Million Dollar Meetings and Minimal Results

"Meetings are indispensable when you don't want to do anything."

- John Galbraith

Meetings are looked at as a sign that work is getting done in organizations.  You likely spend a lot of time in "event" meetings where it is scheduled on your calendar as a weekly, biweekly, or monthly event.  Calculate the total salary that is tied up in these meetings.  Now look at the results of these meetings.  Does the investment in time and resources match the outcome or results?  


Sometimes the best decision a leader can make is not to meet.  Take a closer look at your meetings through the lens of the following questions:

1. Why are we having this meeting?
2. How will everyone be smarter as a result of this meeting?
3. What would happen if this meeting did not occur?
4. Is there a more effective/efficient way to gather and disseminate the information?
5. Is there an expectation that work occurs outside of these meetings?
6. How could the time set aside for "event" meetings be better utilized to accomplish organizational goals?

How did you do with your answers?  Are you utilizing your time in a way that matches your stated priorities?  Challenge yourself to rethink and revolutionize your leadership practices by asking questions about everything.  Always start with WHY... Otherwise, you will be going through the motions with little movement to show for it.  

The way we have always done it is probably not the way we need to do it today and is certainly not the way we need to do it tomorrow.

A great resource for revamping your approach to meetings in "Read This Before Our Next Meeting".  It is a quick, insightful read about the modern meeting standard.

The Secret Formula to Excellence and Expertise

"Researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: ten thousand hours."

- Malcolm Gladwell

I was rereading the book Outliers recently and came across the quote above.  There really is no easy road to expertise and excellence.  Many people give up before they can realistically see improvement.   The other scenario is that people get good enough and settle.  Good is often the enemy of great in this scenario.  This is true with piano lessons, diets, and in the workplace.  People are often looking for the secret to greatness.  The secret all starts with your personal passion.  Once you understand that ingredient...the rest of the formula is as follows:

Your Passion + Deliberate Practice + A Strong Starting Five = Greatness

Understanding the formula is not difficult.  Putting the formula into practice is what ultimately separates good from great.

Excellence is Never an Accident

"Excellence is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction, skillful execution and the vision to see obstacles as opportunities."

I was one of the world's biggest Michael Jordan fans growing up.  I even had a life size cut out of him in my classroom when I began my teaching career.  The greatest lesson I learned from following Michael Jordan's career is his pursuit of excellence.  His story is a great example of the quote above.  

Take a moment to think about someone that you feel is the best at what they do.  

Now consider the following questions:

• What does excellence look like at this person's level?
• How long has that person been practicing the skills necessary to be excellent?
• Was that person always great at what they do?
• What obstacles did they have to overcome to get where they are today?

People do not wake up as a master of their craft.  It was no accident that they became the top person in their respective field.  Thousands of hours of hard work is behind every expert in every field.  This type of deliberate practice is what separates mediocre from magnificent in every arena.  

Now consider the following questions as it relates to what you want to be excellent in:

• How are you being intentional in both your words and actions?
• What obstacles are currently keeping you from making progress?
• How can you turn those obstacles into opportunities?
• Who is in your starting five and how are they going to push you to be a better version of yourself?

Everyone has an opportunity to be excellent but it will never happen accidentally.  That journey begins today.

What If?

"Promise to yourself to live your life as a revolution and not just a process of evolution."

Anthony J. D'Angelo

There is always a great deal of debate around educational reform issues.  The rationale behind a lot of what we do in education is decades and even centuries old.  We continue to settle for evolving when much of what we do goes against what we believe.


For example:

• We believe learning can occur anytime/anywhere yet we have bells that tell us when the learning starts/stops.  
• We know that students develop at different rates yet we put all students on a 13 year track (K-12).
• We judge student/teacher/principal/school success on the ability to answer multiple choice questions yet we know it does not tell the whole story.
• We force unsuccessful students to repeat the same grade/course in largely the same way and expect different results.

We know that many of our students are entering the workforce without the requisite skills yet we still teach in many places to a standardized test.  In "Stop Stealing Dreams" Seth Godin writes that there are only two tools available to the educator.  The easy one is fear.  Fear is easy to awake, easy to maintain, but ultimately toxic.  The other tool is passion.


