I believe between every stimulus and its response, every piece of information and our decision, there is space. A brief pause. 

It is brief, but always enough time and room for our philosophy or interpretation to be inserted. 

Within that space creates choice.

• Will we use it to think?
• Will we use it to examine?
• Will we use it to wait for more information?
• Will we use it to insert our own story, give into first impressions, harmful instincts, and old patterns?

 The pause is everything.

The pause before…

…jumping to conclusions.

…prejudging.

…assuming the worst.

…rushing to solve your child’s problems for them.

…forcing a problem into some kind of policy

…assigning blame

…taking offense

…turning away in fear

As a younger leader I struggled with my emotions. I would not say I am cured but 15 years of evaluative experience, yoga, better exercise and self care. Learning to create better relationship...

I believe that not communicating is still communication.

Here is what I mean. 

I was recently talking to a teacher who left her school mid-year. I asked if the pay was a factor? They shared that, “It’s was not about the money. It was just that no matter what I did, how long I had been there, I just never heard anything positive. If I make a mistake however, I heard about it immediately, but if I did my job the silence was overwhelming.”

Why is feeling appreciated so important in a work setting?

Because each of us wants to know that what we are doing matters.

Without a sense of being valued by supervisors and colleagues, workers start to feel like a machine or a commodity. 

Steven Covey wrote, “Next to physical survival, the greatest need of a human being is psychological survival, to be understood, to be affirmed, to be validated, to be appreciated.”

 Here are some signs your employees do not feel appreciated: 

• Workers appear...

Showing gratitude is a win-win.  Harvard research shows that just thinking thoughts of gratitude makes you measurably happier, regardless of whether or not you act on them.  Setting time to think or write thoughts to yourself about the gratitude you feel has positive effects on your general outlook in your life, and also on the relationships you have.  So if you go out and share your thoughts, notes, letters, or posts about the gratitude you feel, then that feeling becomes contagious and everyone wins.

I am truly grateful for so many things that I am fortunate to have in my life - my family, my friends, and my dog to name a few - and there are so many ways to show them my appreciation.  But how do we show that gratitude professionally?  I know how to show my wife and my kids and my parents appreciation, what is the right way to show that to people we work with?

This question popped into my mind while reading a book recently- How to Win Friends and Influence...

A mentor once asked me, "Tom, are you playing chess or checkers with your team?"

Clearly he was challenging me to think about my strategy to grow my team and the business. I wasn't really sure of his metaphor so I started researching and thinking about his question. What are the actual the differences between the two board games?  To someone with a painstakingly low SAT score like myself, the answer is simple: Chess is  simply “harder.”  It requires more knowledge, thought and strategy (please don’t tell that to any professional checkers players). Checkers has fewer rules and is so easy to explain. When it comes down to it, the only identical trait they share is the size of the playing board.

Most people will last anywhere between three hours and three weeks when it comes to implementing new behaviors in their lives. Most quit because they do not see the results. Growth happens on the inside before it will show on the outside. Basically, just because you do not see it, doesn’t mean it is not working. 

Becoming a stronger, more effective leader takes time. John Maxwell’s third law of leadership from his 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, the Law of Process, states that leadership evolves daily, not in a day.

As a leadership coach, speaker and trainer, I am privileged to interact with hundreds of organizational leaders each year. There are many who believe that because they attend a conference, read a book, or participate in one of our leadership calls that they are now a leader.

Successful leaders are indeed learners but the learning process is ongoing - a result of self-discipline and perseverance. As said by John Maxwell, “Microwave leaders do...

Hello {{first_name}},

I know you get WAY TOO MANY emails each day. I know because I have been in your shoes the last two years being the interim principal for six different schools. Your list of emails is like....

SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, parent complaint, teacher need, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM....

If you are looking for help with how to manage your emails I added a lesson I did years ago on how to STEP READING YOUR EMAILS (link at the end). 

I appreciate you being on our School Leadership Community list and I hope that anything we send you find valuable and can help you today or tomorrow. 

Knowing you get SO MANY Emails I wanted you to know that every day of the week you can go to any of our Social Media pages and get quality resources to improve all aspects of your school and life. 

Bookmark this resource page and subscribe to the social media page that best meets your needs. We are about to hit our 200th Podcast Episode and have over 100,000 downloads. 

Every day I...

Just because the goal to raise student achievement is clear in your head, does not mean it’s clear to your team.

Here are three questions your instructional leadership team and teachers must know the answer to.

Download a copy of my book and read chapter two, Quality of Student Work for more resources

https://www.leaders-building-leaders.com/10Indicators

Don’t BE SELFISH as a leader….

Lead your team through this easy accountability strategy and raise their performance and build a more cohesive team.

Worried about keeping your top talent?

Desire to build on the talent you have?

This research article was shared with me from a mentor on why organization’s are losing their top talent.

In this quick lesson I share multiple solutions for any leader to begin building their High Performance Culture.

Click Here to Download the Article

Raising Your Awareness,

Dr. Tom

I believe that problems shape our leadership soul.

Solving them is what we are paid for as school leaders.

However, if you desire to solve the root cause of the problem, you need to implement this strategy first.