The 2 Approaches to Failure

The most embarrassing events in my life have been those that involved failure. Failure to pass. Failure to win. Failure to achieve. Failure to "you name it".

Let's face it. Everyone fails, but how you mentally approach and process the idea of failure is the ultimate reason why excellent people overcome it and mediocre people succumb to it. Talent doesn't beat failure. Tenacity does.

To beat failure you don't need to be great. You must have grit. 

We Always Have 2 Choices:
in how we approach and ultimately respond to failure.

We Can	With a Fix Mindset	With a Growth Mindset
Use it to	Define Us	Refine Us
Become	Fearful	Fearless
View failure as a	Permanent Result	Opportunity for Growth
Work	Harder	Smarter
Run	From It	Through It

Failure is not about what happens now.  It's about what happens NEXT.  What happens next will determine if we let failure limit us or if we will allow it to lead us.  Ultimately it is our attitude and our passion for personal growth that will tell us whether or not we will grow through our failures.

Your attitude can take you forward or your attitude can take you down. The choice is always yours! Catherine Pulsifer #quote

— Motivational Quotes (@MotivationalUi) July 25, 2016

The Alignment of Competence

When you think about alignment in schools, what do you think of?  Most people think of curriculum. Now while curriculum alignment is important, I would strongly contend that it's not necessarily the most important. The reason why is quite simple.

Teachers deserve to work in schools where clarity is not only valued but developed with passion. And that makes sense. When teachers work in schools where clarity is defined and continuously refined, teachers thrive and students excel in learning.

How do We get Clarity?

The only pathway to clarity is alignment. In fact when leaders focus on systemic alignment of understanding from teacher to teacher and department to department, schools increase in effectiveness. Aligned understanding is the purest definition of clarity. 

What should Schools Align?

Schools must align everything that teachers have in common. To get started, here are just a few things that leaders should ask teams of teachers to align in order to create the most effective school for all kids. 

• Knowledge in the Use of School Resources
• Expectations for Learning and Behavior
• Responses to Appropriate and Inappropriate Behavior
• Common Language for Instruction and Expectations
• Relationship Building Strategies
• Engagement Strategies for Active Student Learning
• Rigorous Questioning 
• Response to Student Failure
• Celebration of Success

If leaders provide teams of teachers the time and the structure to collaborate about the universal topics and actions essential to student success, there is a strong chance that all students and teachers will grow closer toward excellence. In the absence of a regular opportunity to collaborate around the actions that lead to systemic excellence, leader muddy the water with the ambiguous rhetoric of "high expectations" and ultimately frustrate teachers with inconsistent actions and structures.

Kids Deserve an Alignment of Excellence

Students deserve a classroom where competence is universal, and teachers deserve a school where clarity is valued and sought so that systemic competence is attained. Alignment and the time to align are the most powerful priorities for schools, and leaders will create a highly consistent as well as high performing school that will ultimately guarantee excellence for every child from every teacher in every classroom every day in every way. 

Independence: It's not a Day. It's our Future

Happy Independence Day!  On July 4, 1776 we claimed our independence as a sovereign and independent nation and for the last 240 years this day has been one of national pride and celebration. In fact the 4th of July reminds us of the importance of living our lives free from the tyranny of dependence. But the question we must ask ourselves is this.

Do our Schools and Classrooms create Dependent Followers or Independent Learners?

The future of our independence is completely dependent on the generation sitting in our classrooms right now. If kids don't learn how to be independent learners right now, they will be conditioned to be dependent on someone to provide for them for the rest of their lives. If school leaders fail to create schools that teach students the value of independence, we are doing tremendous harm to our kids. But if we all create learning spaces that fail to transform the 20th century learning paradigm of dependent followership into the 21st century learning mindset of independence and interdependence, we may be doing permanent and irreparable damage to our nation.

The Greatest Threat

The greatest threat to our nation is not the economy, national security or even health care. It is creating a generation of dependent people who will have failed to learn the most important lesson of all time, that a nation of dependent people will ultimately relinquish the very freedom that we have treasured for over 240 years. Dependence on others was the very reason why our forefathers were fed up and fought to no longer be a dependent nation, and maintaining our independence is the only way that we will preserve our democracy. 

The Greatest Challenge

Educators, parents and community leaders must remember that our mission is to work together to create schools that create independent individuals, self-reliant students, and hard-working contributors. We must accept our moral imperative that we don't teach content. We teach kids, and we must teach them that in order to be successful, they must be ACTIVE learners:

• Assertive
• Creative
• Tenacious
• Independent
• Valuable
• Enthusiastic

Active learning is the only way that we can mold students into independent and contributing members of society, and the reason we must do this is for one simple reason. Active learners view independence as a benefit not a burden. The way we became an independent nation is by being active and taking action.  The way we will remain a free and independent society is by creating independent and active learners who take pride in themselves individually and pride in their country. Then and only then will we preserve and defend our free and independent way of life. 

It's a Matter of Time

Where did all time go?  

How much time do I have left?  

Time flies when you're having fun.  

I don't have enough time to get it all done.