I have said before that "Nobody is Passionate about Bubbling in Answer Sheets".  What would happen if we began to operate from a place of passion instead of fear?  Imagine what school and ultimately the world could look like then...

Future-Proof Education

I am currently reading "Stop Stealing Dreams" by Seth Godin.  This free e book tackles the question "What is school for?" and is based on the premise that the economy has changed forever but school hasn't.  If you haven't downloaded it yet, you can find it here.


There are an abundance of points that resonate with me.  I thought I'd share my favorite quote so far below: 

"The two pillars of a future-proof education: 

# 1 Teach kids how to lead. 

# 2 Help them learn to solve interesting problems."

I couldn't agree more with those two pillars.  How do we build schools around those pillars?  That is a definitely a question to tackle in future posts.  


Download your copy and join the worldwide dialogue around "What is school for?".

5 Questions to Test Your Leadership Visibility

I believe that every person in this world has dreamed of having the power to be invisible.  It would be nice to have the power to strategically vanish (if only for a little while).  As nice as it would be…the power of invisibility does not translate well into the world of leadership.

Visibility is a key part of being an effective leader.  The visibility of a leader has been linked to overall organizational effectiveness, innovation, and to student achievement in schools.  Most people think of a single question when the notion of a leader's visibility comes up. 

• Are you a visible leader?

I always find some fault with yes/no type questions because they do not require you to justify, prove or even think much.  You can easily answer yes and still not be effective.  This is often the case when we treat essential leadership traits as check marks.  Each skill falls on a continuum with a never-ending cycle of improvement.   

Instead, consider the following five questions:

1. How would people know what you value?
2. How does your calendar reflect what you find is important?
3. Where are you the most visible?
4. Where are you the least visible?
5. Does this match your stated priorities, key initiatives, data points, etc.?

These are just a few questions to get you thinking about visibility and moving in the right direction on the continuum.  The world is in need of super leaders.  We just don't need one with powers of invisibility.  

Showing up and being visible is only the first step.  Now you have to do something!

Surviving a Leadership Undercurrent

My mother always scared me with stories of rip tides or undercurrents taking people out to sea.  I believe her purpose was to keep me safe but it was also to show me the power of something that you cannot see.  Undercurrents exist both in the ocean and in organizations of all sizes.  People who are not cognizant of the undercurrent can be taken further away from the shore without even realizing it.  Leaders who lack situational awareness can also be taken further away from the mission/vision of the organization by not understanding the signs around them.  This type of situational awareness is an essential leadership skill

It is not surprising that the concept of situational awareness has been linked to both organization effectiveness and even student achievement. The researchers at McREL identified 21 key leadership responsibilities that are significantly correlated with higher student achievement.  The leadership responsibility with the highest correlation to student achievement was situational awareness.    

Leaders must understand their staff and community members’ dispositions to the changes they are leading.  This does not mean that you have to wait until everyone is happy and on board with the change.  In truth, that moment will never occur because people naturally resist change.  The key for leaders is to tailor their practices in stakeholder accordance with disposition and changes that are occurring. 

Not every tool should be a hammer and not every problem is a nail.   Some changes are easier for people to implement while others may be in direct opposition to prevailing attitudes. Effective leaders understand how the changes they are leading will be received and understood by all stakeholders.   The most effective leaders take the understanding a step further and tailor their leadership styles to create a movement for these changes.

The following advice on undercurrents comes from Trails.com:

Undercurrents are real and you cannot always see them but you can sense and feel when they begin to take hold.  As a swimmer if you do get caught in an undercurrent, don't exhaust yourself trying to swim against it. The best method for combating undercurrent is to attempt to swim perpendicular to the direction of the undercurrent. These rip tides typically exist in patches, and if you can swim out of the patch you will be able to return to shore.

Now read the previous paragraph again and replace swimmer with leader and swim with lead.  

Does it still make sense?  This advice holds true for both leaders and swimmers.  Leaders will exhaust themselves by going directly against the undercurrent.  Think about the undercurrent during your next initiative.  Your situational awareness will be key to not only surviving but also effectively implementing a new initiative to move your organization forward.