The Key to Success in #NoExcuseNovember

No Excuse November is upon us. (click here for original post). It is a time to reflect on goals that we are committed to reaching and reaffirm our commitment to not let anything get in our path so we can accomplish our goal.   

Why do we have #NoExcuseNovember?  Excuses are the enemy of excellence. They lower our expectations, and therefore, detract our determination and commitment. So how do we ensure that our commitment to excellence does not fall to the almighty excuse during the month of November?

Love Tough

We have been taught that our children need tough love if we want them to grow into their potential.  We don't accept excuses, and that definitely falls in line with #NoExcuseNovember.   But in Jon Gordon‘s book, “The Power of Positive Leadership“, he challenged us to reframe  the concept of Tough Love into a more powerful concept,  Love Tough. When it comes to Tough Love, our primary focus is to be tough while our secondary consideration is to care about the individual, but if we Love Tough, we are the exact opposite. We care about our people first and foremost, and because we care about them so much, we hold them to a higher standard with our care, support, and attention.

As we kick off #NoExcuseNovember (post about kids), it is important that we commit to not accept any excuses that hold us back (by the way most of them do), but we make that commitment by understanding more about excuses, where they come from, and what they actually mean to the person making them.  We must be thankful that the person felt comfortable enough with us in the first place to make their excuse, and then we must leverage our relationship with the person in such a way that lets them know the following things:

1. We, first, care about them, 
2. We care about them enough to not allow their excuse to be the reason they fail, and
3. We are committed to helping them overcome the barrier to their success.

November is here.  Excuses are everywhere, and all of them exist to hold our organization and the people within it back.  What will you do this month to love your people through their excuses, and push them to new heights?  You hold the key to success in #NoExcuseNovember.  The question is will you have the courage to unlock the door?

5 Facts about the Happiest Leaders

Abraham Lincoln said it best when he said, "Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be." If that's the case, then why are some leaders always happy while others seem to never be.  The secret may lie not in their ability to choose happiness, but in the mindset they have before they even have to make a choice. There are 5 powerful characteristics that the happiest leaders possess.

5 Facts about the Happiest Leaders 

Humility - Leaders who are the happiest are the most humble and never put themselves above others.

Attention - The happiest leaders pay the bulk of their attention to others, while the most unhappy want all of the attention to be on themselves. 

Pride - Happy people take pride in promoting everyone and everything in the organization, while unhappy leaders are prideful in their actions and interactions. 

Patience - Happy leaders know when to wait, while unhappy leaders are frustrated anytime they have to wait. 

Yet - Happy leaders know they’re a work in progress and believe in the power of growing closer to what they can’t do yet.  Unhappy leaders are perpetually disappointed because they’re never satisfied with their current status and why they’re not there yet. 

The difference between unhappy and happy leaders is their self-perspective. Happy leaders seek out, while unhappy leaders base their outlook on their own feelings, priorities, and needs.  When it comes right down to it, if you seek what's best for yourself first, you will be unhappy some if not most of the time because the world doesn't exist to serve you.  But if you choose to be happy, you will rarely put yourself first, and focus on putting others first.  

Choose to be a happy leader.  Your attitude and those impacted by your attitude will thank you for it. 

A Million Thanks for You!

 This past week my blog reached its one millionth view. I can’t even begin to describe the feelings that I have. There was some excitement, a sense of satisfaction, and a whole lot of humility. I can’t thank you enough for taking an interest in my thoughts over the past 7 years.

 I vividly remember the fear that I had the first time I pressed publish on my first post. Would it be interesting? Would it be even read? What people think I’m an idiot? Those thoughts raced through my mind as I completed and shared my first post. 

Then there was a moment when you convinced me that I was a writer. It was this post, 7 Traits of a Transformational Leader, where you convinced me that I possessed the ability to write appealing thoughts.  To date, it is still one of the most read posts on my blog.  Your response to that post caused me to reveal my confidence as a writer, and reveal my abilities as well as my ignorance, and as a result, you pushed me to create a movement to inspire every to love their schools and the people in them with #LoveMySchoolDay.

With your encouragement, you once again inspired me to grow as a writer. My first published work, "A Leader’s Guide to Excellence in Every Classroom", was something that I never dreamed I would do, let alone write a follow up book that was specifically designed to help teachers lead all students and all teachers to excellence.  Each week you inspired me to share another thought rambling in my head.  Sometimes it was the result of something I was very proud of, sometimes it was something very painful, and other times it was an epiphany from a powerful interaction who was influenced by more work.

Nonetheless, I can't thank you enough.  With every read, comment, and share, you developed me into the writer I am today, and for that I give a million thanks for you.