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Recently a school leader said to me, "Tom, it can be lonely at the top." As much as I wanted to affirm his observation, as I had spent hundreds of hours by myself, solving problems thinking the same thing.
But as his coach and consultant I could NOT affirm this belief.
I said, "Well, I believe, if you are feeling lonely, you are not doing it correctly."
John Maxwell’s Law of Significance states, one is too small of a number to achieve greatness.
When I was a Director of a year-round charter middle school I found myself spending countless hours working in a silo feeling more resentment rather than inspiration or strategic.
One particular initiative that I recall working completely alone on was when I had a goal to eliminate homogenous class roster grouping from our science and social studies classes. I spent over ten hours over the summer break rearranging 200 student data cards that were laid out across multiple tables. Not the best use of my time and not the best strategy but I completed the task feeling accomplished.
When the staff returned I was excited to share the news that our lower performing students would have a more diverse experience this year. What I got back wasn’t joy. It was a list of reasons and why these rosters, that I spent a large percentage of my time and energy developing, would not work.
We weren’t four hours into the new school year and negative emotions were already eroding the new year goals!
I was beyond frustrated with them for not acknowledging the time, effort and reason behind this work. If I would have only known that the problem didn’t lie in the overall outcome. The problem was I did not ask for help.
I did not ask for the team to provide multiple perspectives and solutions to HOW to meet and reach the overall goal. To bring several alternatives to the full staff to approve; creating buy-in from the ground up.
It wasn’t that the staff was against the initiative; they didn’t play a part in the process. Resulting in a lack of trust.
As a leader it is difficult to find common ground with others when the only person you’re focused on is yourself.
Until you empower your people, they are only spectators. By empowering your team they can produce, achieve, and succeed at greater levels. Leadership expert Liz Wiseman shared, It isn’t how intelligent your team members are: It is how much of that intelligence you can draw out and put to use.
That is why I am hoping you will join me this Saturday for a free webinar as I am going to share with you the Steps to Building a Cohesive Team. These tried and true steps are what I have used to help create better results in schools and businesses all across the country.
Register For The Free Webinar
Unless you mature in the team building area as a leader you will never grow to your full potential. Sign up today, your team will be thanking you!
Your friend,
Tom
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