These statements view time as an uncontrollable force. The fact is that time is an exhaustible resource.  Like money, you only have so much of it, and if you don't budget it, you won't have enough when you need it most.  When determining your effectiveness, a good starting question to ask yourself would be this.

"How am I spending my time?"

But before you go there, I'd encourage you to embrace the mindset of waste leads to haste.  In other words, if you don't watch the minutes you waste, you will be forced to rush through the minutes you have left, and ultimately, you will waste those minutes as well.

10 Ways to Stop Wasting Time

1. Stop checking your phone, and set a time that you will check it.
2. Turn off notifications on your phone.  These are big-time time-killers, and they do nothing but steal minutes from your day.
3. Build a regular routine into your day for getting your job done, and follow it.
4. Check email only at specific times and don't check in between.
5. Analyze how much time is lost in between tasks.
6. Reduce the number of minutes you lose in lengthy conversations.
7. Set alarms and reminders on your phone for completing tasks and don't ignore them.
8. Use the task feature on Google or Outlook calendars to ensure the completion of tasks.
9. Schedule a block of time in your day just for you to get your job done and let no one interrupt you.
10. Set daily deadlines to complete tasks and end your work day.  Deadlines accelerate productivity.

It's All a Matter of Time

Time is the constant, but how you use it is the variable.  To reach success, creativity is important, but productivity precedes creativity.  In fact without productivity, you'll never have the time to be creative.  If you can focus your efforts on optimizing your minutes, you will bank plenty of time to become more creative and ultimately more successful in your role.  

Zero is not a Number

I have been thinking about the number zero for a while, and what it actually represents. If you think about it, zero does not mean that 0% of something was learned. It means 0% tried,  0% was attempted, 0% was done. Zero means nothing to those that give it as well as those who achieve it.

Let's be frank.  Zero is not even a number. It actually is a letter which stands for Opting Out of Learning. It's not just that students opt out of learning, it also means that teachers opt out of guaranteeing learning opportunities for students. It means holding students accountable is optional. It means learning is also optional.

Can We Afford for Learning to be Optional?

I don't want my students to choose whether or not they want to learn. I want them to choose how deeply they will learn. I don't want them to avoid the task and say, "just give me a zero". I want them to decide how inspired they will become about learning and how committed and passionate to the learning they will be. I never met a zero that inspired learning and even a deeper commitment to it; therefore, shouldn't we have a grading system that doesn't allow learning to be optional?

Just a thought. What do you think?

Expectations mean Nothing

Words mean little if they're not backed up with action. 

Threats of consequences without follow-through result in deafened ears the next time the threat is made. Failure to affirm expectations met leads to a "Doing Well Doesn't Matter" mindset. 

Expectations mean little to nothing at all until they are coupled with accountability. 

Accountability solidifies expectations when words don't. Accountability keeps the standard high because threats won't. Accountability adds value to a job well done. 

Talk is cheap. Actions matter. Leaders of excellence set the same high expectations as everyone else, but the expectations that mean the most to them are the expectations they set on themselves to hold everyone accountable for meeting the goal. 

Do your expectations matter to those you lead?  The answer is not in their adherence. It's in your leadership skill of accountability and your support to guarantee that expectations are actually met by all. 

The GEARs of Excellence

Every organization aspires for excellence. Some dream for it, but the best envision it. They believe in it. They see it and then they plan for it. The difference between the average and the excellent organizations is not their visions of excellence. The difference lies in the drive excellent leaders possess and the gears they build to get their organization to reach the highest levels of success.

The GEARS of Excellence

Goals 

All schools have goals but many aren't truly focused on school improvement. Leaders of excellence

guide the school to establish 3-5 goals that address areas in need of improvement, and they are SMART: strategic, measureable, attainable, results-oriented, and time bound. Furthermore, these goals are monitored and followed with obsession and compulsion. 

Expectations

Every organization is full of expectations, but what sets excellent organizations apart from average ones is the simple fact that expectations are 100% aligned with the behaviors needed to accomplish the goals listed above. If an expectation isn't aligned with the goal, it is revised or abandoned altogether.  Goals most always are followed with expectations. 

Accountability 

What gets measured gets done, and leaders of excellent organizations monitor their goals as well as their expectations. Think about it. What's the point of setting a goal or making an expectation if you're not going to ensure that it is accomplished?  Accountability is the only way leaders ensure that things get done and the only way they hold people responsible for following through. 

Results

Average organization thrive on checklists, but excellent leaders search for quality in the work people do. To ensure progress is being made, great leaders find unique ways to gather data to best determine if actions and expectations are resulting in student growth. Without measureable results, people will go through the motions and miss the opportunity to become more effective and efficient. 

Greater GEARS = Greater Success 

The interesting thing about gears is that they work best when they work in concert with other gears. One bad gear can kill the entire machine, and the great leaders realize that their job is to create the conditions as well as support systems that inspire all people to create their own gears that will make the entire organization better. The greater the gears and the more synchronized they are, the more excellent the organzation will become. 

What would you add to this concept of GEARs?