Essentially it requires becoming involved with the challenges and initiatives your organization has before it. We become involved when we show both in what we say and what we do that we are interested and care. We need to clearly demonstrate that what we do is for the greater good of the organization, not merely something that will boost our own value. We need to clearly demonstrate with words and actions that we want our team to develop as individuals. It really is about remember that the most important thing we can focus on as leaders is our people.
Creating a Vision of Success
Graphic Facilitation by Mike Fleisch at our first Focused Leader Academy session
First of all, I am excited to report that I am embarking on another weekly book read and blogging journey. The book is The Disciplined Leader: 52 Concise, Powerful Lessons (2015) by John Manning. I had the opportunity to preview a copy of his book and participate in the book’s launch through Becky Robinson and Weaving Influence. I was fascinated by the book and have actually developed a friendship and professional camaraderie with John Manning. I am continued to be amazed by the power of Twitter for making professional connections. The start of our relationship is based solely on Twitter (@JohnMManning). I am sure I am right when I say it is the greatest professional tool available today. You can check out my Tweets at @ByronErnest.
I also decided the book would make the perfect reference material for our Focused Leader Academy that we have started at Hoosier Academies. All the participants will be blogging about a lesson in the book each week till we complete the 52 lessons. I am hoping for them to experience the joy and professional growth that can be experienced while “blogging the journey.” John was great enough to inscribe and autograph a copy of the book for each of our participants. How cool is that?
There are three core principles that the book is based on:
- Leading yourself
- Leading your team
- Leading your organization
Through John Manning’s research with Management Action Programs, Inc. (MAP), he has discovered that a disciplined leader focuses on these three core areas of leadership. But the point that John really drives home in the introduction of the book is what all great leaders do well: “they consistently disciplined themselves to focus on what really matters – people.” (Manning, 2015, p. 4) He also asks the question: “What percent of your budget do you allocate to develop your people?” This is why I believe our Focused Leader Academy is so important to Hoosier Academies. I am very proud we have started this program for the development of our teacher leaders. Not only is it the right thing to do for them, but it will also develop our future leadership bench. 
The first lesson in the book is “Make the Commitment.” The idea is that we must be fully engaged and emotionally, mentally, and physically into our learning. The changes that will result form this commitment to professional growth be amazing and lead to great things, but it will not be easy. The first step to this is becoming a focused leader and creating a vision for success. Manning (2015) suggests we must create an “it’s time to change” mindset. In other words, we must start with an inward focus.
Directing others’ attention is a primary task of leadership. But to do it well, leaders must be able to focus their own attention. And these days, that’s difficult. A constant onslaught of information leads to sloppy shortcuts – triaging e-mail by reading only the subject lines, skipping voice mails, skimming memos and reports. We think we’re reducing distractions, but these habits actually make us less focused. People commonly think of focus as directing your attention to one thing while filtering out other things. But research shows that we focus in many different ways for different purposes. The various types fall into three broad categories. The first two—focusing on self and focusing on others—help you develop emotional intelligence. The third, focusing on the wider world, can improve your ability to devise strategy, innovate, and manage organizations. Fortunately, you can become a more focused leader with the right kinds of exercise.
Focusing your attention on yourself involves self-awareness, or getting in touch with your inner voice. This is where emotional intelligence begins. It also involves self-control, or willpower—which allows you to put your attention where you want it and keep it there despite the temptation to wander. Manning (2015) also points out that we must learn to control our emotional reactions. Really, I call this learning to respond instead of reacting. We must also, according to Manning (2015), learn to take care of our health and well being to maintain the balance in our life that will allow us to become focused and disciplined.
Finally, Manning (2015) suggests that we journal about our progress. I am excited that we are doing just that as the Focused Leader Academy participants blog their journey in The Disciplined Leader. I can guarantee you they will be blogging about more than just the book portion of this journey learning to be focused leaders.
Reference
Manning, J. (2015). The disciplined leader: 52 concise, powerful lessons. Oakland, CA: Barrett – Koehler Publishers, Inc.
Lazy Leaders
Hoosier Academies Focused Leader Academy Graphic by Mike Fleisch
I have seen this so many times in many organizations and in my own industry as a school leader. As a person who has come in to help school teams turn schools around, I have heard so many teacher leaders say, “we were always told this idea does not fit the model.” Then when I ask the question of who said that, we find that no one did except the lazy leader who did not want to go to the trouble of making the change or explaining (selling) the change throughout the organization.
Lazy leadership really goes beyond the example of the widget itself. Probably the worst effect of lazy leaders and lazy leadership is on the organization’s culture. Imagine a culture where you are always told, “no, we can’t do this or change that because…” At some point you would just decide that your knowledge was irrelevant. We know that this would then translate to the most important component of employee satisfaction – engagement. Research tells us that the happiest employees and the ones that stay with organizations the longest are the ones that truly believe they are valued and making a difference. These same employees have been empowered and have a clearly defined role in carrying out the vision and mission of the organization. Research tells us that this level of enagagement is much more important than even salaries.
