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.
Do They Really Want To Know What They Need?
I made a statement the other day that I didn’t necessarily make intending to be profound, but just how I felt at the time about something going on in my world. The statement was: “I really don’t think they really want to know what they need.” It was an authentic belief that that I had in the context I was in at the time, needed to be said. Turns out, it was heard loud and clear by those I was talking with. Peter Drucker said, “You need to use your energy where you can get results.” If you lead and organization you must know what you need, but are there times you don’t want to know what you need?
The thought of an organization, board, or leader not wanting to know what they need seems paradoxical, but is it? How many times are decisions made based on a knee jerk reaction or the self interest of someone. This really is a much bigger issue, as I found out from the discussion that ensued from the quick point of criticism I had made.
As John Kotter has told us; substance is more important than leadership style. This substance, in my view, includes making sure all those in the organization know what they need. This is so very important for those who are members of boards. A board member who just wants to make decisions based on personal wants or self serving desires will lose sight of what is needed for the great good of the organization. In other words, not caring or really wanting to know what is needed. This can happen very easily to school board members who have children enrolled in the school they are a board member of. It is very hard to what I call “leave the parent hat at the door,” and make decisions based on what is best for all students served by the school.
Sometimes hubris can cause us to not want to really know what we need. We, as leaders, get so locked into what we “know” is the right way to do something and we do not take the time to find out what we really need, or need to know. This is dangerous. I am reminded here of the story of Icarus and the power of hubris. Icarus and his father attempted to escape from Crete by flying. Icarus’s father constructed the wings from feathers and wax. Icarus is then warned by his father about the power of complacency and the danger of hubris. Icarus was instructed not to fly too low nor too high. The sea’s dampness would clog his wings and the sun’s heat would melt them. Icarus ignored his father’s instructions not to fly too close to the sun, whereupon the wax in his wings melted and he fell into the sea.
It really is about not being in touch with the core values of the organization we serve. If we don’t want to know what we need we float through periods of time without direction or purpose. Challenges are difficult to solve and opportunities are hard to seize if we are not aware of what our organization’s real, underlying needs are. Great leaders need to ask the tough questions and want to know what they and the organization needs. There are those who say that the consequences of poor leadership are minimal because so many factors affect the performance of an organization. I would argue, however, that most of those factors can be influenced by leadership, both good and bad. Not knowing what an organization really needs can cause the leader to point in the wrong direction, give no direction, or not move fast enough. According to John Kotter, without sufficient leadership, the probability of mistakes increases greatly and the probability of mistakes increases greatly and the probability of success decreases accordingly.
Specific Giftedness Energy
Last week in A Year With Peter Drucker (Maciariello, 2014) we began to examine “halftime.” What Bob Buford described as the time when we move from desiring success to wanting to achieve significance. Activities for significance are by and large an enormous opportunity, but many people don’t have the imagination to identify possibilities. I became so interested in “halftime” that I went ahead and read Bob Buford’s book Halftime this week. Buford focuses on this important time of transition—the time when, as he says, a person moves beyond the first half of the game of life. It’s halftime, a time of revitalization and for catching a new vision for living the second half, the half where life can be lived at its most rewarding. Bob Buford provides the encouragement and insight to propel your life on a new course away from mere success to true significance—and the best years of your life. I highly recommend the book Halftime. This week’s entry in A Year With Peter Drucker continues on the idea of halftime and gives the reader a peek into the process of how to achieve significance while going through halftime. Those who follow their interests in social sector activities early in life by volunteering their services may confirm their instinct to serve in specific capacities. This is turn may provide the imagination and inspiration needed either to begin a second career or to become a social entrepreneur (Maciariello, 2014). 
In order to find our way to creating significance we must discover our specific giftedness. In other words we need to work doing what we do best. Individuals and organizations may need help in thinking through just what they are trying to accomplish with the talent available; and in obtaining the necessary contacts and making the necessary preparations to do it. An individual must fit the organization and the organization must fit the individual (Maciariello, 2014). 
There is one requirement, as I see it, for managing the second half of one’s life: to begin creating it long before one enters it. Peter Drucker argued, “If one does not begin to volunteer before one is forty or so, one will not volunteer when past sixty. Similarly, all the social entrepreneurs I know began to work in their chosen second enterprise long before they reached their peak in their original business.” (Maciariello, 2014, p. 321) With the age expectancies rising into the seventies, we need to be thinking about halftime in our mid thirties to forty.
If you want to make a contribution in the second half of your life you must understand how to manage yourself to make the right contributions. So, “What is in your box?” In other words you must decide what is most important for you to create significance. What are your strengths and values? Where are you finding an outlet for them? Is your job a sufficient outlet for your talents and values?
Reference
Maciariello, J. A. (2014). A year with Peter Drucker: 52 weeks of coaching for leadership effectiveness. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.
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.
Journey of Significance: What’s Your Unique Contribution?
As was discussed in last week’s lesson from Drucker (Maciariello, 2014), knowledge workers have two lives lives. Some only use and develop one, but others strive to develop both. I am certainly doing my best to begin to plan for and develop the second – the journey of significance. In the first we make a living and perhaps achieve success, and in the second we seek significance after fulfilling the obligations and responsibilities to our families. It is at this point where we hope to be in a position to make the future happen. Our unique contributions will be found at the point where our strengths and our values meet. We will know it by the enthusiasm we feel for our work and for our life (Maciariello, 2014). It may take us a while before we identify what our unique contribution may be and it becomes a reality.
“Then there is the reality of the game itself: The clock is running. What once looked like an eternity ahead of you is now within reach. And while you do not fear the end of the game, you do want to make sure that you finish well, that you leave something behind that no one can take away from you. If the first half was a quest for success, the second half is a journey to significance.” ~ Bob Buford
Significance is really a diffusion of innovation and best practices to others. The imposing on the yet unborn future a new idea that will give direction and shape the future yet to come. For me that significance involves preparing others for that future. A very important project for me right now is our Focused Leader Academy. I really believe that one of the keys to the future of great schools is having great leaders ready to both lead from where they are, but also be pushed into areas where they are uncomfortable for growth and development. This is not an area that a lot of schools spend a lot of time, effort, or resources on and I hope we can develop a model that is both replicable and scalable.
“This is the true joy of life, the being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. Life is no “brief candle” to me. It is sort of a splendid torch which I have got hold of for a moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.” ~ George Bernard Shaw
Wow, it is breathtaking to imagine my life belonging to the community and as a torch I need to burn as brightly as possible before handing off to future generations. The clock is running! We all need to think about what we want to be remembered for. Are you making progress?
Reference
Maciariello, J. A. (2014). A year with Peter Drucker: 52 weeks of coaching for leadership effectiveness. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.
Byron's Babbles 
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