Years ago, I was blessed to be in a position to hold seminars with groups of educators designed to discuss and build leadership skills both informally and formally, internally – for the individual and externally for the school. As we discussed leadership skills and qualities, we would talk about new tools being put in our toolboxes as leaders. This year in Teach & Serve, I have decided to talk about many of those tools.
PRACTICALITY
It is May and teachers all over are wondering where the time went, are looking at the tatters of plans they have for their years and are trying to figure out how to get everything done they wanted to get done while making it to that finish line of the end of the year. Likewise, administrators are feeling similar pressures, similar feelings, similar regrets.
This is a perfect time to grab the tool of practicality out of the toolbox.
There are only so many hours in the day, days in the week and weeks in this month. One must be practical about what can be accomplished.
Though the need for practicality might be more acutely felt in May, in reality, leaders who employ practicality as one of their tools tend to be more successful than those who do not.
No matter what a leader wants for the school and no matter how compelling that vision may be, faculties and staffs only have so much bandwidth for what they can do. Leaders who balance grand plans and ideas with practical approaches will not burn out their teachers. Rather, they will illustrate that balance and practical approaches are good ways to proceed.
Being practical is not always a bad thing.