Leadership lessons, connected with faith and wisdom.

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Complementary Contradictions (part 11): But First, Be Teachable

Sometimes, you get conflicting words of advice, one which is good and the other which is not, and it requires discernment to determine which is the right advice to follow. But often, these seeming contradictions are, in reality, complementary and, when used appropriately and in the right way, can work together to help you make better decisions. In this series of articles and podcast episodes, we are looking at different leadership ideas or principles that seem to contradict, are opposite sides of a coin, or at least differ from each other and pairing them up to see how they actually complement each other to make you a better leader. Last week, in part 10, we talked about becoming a teacher, and this week, in part 11, is a reminder that before you can teach, you must first be teachable.

When I was a college student, I attended a seminar that was led by a graduate student as he presented the appeal and the opportunities in his field of study, which was theology. In the course of his presentation, he shared the viewpoint that, in order to become someone able to be used by God for greatness, you needed to be characterized by the acronym F.A.T.: Faithful, Available, and Teachable. I do believe that these characteristics ought to be exhibited by any and every Christian in their relationship with God, but I also think that they ought to reflect our growth in our leadership. Particularly, I believe that becoming teachable is absolutely essential to – and in direct proportion to – our level of growth and our capacity to lead.

But don’t take my word for it; listen to the wisdom of others. Albert Einstein is generally considered to have been a man of great genius, so it might be easy to assume that, in his brilliance, there was little else he could learn and much that he could teach. While it would be true that he had a wealth of knowledge to share, he strongly believed that he was and always would be learning. He is known to have said, “I have no special talent; I am only passionately curious,” and to have also stated, “It is not that I’m so smart. But I stay with the questions much longer.” More famously, Einstein is attributed with having said, “Once you stop learning, you start dying.”

He was not the only person to share that sentiment. Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, once said, “I don’t think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.” Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, stated, “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.” John Rooney, American sportscaster, and radio announcer for the St. Louis Cardinals, reportedly said, “The quickest way to become an old dog is to stop learning new tricks.” And Jackie Joyner Kersee, world class Olympic athlete in track and field, claimed, “I maintained my edge by always being a student; you will always have something new to learn.” These individuals all reflect the same sentiment: in order to grow, you have to learn; and in order to learn, you have to be teachable.

The truth is, to be a successful leader, you must be teachable. If you are not teachable, you will not learn, and therefore, you will not grow and become a more effective leader. On the surface, it is that simple. However, this is actually more challenging than it may appear, because often those who are not teachable do not recognize it, and even more often, our own pride, competitiveness, defensiveness, or self-centeredness leads us to resist acknowledging our need to learn. Therefore, becoming teachable requires humility and a conscious and intentional effort, learning to exhibit specific attributes and incorporate specific behaviors that help us to learn.

At its core, the skill of becoming teachable can be condensed to a few necessary attributes and action steps, and these can be even more simplified to reflect the two more basic skills of looking and listening. Looking involves what you choose to see, listening involves what you choose to hear, and both are directly impacted by how you choose to interpret what you see and hear. Essentially, to become teachable, you will need to follow the rule you learned as a child about crossing a busy street (or the line from Elvis Presley’s Rubberneckin’) – you need to stop, look, and listen!

First, stop and look, and there are two things that help you be more teachable by looking: study and humility. We study by reading, watching, asking questions, and learning from the wisdom and experience of others. It requires intentional study of the what’s, why’s, and how’s of life and the world around us. In doing so, we add to our base of knowledge and gain a greater understanding of the practical application and use of that knowledge. Humility is our attitude, one that makes us willing to accept our own inadequacies, deficiencies, ignorance, and failures, so that we are then also willing to learn from those mistakes and willing to learn from others.

I saw this in myself in an experience years ago. My family was having a get-together at my parents’ home, and while we were sitting around the dinner table, my dad made a comment about someday wanting to build a deck on the back of the house. One of my two brothers suggested that we do it the next day, because there likely would be very few times that we would all be together at the same time again. So, my dad sketched out the plans, and the next morning we went to the lumber store, picked up all the supplies, and then the four of us proceeded to spend the next eight hours building a large deck. What a great memory! When we were all finished, my dad commented on how he could see certain attributes of each of our personalities throughout the process. One of the observations that he made about me was that I was constantly asking questions, trying to understand why we were doing things in a certain way, and learning from the experience. That observation was an accurate reflection; with an investigative nature, I have long known that you learn a lot by observing and asking questions.

Second, stop and listen, and there are also two things that help you be more teachable by listening: reflection and feedback. Reflection is an internal skill and habit in which we step back from our actions to think about them and analyze them, honestly assessing their effectiveness and appropriateness so that we can learn, adjust, and improve ourselves. Feedback is the input that comes from other people and from the consequences of our actions. It may be unsolicited, coming in both positive (like the complement you receive when you share a good idea at work) and negative forms (such as the words or gestures that are “shared” with you when you accidentally cut another car off on the road), or it may be intentionally solicited or provided, in the form of guidance, mentoring, and assessment. Either way, it is something from which you should learn (even the harshest criticism can potentially create some truth to be learned).

One particularly difficult experience helped me with this. My boss had called me into a meeting, and I knew that he had called for the meeting because he was unhappy with something I had done, and therefore this meeting would be a confrontation that I was not looking forward to enduring. As I shared my dread with my father, he challenged me to envision that God would be standing behind my boss, acting in much the same way as a ventriloquist, and to look past the angry words and tone and instead look for the message that God was trying to teach me. That’s not what I wanted to hear from my dad (I wanted him to affirm that my boss was all wrong and that I shouldn’t have to go through this), and his counsel did not make the meeting any more enjoyable, but it did change my response and allowed me to learn some things that I needed to learn in spite of the way in which the message was delivered. It was a hard lesson, but I learned some things that day about listening to feedback, both from my dad and from my boss.

