Leadership-Everyday

As a school superintendent, I am often called upon to speak with little notice, so I have to always be prepared. Other times, I get to plan a message. This one has been planned for months. This year, our District-wide theme is The Power of Moments, inspired by the book, The Power of Moments by Heath and Heath. Great message and it really resonated. Earlier in the summer, I shared this theme with my principals and managers. I shared the message by way of my summer vacation and all moments that were both created and simply occurred.   Some were years in the making, and others appeared on the spot. For example, my wife and took a Disney Cruise from Port Canaveral because we really wanted to visit Disney's private island and snorkel in the lagoon. It's been on our bucket list for nearly 20 years. We did it and it was great! Other powerful moments just happen. During our summer road trip, we stopped in Capitol Reef National Park and hiked out to Hickman Bridge, a natural arch of s...

  Clarity!  Most of the conflict in our lives and work is about the lack of clarity.  Too many times in my life, I did not understand the expectation, or I was not clear in my communication to another about what I expected.  Sometimes, the issue is benign like getting the wrong kind of bread at the store on the way home. Other times, it can be catastrophic, even deadly. Douglas Fouts retells the World War II story of Exercise Tiger.  A preparatory simulation for D day later that year. (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/deadly-consequences-poor-communication-douglas-fouts/) "On the morning of April 27th, 1944, the plan was to launch this practice assault at 7:30am in the morning, however, one of the ships that was going to be used for the was experiencing operational issues that required repairs. The decision was made by the generals to postpone the practice run an hour… but the communication of this decision broke down and therefore the majority of watercrafts...