Mindset Is at the Heart of Effective Work

I was passing out my Fundamentals of Engineering course syllabus to my very first class on my very first day teaching 17 years ago...

And I heard those simple, beautiful, magical words repeated throughout the room: Thank you.

As an educator, here's what I say to all my students, colleagues, and parents from over the years: Thank you.

Each and every chance we get to engage with another human being is a profound opportunity. Educators get this opportunity and privilege built-in to the job - and it's an enormous responsibility to cultivate healthy, supportive, and effective relationships.

And most educators are doing this with one hand tied behind their back.

Over the next couple weeks, I have the honor of facilitating conversations and trainings at a couple schools in preparation for the upcoming year. I’m moved and inspired - not only by the work that I get to do as a coach and a teacher myself, but also by the impactful roles that all adults get to play in school buildings this fall.

All the back-to-school meetings and trainings at schools around the country are focused on one thing: supporting teachers to produce the best results they can in the classroom.

To produce our best results, most of us share the default perspective that focuses on our behaviors.

Of course we take this perspective! It’s our behaviors - the things we do and the things we don’t do - that produce the results in our lives at home, at work, and everywhere in between.

This is the model we follow for any new results we want.

• Want to lose weight? Change your behaviors.

• Want to sleep better? Change your bedtime routine.

• Want to find your future spouse? Get on a dating app and go on dates.

There’s nothing wrong with this model, but it’s not the most effective or long-lasting path to creating the results we’re committed to creating. Results are short-lived without an underlying change in who we know ourselves to be.

For individuals, this means changes in mindset.

We’re all playing important and valuable roles in the work we do. If we want to achieve our best results, a shift in mindset is the surest way there.

But there are two mindsets that we participate in at work: our individual mindset and our organizational mindset.

The overall mindset in a school or organization is experienced as culture. It's pretty easy to get a feel for an organization's culture - the energy of its people, the language used at the various levels, and the quality of the relationships.

By implementing changes that don’t address the underlying culture of a school or organization, initiatives and changes will have short-lived impacts.

As McKinsey and Company, a global management consulting firm, found: “failure to recognize and shift mindsets can stall the change efforts of an entire organization.”

They also found organizations that “identify and address pervasive mindsets at the outset are four times more likely to succeed in organizational-change efforts than are companies that overlook this stage.” (Quotes taken from The Outward Mindset by the Arbinger Institute.)

Wow.

To be our best, managing our personal mindset and our organizational mindset (culture) is our surest way there.

Welcome to my work.

Thank you so much for engaging with my writing. 🙏❤️

P.S. As a transformational life coach, I help people move beyond their self-imposed limitations to be their best and feel great. If you’re interested in finding out how I can support you, reach out and let’s talk. 💌

Masterful Leadership in the Classroom and in Life

I’ve worked with some very knowledgeable people over the years. Knowledge alone doesn’t make a good teacher.

I’ve worked with well-credentialed people over the years. Certifications and degrees don’t make good teachers.

After teaching for a couple years in Baltimore City Public Schools, a veteran teacher pointed out to me that good teachers know how to manage a classroom. I saw this for myself too - teachers with positive reputations among the faculty were teachers who kept their classrooms in order.

But that’s only part of it; I’ve also worked with extremely strict teachers who kept an ordered classroom, but there were many who saw these people as bad teachers.

Then there’s this need in the classroom too: actual learning.

Good teaching is leadership.

Leading the educational conversations in the classroom.

Leading the culture of a classroom.

Leading the behavior in a classroom by modeling respect, compassion, curiosity, and understanding.

Leading by creating a safe and welcoming space in the classroom.

Leading by striking a balance among instruction, guidance, and autonomy.

Leading by sharing clear expectations.

Leading by being willing to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with students AS a perpetual student themselves.

Good teachers are leaders in the classroom, and those classroom leadership skills can translate extraordinarily well into other leadership contexts.

But not all teachers are good teachers, and not all school leaders are good leaders.