You see, “teachability” – or, the ability to be teachable – is essential to your growth as a leader. Humble yourself, study, practice self-reflection, and listen to feedback; all of these practices will help you to learn, but they must be willingly embraced. If you will do so, you will become a more effective – and respected – leader, all because you made yourself teachable.

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Podcast Episode 37 (part 10): Become A Teacher, Because You Already Are

This week’s episode builds on Monday’s article, part ten in the series titled “Complementary Contradictions.” Here is the transcript of the podcast.

Sometimes, you get conflicting words of advice, one which is good and the other which is not, and it requires discernment to determine which is the right advice to follow. But often, these seeming contradictions are, in reality, complementary and, when used appropriately and in the right way, can work together to help you make better decisions. In this series of articles and podcast episodes, we are looking at different leadership ideas or principles that seem to contradict, are opposite sides of the same coin, or at least differ from each other, and we are pairing them up to see how they actually complement each other to make you a better leader. This week, in part 10, we talk about becoming a teacher, and next week, in part 11, is a reminder that before you can teach, you must first be teachable.

We are pairing together two sides of the learning process: the teacher and the student. One side is responsible for cultivating growth in the other, and the other side is responsible for receiving and responding in order to cultivate growth in him or herself. As a teacher, your goal is to help others grow and develop. As a student, or learner, your goal is to continue to grow and develop yourself. Both of these are significant to your leadership, because they impact the kind of leader (and person) you are, and they impact the people you lead.

 In my first year as a teacher, I had tremendous enthusiasm and high hopes that I would be the kind of teacher who transforms students. In my mind, I was going to inspire them to love learning, run to my class, and engage with brilliant interactions and genuine, knowledge-seeking questions. And then, day one of year one happened. My image of myself as Edward James Olmos in “Stand and Deliver,” or as Robin Williams in “Dead Poets Society,” crashed into the reality of a classroom of 30 teenagers who didn’t want summer to end and didn’t know me from Adam. In my struggle to engage and challenge them, I set high expectations and worked really hard at being enthusiastic and unconventional. When the time came for me to administer my first test, I was eagerly anticipating seeing my teaching brilliance reflected in their outstanding answers. That’s not what happened. The majority of them . . . bombed the test. And I felt like I was failing as a teacher.

Over the course of the rest of that year, I did become a much better teacher, and continued getting better each year. In fact, in my fourth year of teaching, I was recognized as the teacher of the year in my school.  So, what happened between day one of my first year and the last day of my fourth year? I learned a lot about what it means to be a teacher.

 Here’s what I learned:

  • Teaching happens best in the context of relationship. I once heard someone say, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Truly impactful teaching most often happens when you have connected with the people you are teaching, have cultivated a genuine relationship with them, care about who they are, and they know it.

  • People want to be treated with dignity and respect, affirming their value and worth. In actuality, that is the same as treating them the way that God wants us to. Every person has been created in the image of God and has value to Him, and therefore, should have value to us. So, we need to treat them as such.  Don’t be condescending, sarcastic, or demeaning. Rather, be affirming and loving, and work to help them understand the why behind the what.

  • Students won’t be willing to listen if they don’t believe you and trust you. That only happens when they see that you are sincere and genuine, and that who you say you are and how you actually live and act match up to each other. In other words, they see that you are a person of integrity.  My dad would say, “Your walk talks and your talk talks, but your walk talks louder than your talk talks.”

  • Trust is demonstrated when students are given the freedom and safety to learn and fail. Without that, they close down, as a matter of self-preservation. But when they are empowered to make choices and decisions and are supported and loved, rather than berated or rejected, when those choices turn out to be bad choices, it makes it safe for them to learn from their failure and try again.

When I made these things central to who I was as a teacher, my students responded, engaged, and learned.  The way I said this in the website article that corresponds to this podcast was this: teach with your heart, teach with your words, teach with your life, and teach with your responses.  The wonderful thing about these principles is that they don’t just apply to a classroom teacher.  They apply to anyone who is teaching others, whether that is formally or informally.

Here’s what you need to know, then. You are a teacher whether you are aware of it or not. People are following you, watching you, and listening to you, and they are learning from what they see and hear. That makes you a teacher. It is therefore important that you do it intentionally, so that you, as a teacher, can have the kind of influence you want to have. Pay attention to what you say, how you say it, how you model it, and how you respond to and engage with others.

 Deuteronomy 6 talks about how teaching happens all the time, both formally and informally. The fact is, you are already a teacher, even if you didn’t realize it, because you are modeling with your life, actions, and words, and others are learning from what they see and hear. Don’t let the lessons you teach with your actions, values, and words happen without conscious intent. Since you are already a teacher . . . do it with purpose!

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Complementary Contradictions (part 10): Become a Teacher

Sometimes, you get conflicting words of advice, one which is good and the other which is not, and it requires discernment to determine which is the right advice to follow. But often, these seeming contradictions are, in reality, complementary and, when used appropriately and in the right way, can work together to help you make better decisions. In this series of articles and podcast episodes, we are looking at different leadership ideas or principles that seem to contradict, are opposite sides of a coin, or at least differ from each other and pairing them up to see how they actually complement each other to make you a better leader. This week, in part 10, we talk about becoming a teacher, and next week, in part 11, is a reminder that before you can teach, you must first be teachable.

When we think about teaching, our minds generally go immediately to the role of a classroom teacher in a school. We tend to think of it as an occupation rather than a way to communicate, as a job that someone does as opposed to how you interact with others in a way that helps them to learn something. However, while teachers play an invaluable role in the development of children, we are mistaken if we think that it is a job that is only relegated to someone in a classroom. The reality is that if you lead people, you are a teacher.

I personally have experience in the professional role of educator, having served as a junior high and high school teacher for a number of years, and having spent three decades in a school environment as both teacher and administrator. I had a subject matter that I was responsible for teaching, and my job was to help students learn necessary and relevant information and to develop critical thinking skills. But it also was a vehicle through which I sought to shape the minds and the lives of my students.

