Stop Compromising With Your Goal

I believe that compromise is not about listening and learning from others, it’s about giving in on what you truly desire. 

It’s skipping the run because it’s too cold. It’s having one more cookie because they are amazing. It’s sleeping in when you need an early start to get that report finished. 

It’s also letting parents pick up their kids late daily without penalty. It’s not saying something when an employee comes in late. It’s picking up the slack for others who don’t finish the job on time. 

It’s not being prepared for the team meeting. It’s creating double standards for employees and separate standards for administration. It’s making a commitment without following through. It’s failing to address obvious problems. It’s sending surveys but not using the information to create change. It’s talking about, gossiping about employees. It’s accepting inferior performance and not fully orienting and training employees.

Should I go on or do you get the point?  

Compromise against what you truly desire can spread through a school or organization like a virus. 

Compromise can lead to poor culture, decrease in productivity and student achievement, and decrease in customer satisfaction and employee retention.

Compromise is real and costly. It infects and degrades everything and everywhere. 

It burrows in fast and deep and hunkers down for the long haul. It can kill initiatives and be resistant to any effort to root it out. 

When you fail to address these issues, which may seem like small cracks now, but will continue to weaken the foundation of the organization or team you lead. 

When you avoid or fail to act on an issue or problem, you are dealing with a leadership blockage. The more you are blocked, the slower your progress towards the goals. 

To begin rooting out the compromise in your organization and leadership here are three steps you can take over the next three days:

1. Create a Clear Vision: When you create a clear picture for all aspects of the school, classroom or team you lead, and the type of culture it will require, then you will be able to identify where you are compromising with the results you desire.

Take 30 minutes and begin writing out what it would look like if ALL areas of your school or organization were functioning at its highest levels. What would students and staff feel and experience? How would parents feel when they drop off their child or visit the school? What would your day look like? How would you spend your time and with who?

2. Identify the Current Reality (two parts): This is the job of the leader.  

Part 1: Take our 10 Indicators of a High Performing School Assessment (click here). In less than ten minutes you’ll have a report card of your school based on the 10 Indicators we believe, based on 20 years of research, that the highest performing schools demonstrate. After you take it, share the link with your team for more perspectives. Have everyone print their results and bring it to the next meeting for discussion. 

Part 2: Take a slow walk around the school one day this week to identify and record every sighting of compromise you see.

Basically, where your vision from step one does not match reality. 

Look for behavior issues, inappropriate language, customer service deficiencies, safety issues, wasteful practices and sanitation problems. Bring a fresh notepad. You’re going to need it.

3. When you have finished, set aside another 30 undisturbed minutes to identify compromise in your leadership behavior. Basically ask yourself, what role do I have in this problem?

Telltale signs to look for are:

• Procrastination. Is there a pattern you can identify, such as not visiting classrooms, putting off difficult conversations, making parent calls or starting projects?
• Leadership blockages, such as avoiding thorough reviews of your data, avoiding difficult conversations or making necessary but unpopular decisions. Leadership blockages stall progress through avoidance behavior. 
• A bread crumb trail of failed projects, programs, procedure and change initiatives. If so, compromise is alive and well, and breeding into your school. Remember, results leave clues. 

When you are finished, of the compromising behaviors you just identified, which one is the most crucial for you to address? Share that information with your coach, mentor, mastermind group, your team. Anyone that will hold you accountable moving forward. 

At the staff meeting this week, clearly and coherently communicate your vision and  compromise sightings to employees. Not in a negative tone. Just let them know that you have realized that you have not communicated to the highest level. You have let some things go. But if we want to be the best for our students, we need to make some changes. Decide on a plan to remedy the compromise and put a team member in charge of each. 

You can choose to lead to the best of your ability or you can choose to do it at a level of Something less. To do your best is to lead with NO COMPROMISE. Anything less is a compromise. 

Raising your awareness,

Dr. Tom

P.S. If you don't have a coach, a mentor or accountability partner you do now. Just ask. I believe in you. I believe in your dream. Simply email me [email protected]