I had a busy weekend. I had the oppor to present at VirtualV’s Blended Learning Virtual Conference (#BlendVirginia) in the morning. It was a great networking and learning experience and I’m so glad I could do it.
When I was finished, I had to fix a shelf that had fallen in our bedroom, replaced the lifts on my wife’s Jeep’s back glass, topped off the fluids in our cars, and took our trash to the remote dumpster facility.
That, for me, is a big day.
The thing is, a week ago, I could have done none of it. I was in the midst of a pretty bad multiple sclerosis flare up. I’m not going to focus on that. MS is just an obstacle to my progress, it is not a stopping point - no way.
What I do want to do is say this - what you can do at different moments depends on a lot of factors and some of those are beyond our control.
The people we serve (from students to families to staff) are the same way. Some days there are things that get in the way of doing our best. As a leader, you have to find some grade when confronting those moments with your followership. (Notice I said you confront the moment - not the person).
As a leader, you do have to confront those moments because you don’t want those to become the norm in your classroom or building; but, don’t do it at the cost of your relationship with the person who made that stumble. If you do, you’ve lost their confidence and that means there will be more stumbles, and that’s a recipe for disaster.
Know your employees, know their stories, know their struggles, celebrate their successes. It makes it easier for you to value the moment and to be the leader your people need you to be.
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