When you withhold your recognition of another person's contribution to the team's success, you are not just treating people unfairly, but you are depriving people of the emotional payoff that comes with success. 

And they resent you for it. 

One example of this was when a colleague of mine was excited about a grant he received to build an outdoor garden to help the "at-risk" youth he served to build emotional resilience and life skills. 

He told me that his principal came to him very excited and wanted to know all about the grant and the plans. 

Then, she went to the Superintendent meeting and took all of the credit, receiving accolades in the newspaper. My buddy, not a word was written about him or the students. 

He told me that he would never trust the principal and thought about shutting the project down. 

The principal's actions not only impacted his behavior, but now the students would suffer. 

Recognition is all about closure. 

When you fail to recognize someone, you are ...

Remember, silent gratitude isn’t good to anyone.--

I remember my first few weeks as an Exceptional Children's teacher. I was helping in the car pick up line when this third grade student came to me and said, "I think there is something wrong with our teacher. I think she is sleeping." 

I grabbed a colleague and went to the classroom. It was filled with after-school students and a woman who I had never met slumped in a chair. 

"We have to clear this room," I directed. 

I checked the pulse of the woman. There was no vitals. 

"Call 911!" I told my colleague and slowly eased her off the chair and onto the floor to begin CPR. 

She did not make it. 

As I was watching her get taken away in an ambulance my boss came over to me to thank me for my leadership. He had just gotten off the phone with the woman's husband. 

He told me, "He just kept repeating, I think I told her I loved her this morning. I know I thanked her. I think I told her."

If you are like me (a recovering career ladder...

Acadia NorthStar has been assisting public charter schools with accounting, budget management and compliance since 2001. For over a decade, Acadia's experienced staff has been exceeding their clients' expectations.

Most of you have heard of Acadia.

Many of you have a contract with Acadia. 

But what you might not know is that 365 days a year, the team at Acadia works with their clients to ensure long term, fiscal vitality. 

Here is how I know: Five years ago I was the Executive Director to a charter school board overseeing two charter schools. One of the schools was in financial hardship. It's expenditures far exceeded it's revenue (over one million a year). The school could not pay rent. The school was losing enrollment.

One day I just happened to find a folder that was labeled "unpaid invoices"on the desk of the former principal. In the folder was over $500,000 in unpaid invoices tracking back to the previous fiscal year. 

This was not a problem I, or any member of our team had ...

Unfortunately, this week when I sent out a message highlighting two of our teacher leaders who were special guests on our Empowered Educators webinar; I incorrectly typed the name of one of our teacher leaders, Sarah Douglas. 

Sarah is one of the most valued teacher leaders at East Wake Academy.

My deepest apologies Sarah.

When Sarah let me know about my mistake I remembered what Dale Carnegie most famously wrote in his best selling book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. 

“Remember that a person’s name is to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language”. 

When I first heard this phrase, I felt it was one of the most valuable pieces of advice I was given. Being an educator for over 20 years and currently a consultant, I have been fortunate enough to meet tens of thousands of people. It is critical that I work to make people feel safe and appreciated. 

With my personality type, according to DISC Leadership Profile, being more of a task oriented "let's ...

Hello my friend, 

My grandmother recently turned 90 years old.

She was and still is such an integral part of my life. She practically raised me when my single Mom would work long hours when I was a child. 

In fact, I was telling my son Matthew that every summer, from five to eleven years old, I would fly down to Florida on my own and spend a month with my grandparents. I told them a story about this giant banana tree that every year I would get my picture taken in front of. I shared stories about swimming and fishing in the lake outback. And how my Grandfather loved to sit on the swing every night and watch the sunset. 

We would finish our summers by driving across the country with their pop-up camper. I got to see the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone National Park, Mount Rushmore and the Baseball Hall of Fame all before I was ten years old. 

Maybe this is why "Living like a tourist" is one of my five goals in life. 

I had not seen her for over a year due to COVID-19, but after missing ...

I had just left the hospital after my second EKG in two years as a middle school director. It wasn't a heart attack according to the doctor, just a bad combination of high stress, no sleep and dehydration. 

I reached out to my mentor, who too was a former principal, to let him know I was ok and just needed to take a few days off.

 I’ll never forget his response. 

“Tom, what is it do you do all day?”  

I had great answers, “Well I answer emails to teachers and parents, I do walk throughs, I handle discipline, I put out fires. You know, my job!”

Please Note: The worse excuse is a good excuse. 

He replied, “And which of those activities actually improving your school?” 

“Well none,” I said. “But you don’t understand, I have to do them! Otherwise…”

He answered, “The only thing you have to do as the leader of this organization is master three things.”

Do It! These are the items that only you can and should do as the leader. Basically, it is in your gift zone, and the organization g...

Does the school you lead, teach at or govern have goals?

I mean written down goals that are measured and evaluated each quarter, six months or a year to demonstrate the school’s progress towards its ultimate vision?

No one at the end of the school year says, wow, we crushed that financial audit or performance framework. 

Don’t get me wrong, they are important aspects of your school - but they don’t inspire and do not result in significance. 

If you don’t have written down, inspiring and celebrated goals, it is alright. You are not alone. 

However, I think baseball great Yogi Berra was trying to tell us something when he said, "You've got to be careful when you don't know where you are going, you might not get there."

Now, one of the main problems in setting goals for schools is the principal or team writes a goal that does not lead to inspiration for all involved.

They set a goal that they know is attainable and it does not take any new ideas or innovation to achieve. 

They don...