Leaders are also seeking to shape the minds and lives of those they lead, and so effective leadership can and should learn some things from the theory and practice of professional educators. Therefore, there is great value in understanding what teaching looks like and how it has an effect on people. Gaining an understanding of this can help us with a framework for how we also can teach others. If we want to become better teachers (and we all should), then we need to look at the learning process and at teachers.

In the book Blended (2015), authors Michael B. Horn and Heather Staker discussed the concept of disruptive innovation and its application to the world of education, especially as it applies to online instruction and blended learning. They made the point that modern schools were originally designed to standardize teaching and testing (the opposite of differentiation and customization), but in today’s global, information-based culture, the need is for student-centered learning, which is personalized (tailored to an individual student’s particular need) and competency-based (they must demonstrate mastery before moving on). As they researched students in the learning environment, they then sought to identify the primary motivators for student learning and found two motivating desires: 1) to feel successful and make progress, and 2) to have fun with friends, engaging in positive, rewarding social experiences with others. In short, they learned that students – the learners – want to successfully achieve, to experience good social relationships, and to receive individualized instruction whereby they can show what they know in the way they do best.

This research gives us some insight into what learners, in general, want to experience, but what about your own experience? Like most people, you can probably think of teachers who made an impact on your life, so we should be asking ourselves what they did that made them stand out to us. When you do that, you will probably find several core practices or behaviors that characterized those impactful teachers: 1) they cared; and specifically, they cared about you, and you knew it; 2) they were examples that you felt you could emulate, because they were models of how to live life effectively and with meaning; 3) they challenged and inspired you, pushing you to do more than you thought you were capable of doing; and 4) they gave you feedback, both positive and negative, to support, encourage, and grow you, but also to hold you accountable and correct you.

Now put these ideas together, those from research and those from your own personal experience, and it will begin to give you a picture of what it means to be a teacher. If you apply this to the people you lead, it will help you to see that they want to progress and achieve, they want to have positive and caring relationships, they want to do what they do well in the way they can do it best, they want someone to show them the way and challenge them to grow, and they want to know how they are doing. And the good news is that you don’t have to be in a classroom to do all of these things.

This provides us with a blueprint, a road map for how we can teach the people we lead, and there are four foundational pillars that make up this plan

  • First, teach with your heart. Develop a genuine care for people. Build relationships by taking a personal interest in their lives and showing that you care about them.
  • Second, teach with your words. Take the time to explain the why and the how, helping people to understand what it is that they are doing and how it connects to the other people and tasks around them in the organization.
  • Third, teach with your life. Live in a way that is consistent with what you say, demonstrating integrity, and keeping your promises. Be an example they can emulate. Show them what you expect by demonstrating and modeling.
  • Finally, teach with your responses. Empower them to act, and then give them support and encouragement, but also give them constructive feedback to help them learn and improve.

In essence, to be an effective teacher, you must care, tell, show, and respond. These are all behaviors that can and should characterize you as an effective leader. Perhaps you have already been doing this and didn’t realize that in doing so, you have been a teacher. Perhaps you need to begin to do them. Regardless, remember that good teachers help students to achieve, even beyond what they believed was possible, and so it makes sense that if you can be a leader who teaches, the people you lead will grow, and you will benefit. Become a teacher.

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Podcast Episode 36 (part 9): If It Doesn’t Work, Do Something Different

This week’s episode builds on Monday’s article, part nine in the series titled “Complementary Contradictions.” Here is the transcript of the podcast.

Sometimes, you get conflicting words of advice, one which is good and the other which is not, and it requires discernment to determine which is the right advice to follow. But often, these seeming contradictions are, in reality, complementary and, when used appropriately and in the right way, can work together to help you make better decisions. In this series of articles and podcast episodes, we are looking at different leadership ideas or principles that seem to contradict, are opposite sides of the same coin, or at least differ from each other, and we are pairing them up to see how they actually complement each other to make you a better leader. Last week, in part 8, we talked about doing what works, and this week, in part 9, we will be talking about what to do when it doesn’t work.

We started our discussion of this pair of principles last time when we talked about the importance of figuring out what works, starting to do it, and continuing to do it. It’s been said that there is no need to reinvent the wheel, and what that means for you as a leader is that you don’t need to create a new plan and a new way of doing something every time you have to repeat the task or program. You may want to tweak it to improve it, but you don’t need to start from scratch. You find what works and do it repeatedly . . . until you find that it doesn’t work. And that’s today’s discussion.

When I left one school as the guidance counselor and assistant principal to become the head of school at another school in another state, I had lots of great ideas of what I would do. I knew that it would be my first experience as the senior leader in charge of it all. However, I had been responsible for coming up with and leading new initiatives and had overseen the summer school program in my previous place, so I felt like I had an idea of what I needed to do in this new place and how to make things happen. I had taken the time to think through and prepare a plan (see part 6 of this same series for more on that). With my plan in hand and a vision in my mind of where I was going, I had rolled up my sleeves and gone to work. Unsurprisingly, I ran into obstacles and challenges, and not everything worked the way I thought it would in my head. Some of my best ideas couldn’t even seem to get off the ground, and plans that had been communicated to me before my arrival seemed to become derailed. 

For example, the school I was coming to had a plan for constructing a new school building (they were currently renting space across town for the upper grades in a less-than-ideal learning environment), but shortly after I arrived, I could see that this plan had stalled, and wasn’t moving forward. I was left with a logistical challenge and a blow to the morale of stakeholders. It was then that I began to communicate what became my unofficial motto for the next couple of years: “If it doesn’t work, then we will do something different.”  From that point forward, every time something wasn’t working the way I wanted it to work, or wasn’t working at all, and I could sense the anxiety around me, that would be my response. I would say it with joyful and calm confidence, and then that’s what I would do. I would look for something different that I could do. In this particular example, I did not renew the lease in the building across town, and instead leased some classroom portables and put them in the parking lot of the church and school. This put all the students on one campus, which was good for everybody, but it also made people uncomfortable because of the space it took in the parking lot. The combination of the benefits and the discomfort reignited the building plan, and a year and a half later, we moved students into a new school building all on the same property.

