Countless books have been written on the topic of leadership. There are styles, and theories, and frameworks.
But at it's essence, leadership is about energy.
What kind of energy do you bring each day? Are you showing up with enthusiasm and excitement? Are you bringing your best? Are you building stronger relationships? Does your energy inspire others to do more and be more?
Everyone has leadership, because everyone has influence. What you do matters.
If everyone in your school had your attitude, what kind of place would it be?
Your energy is contagious.
So bring your best energy. Bring your passionate energy.
Bring your determined energy. Nothing can stand in your way.
Your positive leadership is a result of your positive energy.
But how are you using your leadership? Does it lift up or does it tear down? Are people stronger because of you? Are you growing? Are you giving? Are you grateful? Are you bringing your best?
Your positive risk-taking leads to positive results.
No matter your title, your position, or your background, you can make a difference. If you're on a path of purpose, people will follow.
We're all looking for direction. We're all looking for meaning and significance. We're all looking for someone like you to share your leadership.
Your energy is your leadership.
Bring it.
Growth requires change. And it also requires doing some things that aren't comfortable. We all have thought-patterns and beliefs that contribute to our progress or lack of progress. That's why it's so important to challenge any beliefs that might be standing in your way. Get uncomfortable by choosing some new habits of mind!
Here are 3 Ideas You Must Reject If You Want To Grow
1. Reject Your Self-Limiting Beliefs
Be careful of deciding that you're just not the type of person that could ever be good at a certain thing. Those limits may hold you back in ways you can't even imagine.
"I'm not creative."
"I'm not good with technology."
"I'm not athletic."
"I'm not organized."
"I don't have much energy."
"I'm not good at classroom management."
Reject these beliefs. Or whatever limiting beliefs you might have. They don't serve you well. Open yourself up to new possibilities. Take small steps to expand yourself. You have unknown and unlimited capacity.
But these things are true, you say. No! These things are beliefs, not truths.
When you notice your limiting beliefs invading, reject them immediately...
"I'm experimenting with my creativity."
"I'm learning new things about technology every day."
"I'm getting more fit with each workout."
"I'm trying some new organization strategies."
"I have boundless energy."
"I set boundaries in my classroom, and I stick to them."
Read More: 4 Steps to Release Limiting Beliefs from Psychology Today
2. Reject the Idea That Experience Makes You Great
Some people believe the key to improving is just having more experience. But various studies have shown that experience doesn't necessarily correlate to greater knowledge or skills or improved performance.
Many people get to a certain level of effectiveness, often a minimum acceptable level, and become content to just stay there. They hit cruise control. As a result, their performance in the 10th year in the profession isn't much different than their performance in the 3rd year. They are doing the same things over and over like the entire town in the movie Groundhog Day!
The only way experience actually makes you better is through feedback, reflection, and adaptability. You must have a process for learning and action.
Experience can be an excellent laboratory for growth, but only if you are using your experience to inform your efforts to build your own knowledge, skills, and other positive characteristics.
Read More: Experience Doesn't Predict a New Hires Success from Harvard Business Review
3. Reject the Notion That Trying Harder Is Enough
I've known many educators who are stressed out, burnt out, and maxed out because they keep trying to do more and more. They feel stuck. They feel like things aren't working, and the way they respond is to work even harder, to spend more time doing the same things.
And that type of determination is admirable to me. These educators are committed professionals who care so much about kids and learning they are willing to do whatever it takes.
But it's not healthy.
And in the end, it's not effective. If you burn the candle at both ends for too long, eventually you're just melted wax.
A better approach is to work smarter, not harder.
Instead of trying to do more, develop a process that helps you be more. Take care of yourself. Be healthy. Feed your mind and renew your energy every day.
Rather than spending more time with the same old methods you've always used, take some time to develop new knowledge and skills. What got you here, won't get you to the next level.
Nothing's gonna change if nothing changes.
Be willing to try different approaches that might work more efficiently. Instead of trying to do more, try something different. That's where your creativity, your problem solving, and your innovation come into play.
Read More:
The Importance of Daily Renewal for Educators
When Trying Harder Doesn't Help from LeadershipFreak
What's your experience with overcoming mindsets that aren't helpful to your progress? I'm interested to hear from you. Leave a comment below or respond on Facebook or Twitter.
The focus of traditional education has mostly been on knowledge. The focus has been on learning more information. But now we have more information available to us than ever before. And the amount of information out there is growing exponentially.
And this rapidly growing body of information is readily available. We can access it at any time in any place at the tip of our fingers with a connected device. Our tools have transformed our experience. So while learning information still has some value, it's not as valuable as it once was.
So what about teaching for understanding? That raises the bar a little I think. While teaching for knowing is about accumulating more information, teaching for understanding is about making sense of that information and seeing how the pieces fit together. It's recognizing the context of the information, why the information is important, and how the information might be applied.
Teaching for understanding is a deeper type of learning. It involves critical thinking, making personal connections, and being able to have discussions and make arguments about the information. But it's not actually applying the information.
For me, that's the true test of learning. How can you apply what you know? How are you applying your learning? The most important thing for our students is what they are able to do. Application is seeing knowledge and understanding in action.
When we talk about students being ready for life, it's about them being able to do things to contribute and make a difference.
Doing makes the difference.
I think traditional education has mostly assumed that students would be able to take their knowledge and understanding and apply it as needed. But we know that's not the case. Students are often not able to transfer their knowledge or understanding. They often don't even see the relevance of their knowledge or understanding because they haven't done anything with it.
And that's the reason why many people find the best learning after their formal education has ended.
I'm guessing most educators can relate to this very well. To train to be a teacher you go to college and you expand your knowledge and understanding of the teaching profession. Mostly you learn theoretical concepts or discuss various scenarios or established principles in a way that is isolated from actual practice. You take the quizzes. You take the tests. And you write the papers.
And then, you enter your student teaching and the application begins. And you quickly learn that much of what you learned in your coursework is very different from what you learn in actual practice. At least that's how it was for me. There seemed to be a very big disconnect.
To further prove this point, have you ever known someone who aced all of the classes in college to become a teacher, but then struggled mightily to succeed in the classroom? The skills they needed to succeed on the quizzes, tests, and papers in college weren't the same ones needed to succeed in an actual classroom.
After student teaching, your first full year in the profession is still like a crash course. For several years, you continue feeling a little like a beginner but your learning is consistently reaching new levels. The learning from actual practice was actually far more helpful than the learning from education classes.
So all of this brings me to suggest a different way of learning in school, a way that I believe is more effective than starting with knowing and understanding. Let's start with doing. Let's start with solving and creating and applying.
The student will still need to learn the information and understand the information. But they will see the relevance of the knowing and understanding, because they will need it to succeed in the application of what they are doing.
They will learn by doing.
And they will be more curious, more engaged, and more empowered because they will have to decide what information and concepts they need to successfully complete the task. They will see how the learning matters and how it makes a difference beyond the classroom. Through this process, they will need lots of guidance and feedback from the teacher, a learning expert.
That's the role of the modern teacher, to skillfully design learning experiences that help students know more, understand more, and most importantly, do more.
The best learning requires students in action.
What am I missing here? Can we flip the script and get better results? Can we start with the project, or the problem, or the application and learn the content through the process? How are you doing this in your school? I want to hear from you. Leave a comment below or respond on Facebook or Twitter.
