Day 11

Speaker 2 ~ Bill McDermott

As I reflect on McDermott’s interview, I came away  with three resounding quotes:

1) The Brave ones are the ones who show up and become better every day

Showing up is easy ~ we take the same route to school/office, we go through similar morning routines and spend the rest of the day doing what we did the day before.  It’s making an intentional decision to be better today than we were yesterday, that’s the challenging part. That takes Bravery.  Depending on our role, what does that look like?  Are we capable of digging a little bit deeper, looking for more effective ways to meet the needs of our students or our staff, reading more or being open to having someone challenge us mentally and emotionally?

2) Complexity is killing companies

I would imagine that whatever role we find ourselves in, we have, at one time or another been tempted to comment on the bureaucracy that tends to slow down the good work that we are doing.  When you think about your role in education, are there ways that you can decrease complexity.  We all know that there needs to be checks and balances to ensure financial accountability, but at what point, does complexity impact our ability to be creative and innovative?

3) Trust is the ultimate human currency.

Without trust we have nothing worth working towards.  If our students don’t trust that we have their best interests at heart, then they will not be engaged in their learning and without engagement, it is rare to see them reach the heights of student achievement. If our staff don’t trust us as administrators, then they are less likely to take risks, to reach their potential as educators or to join us on our school wide learning journey. If administrators don’t trust senior administration, then system wide initiatives will not have the same impact and a world of secrecy and fear will prevail.

What do you do to ensure that when you show up every  day, you are better than you were the day before?

Come write with me……