 You see, the school had a plan for facilities, but it wasn’t working. I had a plan for growing the school, but because of the complications that came from the facility issues, it wasn’t working. So, I changed the plan and did something different, and it changed everything. Unity was strengthened, morale improved, public image also improved, movement began to happen, and momentum started to roll. What we were doing before wasn’t working, so we did something different.

That’s the point for you in your leadership. The flip side of the cliché that I referenced earlier (“You don’t need to reinvent the wheel”) is the saying that “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” If something is not working, rather than continuing to do it, find out why it’s not working. Then, maybe you can simply make some necessary changes to what you were doing to get it to work, but maybe you need to do something completely different instead.

Here’s what you need to know. Don’t change something just for the sake of change, or because you think you know better even though you don’t have any data to support your idea. But if what you are doing didn’t work, is no longer working, or has never worked, it’s ok to scrap it and do something different. Don’t exercise insanity. Rather, step back onto the balcony to reassess the big picture, then zoom back in to make changes (another pair of principles we talked about in parts 4 and 5 of this series). Then, make changes or start over.

The bottom line is that you need to do what works, so if something is working, don’t change it (but make sure you evaluate it periodically to ensure that it is continuing to work the way that it should). However if, or when, it is not working, the best answer may simply be . . . do something different.

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Complementary Contradictions (part 9): If It Doesn’t Work, Do Something Different

Sometimes, you get conflicting words of advice, one which is good and the other which is not, and it requires discernment to determine which is the right advice to follow. But often, these seeming contradictions are, in reality, complementary and, when used appropriately and in the right way, can work together to help you make better decisions. In this series of articles and podcast episodes, we are looking at different leadership ideas or principles that seem to contradict, are opposite sides of a coin, or at least differ from each other and pairing them up to see how they actually complement each other to make you a better leader. Last week, in part 8, we talked about doing what works, and this week, in part 9, we will talk about what to do when it doesn’t work.

In the 1993 blockbuster movie Jurassic Park, actor Jeff Goldblum played a character named Ian Malcolm, who was a “chaos mathematician.” His character’s role was to apply the ideas of chaos theory to the operation of the dinosaur-themed amusement park, with the hope of being able to give approval so that the park could move forward. However, in his view, chaos theory purported that everything is unpredictable, because tiny environmental factors and influences mean that nothing ever happens the same way twice. The result was that he believed the forces that the Jurassic Park scientists were trying to control were, in fact, uncontrollable.

While that was a science fiction movie, the reality is that life is unpredictable and constantly changing, and those changes are uncontrollable. Sure, we can maintain some semblance of control with planning and structure, but there are always circumstances and factors that are unexpected and that we can’t control, like when you drive over a nail and get a flat tire, or you get in an accident caused by another driver, or when severe weather cancels your plans, and so on. These types of things force you to change in some way, but if you cannot adapt to change, you will live a life of eternal frustration. So, since you can’t avoid it, what you must do instead is learn to navigate it, by learning to become flexible, and there are three things you can do to help you with this.

First, relinquish control. It begins by accepting the fact that you cannot control everything that happens. It’s foolish to think that you can. This truth has been reflected often in the financial industry, where unpredictable events impact the value of stocks. Malcolm Gladwell, in his book What the Dog Saw (2010), discussed this in one of the book’s articles, entitled “Blowing Up.” In this article, he discussed the financial practice of investors and suggested – according to his interview with one particular advisor – that you must accept that you can’t predict the unexpected event. Therefore, you must always be prepared for losses.

A number of years ago, I read a book by Peter Schwartz called Inevitable Surprises (2004), in which Schwartz made the claim that certain future surprises were actually inevitable and, therefore, could be predicted and harnessed. One of his primary examples was the “inevitable” impending increase of retirees from the large baby boomer generation, which he then identified as a resource to be tapped into. However, what he could not predict was the change in longevity of life, combined with later retirement ages, which meant that the expected volunteer force of retirees had not emerged (ironically, an increase in volunteerism had occurred among the younger generation, not the older). The point is, you cannot control unpredictable events, and therefore, you must be willing and able to accept that lack of control in order to keep it from defeating you.

Second, be willing to try something different. If you know that some things will happen outside of your control that change your plans, you need to be willing to change your plans and do something different. This is a lesson I learned early in my administrative experience, in the first school in which I served as a headmaster. There was an expectation that I implement noticeable change, because the school had been struggling, and so I began to develop and initiate a strategic plan. However, as you might expect, some of my plans did not work well, because unexpected circumstances would influence the outcome, or people would resist, or it simply didn’t work the way I thought it would. I could tell that people were watching me to see how I would respond to these obstacles and unpredictable events, and so I got in the habit of saying, “If it doesn’t work, we’ll do something different.” This was not only for their benefit but also for mine, to reassure both them and me that it wasn’t an end, only a change. It helped them to be willing to try something different, and in the process of trying something different, we learned, improved, and found the best solutions.

As I discussed in the previous related podcast episode, Jim Collins, in Great by Choice (2011), addresses a similar idea when he talks about firing bullets and then cannonballs. The idea, he explains, is that effective leaders spend a small amount of resources trying out a variety of ideas (firing bullets), dismissing the ones that don’t work well, and pouring more resources into the ones that do (firing cannonballs). We often don’t know with certainty what is going to be effective and produce the desired outcome, and we also don’t know what unexpected factors will hinder our plans, therefore we ought to be willing to try ideas and test plans with the understanding that, for various reasons, it may not work (either at this time, or in this place, or under these circumstances), and so we need to be able to let it go, change, and do something different. It may mean changing the time, or the place, or the circumstances, or perhaps even throwing it away and starting over, but regardless, it means being willing to do something different.

