Anyone that knows me, knows that I am a big leadership nerd. What does that mean? It means I love to read about it, I love to learn about it, I love to talk about it and I love to grow around it. If you know me, you also know how passionate I feel about the fact that everyone is a leader, regardless of their title or their role. With that being said, I believe we are leaders based on our actions and our relationships. It is this last statement that I want to reflect on and write about today.
Over the years, I have gone through many difficult situations that have shown me who people really are at their core. It is during these tough times when people are not able to mask their true intentions and as much as I don't like to label people, I have seen two types of people show through. There are those that lift up others and there are those that push others down as they try to climb their way up. These both take a tremendous amount of energy. Where do you want to spend yours? Now let me give you a frame of reference. We are talking about the realm of education. Education, people. Where the goal is to make learning better for who? For kids. Let's keep this in mind as we dig deeper into the actions of the adults that I write about. The bases: These are the people that are grounded in their "why". They have a solid purpose. In education, it is to always help the students. Everything that they do is tethered back students. These are the people who suit up, stand up and show up for kids. The bases are also the ones that collaborate with others for the greater goal. They take the time to get to know the members of the team. They get to know their strengths and their gaps. They partner members up to balance them out. They encourage and they grow them. They seek to understand and they empathize. They listen AND hear. They are the base so they are relied on to boost up others, to bring others into the fold and carry them. To see the great in others that they can't yet see in themselves. They don't think of themselves rather, they think of the collective and the goals to help students. The climbers: These are the people that are gounded in themselves. Their "why" is to be at the top. Their goal is to climb the hierarchy. They may think that their intent is to do right by the students, but may have lost sight along the way. They have really great people skills and earn others' trust easily... until. They also know people's strengths and weaknesses but use them to their own advantage. They will not hesitate to throw someone under the bus for their own gains. They are jealous of another's success and will try to tarnish one's reputation any chance they can get. Because to them, if someone else looks bad, they will look better. The climbers are manipulative and usually get pretty far up the chain, leaving some pretty good bases behind and broken. Now let me circle back to what I said before. All of this is happening in the realm of education! Where do the children fit into this equation? I just wanted to drop that little nugget there to let it ruminate. So, what can be done? Well, start with reflection. Which one are you and which one do you want to be? For me, I hope, hope, hope that I am a base. I intentionally walk through my day with purpose and intent. I always tether back to my very first "why" six word memoir from 7 years ago "One who inspires and encourages others". If what I am doing or saying does not match up to that, I hope someone would call me out on it so that I can course correct. Integrity is A#1 with me, so I try my best, every day, to be the same person I am, no matter where I am or who I am with. I hope that people know that what I say is what I mean. I am in a new position, in a new district. The people that I work with and serve have absolutely no reason to believe or trust me. They don't know me, they don't know of me. So I am doing my best to earn that trust every day, by doing just that. I have been as authentic and transparent as I can be with them. I have made some mistakes and I have owned them. I have tried my best to follow through with things I have promised them. I do my best to communicate within such a large system. I am my silly, authentic self every time I am with them, even though I represent "The District" as an admin. And I have done my best to empower them as the professionals that they are to make the decisions to best meet the needs of their students. I don't know if they believe me yet, but my message to them has not wavered since day 1 (July 1) and it won't. In the past, this is where I have been tripped up. When others are not walking that same journey of authenticity. When I have been or witnessed someone else be on the receiving end of the climbers. It is so hard for me to wrap my head around someone who acts one way to someone's face but then does something completely different behind their back. I can not control this, I have 0 control of other people's actions or words. I only have control over my actions and my reactions. My Call To Action Is This: No matter your role. You are a leader. Someone is always watching, listening and learning from you, so... Just keep your integrity intact. Let your only reaction in this case be to not react. Just keep showing up as your authentic self. Every. Damn. Day.
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February 2023
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