Lazy leaders may just be one of the biggest crushers of culture there is. So, how do we keep ourselves from falling into the lazy leadership trap? You are caught in the quick sand of lazy leadership if you catch yourself telling one of your team members that your superior will never agree to a change suggested by someone on your team without trying to lobby for the change. Furthermore, let’s do a Jeff Foxworthy parody.
“You might be a lazy leader if…
- You move on with a decision without finding out the real answers.
- You don’t delegate because you don’t want to have to help others hone and develop their skills.
- You delegate by “dumping and running.” What I call “relegating.” You have to help people know the vision, understand a win, and stay close enough in case they need you again. New leaders are developed, loyalty is gained, and teams are made more effective through delegation.
- You give up after the first try. No one likes to fail. Sometimes it’s easier to scrap a dream and start over rather than fight through the messiness and even embarrassment of picking up the pieces of a broken dream, but if the dream was valid the first time, it probably has some validity today.
- You don’t invest in the young and up-and-coming leaders. There’s the whole generational gap — differences in values, communication styles, expectations, etc. It would be easier to surround ourselves with all like-minded people, but who wins with that approach — especially long-term?
- You settle for mediocre performance. It’s more difficult to push for excellence. Average results come with average efforts. It’s the hard work and the final efforts that produce the best results.
- You don’t explain “why. “Just do what I say” leadership saves a lot of the leader’s time. If you don’t explain what’s in your head — just tell people what to do — You maybe get to do more of what you want to do. The problem is, however, you will have a bunch of pawns on the team and one disrespected, ineffective and unprotected king (lazy leader). (And, being “king” is not a good leadership style by the way.) Continually casting the vision and connecting the dots is often the harder work, but necessary for the best results in leadership.
- You avoid any kind of discourse. If there was only answer, solution, or innovation who needs a leader?
So, let’s get out there and excercise our leadership muscles and not be lazy!
Significance: Impacting Outside Yourself
“In the course of life, there are the great majority of successful people who have to change their direction at about age sixty. There is a very small minority of purpose-driven people who have to concentrate and not change and I can’t tell you which you are going to be. The decision is going to come up. Decision is perhaps the wrong word – as you grow older, are you focusing more on doing the things that give you achievement and satisfaction and growth or more on the things that have an impact outside of yourself? Those are decisions one has to make. And nobody can help you make them. But the one thing to avoid is splintering yourself, trying to do everything.” ~ Peter Drucker – Rick Warren Dialogue, May 27, 2004
This week’s entry in A Year With Peter Drucker really resonated with me and is something that actually presents a bit of a thought challenge for me. I have always been one who takes my own professional growth very seriously and have owned that. But, at the same time I really have never worried about or tried to position myself for what is next. At least not any more than to the extent of living by what I have always preached: “We must be ready for what we don’t know we need to be ready for.” Drucker used 60 years old as the benchmark where the decisions of a successful person needs to be made. At age 52 I still have some time, but I really do want to make sure I am making a significant impact outside of myself. Drucker believed a person could continue to do what he knows how to do extremely well or attempt to make another significant and innovative contribution to society (Maciariello, 2014). The prospect of making some new and innovative contribution to society is very attractive to me.
People who use and manage the second half of their life for impacting others are seen to be the minority. I want to be a part of this minority and would encourage you to be too. We need to be the people who see the long work expectancy we now enjoy as an opportunity both for ourselves and for society. We need to be the leaders and the models. Leaders must systematically work on making the future. The purpose of the work on making the future is not to decide what should be done tomorrow, but what should be done today to have tomorrow. Drucker also posited that leaders needed to anticipate the future that has already happened and make the future that has already happened (Maciariello, 2014). 
The importance of this was really driven home to me yesterday when we had the first session of our newly developed Focused Leader Academy. I was so inspired as I spent the day with 15 of our best and brightest teacher leaders. The passion that was displayed and the desire to learn and affect the future of our school was exciting. 
When I reflect on all the learning that went on yesterday it is exciting to think we are building our future leaders and anticipating the future that has already happened and positioning our leaders to be ready for it. We learned about a focused leader and a disciplined leader. Additionally, we discussed being focused on ourselves, our team, and our organization. The Focused Leader Academy is so exciting to me because it truly gives me a chance serve our future leaders and make an impact outside of myself. It was awesome to hear their ideas for Focused Leader Projects and I have spent a great deal of time today thinking about resources and ways I can help them to carry out the projects they have chosen. It has been exciting to put this program together and I am so thrilled to be in a position of being a servant leader to the individuals who are taking this leadership journey and will be the leaders of our school.
As I reflect on the lessons of Drucker this week I aspire to impose on the as yet unborn future, new ideas to give direction and shape to what is yet to come. I also want to be a true servant leader and help model for and mold those who will be leading those new ideas in our future. I will close with one of my favorite Peter Drucker quotes:
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” ~ Peter Drucker
Reference
Maciariello, J. A. (2014). A year with Peter Drucker: 52 weeks of coaching for leadership effectiveness. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.
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