Third, develop creativity. We are not all naturally creative in our thought processes or in our expression, but we can all do things that help us to become more creative. When we develop creativity, looking for new ways of thinking, doing, and expressing, we begin to startle people (in a good way), helping us to get and hold their attention. I learned a little about this when I first became a history teacher. I felt like I had had history teachers in the past who were very boring, and so I wanted to get the attention of my students and make history an enjoyable and valuable class. I remember early in the year, in an American History course, when I was teaching about Christopher Columbus’ arrival to the new world, trying to explain what it felt like to be on his ship sailing across the ocean with a hope but not a certainty, when I suddenly leaped on top of my desk and yelled “Land ho!” as loud as I could. The class jumped, laughed, and then engaged in an active discussion. By being unexpected, I helped to develop an interest in the course.

Daniel Pink, in his book, A Whole New Mind (2006), discusses the value of creative thinking and its importance to leadership and progress. He proposes that those who can learn to think creatively will have an advantage in a global marketplace. He then offers six “senses” that are necessary for cultivating creativity and provides practical advice on how to develop these skills. The main point is that creativity is a skill that can be nurtured and grown and is necessary for growth and leadership in the world of information and concepts in which we live.

We cannot ignore the fact that life throws curve balls and that much of what happens around us and to us is unpredictable. Try as we might to prevent it or avoid it, change happens, and if we are not willing and able to have a degree of flexibility, we will be frustrated, disappointed, and defeated. To be an effective leader, then, you must be able to be flexible. Doing this will require that you are willing to give up control (specifically, over those things that you can’t control), willing to do something different with a positive (not a defeated) attitude, and willing to learn to become more creative. Developing these characteristics will help you to have the flexibility you need, in order to lead well in a changing world. Because if it doesn’t work, you may just need to do something different.

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Podcast Episode 35 (part 8): Do What Works

This week’s episode builds on Monday’s article, part eight in the series titled “Complementary Contradictions.” Here is the transcript of the podcast.

Sometimes, you get conflicting words of advice, one which is good and the other which is not, and it requires discernment to determine which is the right advice to follow. But often, these seeming contradictions are, in reality, complementary and, when used appropriately and in the right way, can work together to help you make better decisions. In this series of articles and podcast episodes, we are looking at different leadership ideas or principles that seem to contradict, are opposite sides of the same coin, or at least differ from each other, and we are pairing them up to see how they actually complement each other to make you a better leader. This week, in part 8, we are talking about doing what works; next time, in part 9, we will talk about what to do when it doesn’t work.

We all have things that we do over and over and over again without thinking about it. Usually, that’s because they are things that work for us, things that make our lives simpler. Things like the way we brush our teeth or put on our clothes. Somewhere along the way, we develop a pattern or method that accomplishes what we want to accomplish in a way that works well for us, so we keep doing it. That’s the idea we are discussing today – finding what works and then doing it.

At one point early in my school leadership, I came across what appeared to be a great idea. I was attending a professional development conference, and one of the breakout sessions was a presentation by a head of school in another school, in which he explained a program they had implemented that was transformative for students. It was a program that created a way for students to experiment with job-shadowing and internship experiences and to participate in learning experiences that would not be a typical part of an academic education.

After listening to this presentation, I believed it had great potential for my school. So, I went home from the conference and spent the next few months thinking, organizing my thoughts, and crafting a plan to implement a similar program. I talked with teachers and other school administrators I knew, created rough drafts, conducted surveys, and, in the end, rolled out a version of this learning and shadowing experience that would fit my school and my students. It included out-of-the-box learning experiences for students (like how to do basic home maintenance, an introduction to cooking, digital portrait photography, careers in animal science, and so on.), as well as opportunities that had been arranged for upperclassmen to job shadow in career fields related to the majors they were intending to pursue in college. And it was a success! Students loved it, parents loved it, and it became an annual component of their learning experience.

Then, in my calling, God moved me to a different school in a different part of the country.  As soon as I arrived, I knew that this had been such an excellent program experience that I immediately began planning how to implement it in this new place.  It was a different place with a different culture and different opportunities, but the idea was still just as valuable. I didn’t have to reinvent the wheel because I had already figured out something that worked.  I just had to evaluate and modify something that already worked, to fit it into a new environment and context.  And again, it was a success.

The point is that, in the world of my particular career field, I had found something that worked. I saw something that looked like it would work. I created a plan for implementation and carried it out, and it really worked! It worked so well, in fact, that I implemented the same program in the next two schools where I led, in a way that applied to each of those school settings. Because it worked so well, I continued to do it.

That lesson applies to your leadership as well. Over time and with experience, you often learn or discover ideas, methods, tools, and programs that work well. It is important for you to be aware enough that you see these things and then take the intentional initiative to do something that works. The first time around, there will be a larger learning curve as you explore and try things. Jim Collins, author of the books “Good to Great” and Great by Choice,” talks about firing bullets, then cannonballs. By that, he means that first, you fire test shots at the target by trying out ideas and getting feedback, and then when you have found the bullseye, you can focus your efforts and expend your energy. Using that process, you can hone in on what will work, and then you can do it and do it well.

Here’s the big idea:  wherever you are, put in the effort to identify what works. That may be something new that you have not been doing; it may be something that you have already been doing; or it may be something you have been doing that just needs to be modified. Regardless, figure out what works, start doing it, and keep doing it.

In the schools where I led, I would oversee the curriculum review process, which was necessary to ensure that the academic program was representing excellence, maintaining relevancy, meeting needs, and continuously improving. In that process, I was always asking people to think about what we were not doing that we needed to do, what we were doing that we no longer needed to do, and what we were doing that we could keep but needed to modify. Essentially, we were always trying to pay attention to what was working and what was not, and then making sure that we did what worked. That’s what you need to do. Find what works and do it . . . until it doesn’t, but that’s the topic for next time.