I began this blog over two years ago as an exploration. I’m masterful in the classroom, yet I know there’s nothing special about me. Through training and commitment, I’ve been able to tap into something that is inherent in all of us: Leadership in all contexts of our lives.

My mission is to awaken the Master Leader in all of us - in our classrooms, in our families, in our communities, and in our commitments.

Leadership isn’t control and it isn’t about followers. Leadership is being an owner of the spirit, especially when it would be so much more convenient to be a victim to our circumstances.

We need school administrators and classroom teachers to understand the impact of their leadership and to wake up to their fullest capacity to be Master Leaders.

And the rest of us need to wake up to this as well - for ourselves, for the people we care about, and for the world.

Thanks so much for reading. 🙏❤️

P.S. As a transformational coach, I help people and organizations move beyond their self-imposed limitations to be their best and feel amazing. If you’re interested in finding out how I can support you or your organization, schedule an exploration with me. 💌

I Don’t Want to Do This!!

I don’t want to do this!

It was the first day of class one month ago - at a summer intensive engineering course for high school students taught at a university in Baltimore.

That first day of class, I was present, engaged, and at my best as a teacher. The 24 students and I had a fun and challenging first day together.

Then the day ended, I got back home, and I didn’t want to go back on Tuesday.

“I don’t want to teach this summer!!” I wanted to focus on creative endeavors in my coaching practice. I wanted to relax and have fun at home with the boys. I didn’t want to have to generate the necessary energy, compassion, curiosity, and engagement that a classroom full of students requires.

I wanted to do something else!

And the choice showed up in front of me. The same choice that shows up in front of you and everyone, day in, day out...

When our mood is low and we’re resisting something about life…

When life doesn’t match our preferences and there’s a petulant voice within saying “I don’t like this!!!”

When our marriage and relationships are uncomfortable, frustrating, and it’s clearly someone else’s fault…

It’s so easy to resign ourselves and just go about the motions. To work for the weekend. To simply put up with other people. To sell out on our vision of who we want to be and what we’ve committed ourselves to.

And we always have great reasons for it too:

I’m exhausted! I work so hard! I’m doing my best already! Can’t someone else step up this time?!

So here’s the choice always in front of us: Resignation and Cynicism OR Hope and Possibility?

Resignation and Cynicism are the easy path. Resigned about our relationships. Resigned about our jobs. Cynical about the future. Cynical about the real motives driving the leaders of the organization.

Resigned and Cynical are ordinary, default ways of being for jaded adults carrying baggage collected over the years. We're not seeing with clear eyes - we're seeing through filters designed by our past experiences that limit what's possible in the present and future.

So much more is possible.

Thriving relationships at home and at work. Passion and enjoyment in the things that matter to us. More of life mattering to us!

As a transformational coach, it wouldn’t have ANY integrity for me to resign myself to surviving the four weeks with these students. So I made my choice that first afternoon of class...

I chose hope and possibility.

First, I acknowledged the default. I said to my wife, in the voice of a petulant 7-year-old, “I don’t wanna!!!”

Second, I set my intentions for how I would show up the next 4 weeks. I'm committed to engaging compassionately with each student as if each class period was the most important conversation I could be in.

Third, I showed up that way. I put aside my resistance, my reluctance, and my reactions, and I kept stepping back into “the person in front of me is the most important conversation I could be in.”

The 4 weeks went by in a blur! AND, I showed up 100% each day. When my energy dropped and resignation started to slip in, I dealt with it like a Pro and stepped back into possibility.

I gave the kids and the course everything I had, and I'm extremely proud and grateful for it. Sure, I could've survived it just fine, but that's not authentic for me or ANY of us. We are all meant for something more than that, and the world and its people are waiting for us.

What would become possible for you and the people you care about if resignation and cynicism were no longer a thing? What would become possible for your school, business, or workplace if no one got trapped in those oh so ordinary ways of being?

Thanks so much for reading. 🙏❤️

P.S. As a transformational coach, I help people and organizations move beyond their self-imposed limitations to be their best and feel amazing. If you’re interested in finding out how I can support you or your organization, schedule an exploration with me. 💌