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Complementary Contradictions (part 8): Do What Works

Sometimes, you get conflicting words of advice, one which is good and the other which is not, and it requires discernment to determine which is the right advice to follow. But often, these seeming contradictions are, in reality, complementary and, when used appropriately and in the right way, can work together to help you make better decisions. In this series of articles and podcast episodes, we are looking at different leadership ideas or principles that seem to contradict, are opposite sides of a coin, or at least differ from each other and pairing them up to see how they actually complement each other to make you a better leader. This week, in part 8, we are talking about doing what works, and next week, in part 9, we will talk about what to do when it doesn’t work.

It’s been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly but expecting different results. Sometimes, it seems this definition characterizes companies and organizations because they will continue to do something even though it doesn’t work. Perhaps it is because it is tradition, or because it takes too much work to change, or even because the leadership doesn’t recognize that it doesn’t work, so they keep doing it.

Motorola is a great example of this. In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, they were a leader in the analog phone business. They were doing what worked at the time, but then something happened: digital technology was developed for cell phones, which completely changed the cell phone service industry. Analog phone technology would no longer be the technology that would drive cell phone production and use, but Motorola continued to invest in its analog technology and, as a result, ceased to be relevant in the cell phone business. They were no longer doing what worked but continued to do it anyway.

Effectiveness depends on discovering what works and doing it. Often, it is at a micro-level within an organization that people figure this out. Schein, in Organizational Culture and Leadership (2010), describes it like this: “The general phenomenon of adapting the formal work process to the local situation and then normalizing the new process by teaching it to newcomers has been called ‘practical drift’ and is an important characteristic of all operator subcultures. It is the basic reason why sociologists who study how work is actually done in organizations always find sufficient variations from the formally designated procedures to talk of the ‘informal organization’ and to point out that without such innovative behavior on the part of the employees, the organization might not be as effective”. In simple words, the people who are on the ground floor tend to figure out how to adjust formal processes and procedures in a way that works best, and they then teach it to new employees, which helps the organization to function better. In spite of what may be the written procedures, they do what works. An effective leader pays attention to this, maintains awareness and understanding of what is working and what is not, and will then use that understanding to help shape decisions.

Then, if it is working, keep doing it (as the old saying states, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”). This truth was evident in the research conducted by Collins & Hansen and published in Great by Choice (2011). They defined a SMaC (Specific, Methodical, and Consistent) recipe as “a set of durable operating practices that create a replicable and consistent success formula,” and then noted that highly successful companies “adhered to their recipes with fanatic discipline to a far greater degree than the comparisons, and . . . they carefully amended their recipes with empirical creativity and productive paranoia.” However, they also found that these companies “changed their recipes less than their comparisons.” Their research revealed that companies that were doing things well and were thriving tended to continue doing what was working without great change. They were not subject to changing with the wind, panic, or the latest fad but held to the practices that they knew worked.

This has been one of my personal frustrations in the world of education. In my years as a teacher and school administrator, it seems like I have seen countless new programs and initiatives established, often to have another new one rolled out the following year. They have always been communicated as necessary for effective education, but many times, it has reminded me of “stage one economics” – there appears to be an immediate short-term gain or value, but in the long term, it is more detrimental than it is beneficial. But before that becomes apparent, the world of education has moved on to a new program.

As leaders, we need to be intentional about doing what works (which is generally evident in the results). We need not be afraid of allowing the people who would know best to have input, so we need to give people a voice in the process. This does not mean we don’t periodically assess and analyze, because we do need to make sure it still works, and we can often make minor tweaks that bring improvement. Don’t change for the sake of change when what you have is working, but if what you have is not working, don’t keep doing it. Do what works. And keep doing it.

Collins, J., & Hansen, M. T. (2011). Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck – Why Some Thrive Despite Them All. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers.

Schein, E. H. (2010). Organizational Culture and Leadership (4th Edition ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

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Podcast Episode 34 (part 7): When A Plan Falls Apart

This week’s episode builds on Monday’s article, part seven in the series titled “Complementary Contradictions.” Here is the transcript of the podcast.

Sometimes, you get conflicting words of advice, one which is good and the other which is not, and it requires discernment to determine which is the right advice to follow. But often, these seeming contradictions are, in reality, complementary and, when used appropriately and in the right way, can work together to help you make better decisions. In this series of articles and podcast episodes, we are looking at different leadership ideas or principles that seem to contradict, are opposite sides of the same coin, or at least differ from each other, and we are pairing them up to see how they actually complement each other to make you a better leader. Last week, in part 6, we talked about what happens when a plan comes together, and this week, in part 7, we talk about what happens when a plan falls apart.

In the last discussion we established the importance of having an intentional and methodical process for assessing where you are, determining where you need to be, and drawing the map that shows how you will get there. The map is your plan, and therefore it is crucial for getting from here to there without getting lost. If you do it well, you will experience the joy of arriving at the destination that you have been eagerly anticipating. And it happened because a plan came together. However, sometimes (to continue the road trip map analogy), the car breaks down, there is road construction and detours, or the rest stop is closed. Everything you planned out starts to fall apart, and you have to figure out what to do. You may have had the best of intentions, but it just doesn’t work out the way you wanted it to.

I experienced a great example of this during a Christmas season, when I attempted to get my wife a special present. For some time, she had wanted a record player so that she could get some old jazz records to listen to. There was one particular color and style of record player that I knew had drawn her attention, and when I went to the store to purchase it, to surprise her with it as a Christmas gift, the only one left was the display model, and that’s when the adventure started.

Because it was the display model, the power cord – a DC adapter – had been misplaced, and the store manager could not find it. I agreed to purchase it at a discounted price and then planned to go to Radio Shack and find a cord. However, much to my dismay, Radio Shack did not have a power cord that would work. Desperate, I emailed the manufacturer to order a replacement cord, but by this time, I accepted the realization that it would not arrive by Christmas, and so I was forced to wrap a gift that she wouldn’t be able to use when she opened it.

So, of course, when she opened it, I immediately had to explain what happened. The cord arrived only a few days later, and without telling her it had arrived, I plugged in the record player and put on a record to surprise her with the sound. But then, again to my dismay, I could hear no sound coming out of the speakers!   I opened up the record player, and everything inside seemed to be properly connected and in working order, so I put it back together. Then I discovered the source of the problem – the arm had been bent and broken right at the base and then bent back to appear as if nothing had happened. Finally, I accepted the inevitable, that the record player was a bust, and I would need to buy another one. My wonderful plan had fallen apart. 

 Sometimes, that happens in leadership (and in life). You have great plans and good intentions, but then everything falls apart, and nothing works the way that you had planned. You find yourself in a quandary, and in spite of all the work you put into preparing your next steps, starting your big change initiative, or creating your strategic plan, you feel like you need to go back to the drawing board or give up altogether. Much like my attempt to make this meaningful purchase for my wife, you ended up running into unexpected challenges or obstacles that threw off your plans and forced you to have to rethink it, redo it, or let it go.

What matters after that is how you respond, and I think that you probably have five options.

  • The first option is that you can try to fix it. Sometimes that’s possible, with minimal damage or loss, but it’s also just as likely that you’ve gotten to a point that is beyond fixing.

  • Your next three choices are to blame yourself and beat yourself up; blame someone else, react in anger, and take it out on others; or put on an act and pretend like it works, even though it doesn’t. In my experience, these three seem to be the most common responses people take. The reality is, though, that none of these make things better, and in fact, they will most likely make things worse. So that leaves the final option:

  • The fifth option is to acknowledge the failure and start over.

In the end, that is most often going to be the best answer: to decide to accept reality and learn from it. Now, the best thing you can do is to do things differently, or start again, or make adjustments and corrections, or even throw it all out and move on to something else. In any event, your plans fell apart. Regardless of what happened, sometimes the best of intentions come to naught, and all you can do is accept the circumstances and move forward.

Incidentally, the following week I found a similar record player in the exact same color. I had needed to accept the fact that the first one was broken and that I needed to find a different one. When I did, I found what I was looking for, and I was finally able to give my wife the gift she had wanted. While it is important to prepare a plan, sometimes that plan falls apart. At that point, accepting the reality becomes the first step in moving forward to a new plan that will work.

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Complimentary Contradictions (part 7): When A Plan Falls Apart

Sometimes, you get conflicting words of advice, one which is good and the other which is not, and it requires discernment to determine which is the right advice to follow. But often, these seeming contradictions are, in reality, complementary and, when used appropriately and in the right way, can work together to help you make better decisions. In this series of articles and podcast episodes, we are looking at different leadership ideas or principles that seem to contradict, are opposite sides of a coin, or at least differ from each other and pairing them up to see how they actually complement each other to make you a better leader. Last week, in part 6, we talked about what happens when a plan comes together, and this week, in part 7, we talk about what happens when a plan falls apart.

I tried many different ways to lose weight, and yet, for 25 years, I remained within the same 20-pound range. I’d spent money on weight-loss programs, I’d purchased books on specific weight-loss plans, I’d followed pre-determined menus, and I’d tried various exercise regimens. Every time, I would lose weight up to a point, then it would stop. Most of the time that was because I couldn’t maintain the routine or the plan, yet that didn’t stop me from trying to do it again anyway. I kept trying, but it kept not working.

Then something seemed to change. Perhaps it was a different plan that was more lifestyle-based, perhaps it was motivation, perhaps it was simply a personal choice, but I did something different, and it worked. Over a period of several months, I lost 50 pounds and increased my overall health, and over the next several months after that, I maintained the weight loss. What was different? Probably several things: I made use of an app on my phone to help me maintain awareness of what I was eating, I incorporated moderate exercise, I weighed myself daily (again, to help me stay aware), I ate a piece of chocolate every evening. I’d done variations on these in the past, but this time, they were done in moderation and in combination, rather than with radical, significant change. I continued to eat what I enjoyed but modified and in moderation (smaller portions, more fresh foods, still with lots of flavor); I exercised consistently but moderately (not trying to run a triathlon); I ate something sweet every day, but not in excess; and I maintained awareness every day. The other thing I did was an idea that came from my children: I set two mason jars next to each other where my family could see them, filled one with the number of marbles that equaled the number of pounds I wanted to lose, and each week would move marbles from one jar to the other (or back again) based on what I had lost (or not) until the original jar of marbles was empty, and the empty jar was full. The end result was that I successfully reached my goal weight. I did something different, and it worked. (And I learned some lessons on leadership along the way.)

I’ve experienced the same process numerous times in organizations. Several times, I’ve found myself doing the same thing over and over again even though it hasn’t worked before, and I needed someone or something to shock me into the realization that I needed to do something different. Other times, I’ve entered into a new organization and discovered frustrations over things that were not working, but when I confronted the issues, I was met with resistance because of tradition or history. It took me approaching the issue with an outside perspective to come up with a different way of doing things that worked much better. In one organization, it almost became my unofficial motto to say, “Then we’ll try something different,” as I worked to resurrect a struggling school. In fact, it was in that environment that I recognized the importance of thinking differently, thinking outside the box, and being willing to question how things were done and explore doing them in different ways.

Jim Collins, in Great by Choice (2011), explains the importance of trying different things as part of the process of identifying what works. From his research, he identified several key practices that were necessary for maintaining long-term success. One of those was something he called “empirical creativity,” which he described as “relying upon direct observation, conducting practical experiments, and/or engaging directly with evidence rather than relying upon opinion, whim, conventional wisdom, authority, or untested ideas.” (p. 26) This concept is explained with the illustration of first firing bullets, then cannonballs; or, testing ideas in a low-risk and low-cost manner, using that information to empirically validate what will actually work, and then concentrating resources on those ideas that have been validated. The idea is, very simply – try different things until you find what works, then put your efforts into that.

One of the challenges for a leader is realizing the need to do something different. Sometimes tradition gets in the way – “We’ve always done it that way.” Sometimes we get stuck in routine and don’t think about doing something different. Sometimes, we simply don’t see that we need to do something different because we think that it will still work if we find what needs to be fixed. Then, we keep doing what we have been doing, it keeps not working, and we keep getting frustrated. Black and Gregersen talk about this in their book, Leading Strategic Change (2003), when they say, “the need for change is born of past success – of doing the right thing and doing it well . . . but then something happens: The environment shifts, and the right thing becomes the wrong thing” (p. 11). They go on to describe the process of change as something that happens in four stages (p. 13):

  • Stage 1: Do the right thing and do it well
  • Stage 2: Discover that the right thing is now the wrong thing
  • Stage 3: Do the new right thing, but do it poorly at first
  • Stage 4: Eventually do the new right thing well

The bottom line is that, regardless of the work you have done in preparing a plan, it sometimes (often?) doesn’t work the way you expected it to work, and “the best-laid plans of mice and men” seem to fall apart. Perhaps that’s where you find yourself right now. Maybe you are in a circumstance or environment where what you are doing is not working. The right thing is now the wrong thing (or perhaps it was never the right thing). Maybe it never has worked in the past (like my previous weight loss attempts), maybe it worked at one time but not any longer. Regardless, whatever plan you had seems to have fallen apart and it’s not working; and when it doesn’t work, it’s time to do something different. 

Black, J. S., & Gregersen, H. B. (2003). Leading Strategic Change: Breaking Through the Brain Barrier. Prentice-Hall: New York, NY.

Collins, J., & Hansen, M. T. (2011). Great by Choice:  Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck – Why Some Thrive Despite Them All. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers.

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Podcast Episode 33 (part 6): When A Plan Comes Together

This week’s episode builds on Monday’s article, part six in the series titled “Complementary Contradictions.” Here is the transcript of the podcast.

Sometimes, you get conflicting words of advice, one which is good and the other which is not, and it requires discernment to determine which is the right advice to follow. But often, these seeming contradictions are, in reality, complementary and, when used appropriately and in the right way, can work together to help you make better decisions. In this series of articles and podcast episodes, we are looking at different leadership ideas or principles that seem to contradict, are opposite sides of a coin, or at least differ from each other, and we are pairing them up to see how they actually complement each other to make you a better leader. This week, in part 6, we talk about what happens when a plan comes together, and next week, in part 7, we talk about what happens when a plan falls apart.

In the last two weeks, we talked about zooming out and zooming in, in order to first see the big picture and then to take care of the details piece by piece. You have heard the saying, “You can’t see the forest for the trees,” and that was our primary metaphor for these contradictory, complementary ideas; contradictory in that you cannot do both things at the same time – see the forest AND see the trees – and complimentary in that you have to go back and forth – look at the forest, then at the trees, and back to the forest – repeatedly in order to successfully navigate where you are going and what you are doing. That pair of principles is a great prerequisite to the next pair of principles, which is all about having a plan and managing the detours.

In my experience as a school administrator, I was committed to cultivating an environment that challenged students to think well and to think biblically. That involved constantly seeking out the best ways to do that, including trying to identify the methods that would help me do that most effectively and efficiently. For example, I took typing on a physical typewriter my senior year of high school to prepare for typing papers in college. By the time I became a teacher, I was learning to type on a computer with a word-processing application. By the time I became an administrator, students were learning word processing applications in 9th grade, and it wasn’t long until they became junior high courses instead. And now, it has reached the point where students are learning to type and code algorithms in kindergarten and lower elementary. 

With that understanding of the progression of technology as the background, I reached a point in my leadership experience when I came to believe that in order to teach students with excellence, it was important for every student to have a device in their hands in the classroom, either a laptop or a tablet. So, I began to research. I looked up studies and data on the use of devices and their impact on learning. I visited other schools that were already considered “1-to-1,” meaning one electronic device for every student. I researched specific devices and apps, with the pros and cons of each. With the help of the IT director, I explored the hardware (network speed and strength, Wi-Fi devices, charging stations, etc.) and software (Learning Management System, programs, and apps). I prepared a pilot test run with a teacher and a classroom. And finally, I prepared for the rollout of this next step in how we were educating our students to prepare them for college and career. 

Essentially, I had created a plan that resulted in every student having a tablet in their hands when they came to school in the morning. It was the result of a lot of things – research, preparation, identification of needs and potential solutions, getting feedback and listening, establishing a process, and eventually implementing it. It was thrilling on that first day of school of a new school year when it was now normal for a student to walk into a class, take out an electronic device, open the app and take a quick pre-assessment to give the teacher immediate feedback before the lesson, or start collaborating on a research project with other students, or begin typing a paper, or watch a supplementary video to the lesson to improve understanding. This was all the result of a plan to do something new, but to do it intentionally and well.

That’s what it looks like for you when you put a plan together first, before jumping into a new change. There are important steps for you to follow and a strategic plan to prepare that are necessary in order to set you up for success. Maybe there is something new you need to do that you haven’t been doing. Maybe there’s something you have been doing that hasn’t been working. Maybe there’s something you have been doing that has been marginally working but needs to be better. Before that happens, and so that you can implement and navigate well, you need to create the plan.

What does that plan look like? It looks like a step-by-step process of analyzing, evaluating, identifying, defining, and implementing a plan for future direction and growth, otherwise known as a strategic plan. I would encourage you to read the article that matches this podcast, where I list eight specific steps in the planning process that I believe are essential. Understand that my steps are not necessarily the only way to do it, but it’s a starting point for you. You may find other strategic planning methods, or you may modify the steps I have given to match you, but regardless, you need a plan. 

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What matters for you is that you have an intentional and methodical process for assessing where you are, determining where you need to be, and drawing the map that shows how you will get there. The map is your plan, and therefore it is crucial for getting from here to there without getting lost. If you do it well, you will experience the joy of arriving at the destination that you have been eagerly anticipating. And it happened because a plan came together.

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