Moving From Resolution to Achievement: 8 Tips for Making Your New Year’s Commitments Stick

If you are like most people, you will take some time on New Year’s Day to reflect on the outgoing year and set some resolutions for the year ahead.

Maybe you’ll decide to make a lifestyle change, such as eating healthier and exercising more.

Perhaps you’ll determine that it is time for more work-life balance or to travel more often.

You may set some business-related goals, such as making more sales calls or taking other action steps that will improve your bottom line.

These, or any other constructive goals, are the first step in living a better, more fulfilled life.

Become a Leader of Influence

At the heart of great leadership is influence, as in the ability to influence others to do what needs to get done.

In a piece written for Forbes, Kevin Kruse defines leadership as “a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others, towards the achievement of a goal.” I like his approach because it factors in some important primary leadership elements: (social) influence, others, effort optimization and goals.

Leadership is about influencing others, rather than demanding and coercing. It speaks to the ability to win people over to a new way of thinking and practice, through idea sharing, collaboration and role modeling. It emphasizes persuasion and motivation over coercion.

Influence occurs primarily through emotional connections, such as when we share triumphant or challenging times together. It also develops when leaders routinely demonstrate feelings of appreciation, care, concern, and empathy.

The 3 I's of effective leadership

For leaders, the letter “I” represents three key elements in their ultimate success. These elements build from the inside out, starting with one’s core identity and purpose and extending far beyond self. They remind us of what we can do and become when we solidify our core and make others’ success our focus.

They are: (1) integrity, (2) influence and (3) impact.

Integrity helps us become the best versions of ourselves and communicates what we stand for.
Influence allows us to direct and augment the work of others.
Impact is all about results. We create impact when we achieve our goals.

These three do not exist in a vacuum. In fact, they lead one into the next.

When we’re in integrity (A), we become more influential (B). This, in turn, drives results, magnifying our impact (C).

5 Areas Where Teachers Need Support Right Now, Part II

A critical, “non-academic” area that teachers must master is their ability to teach and support students’ social-emotional needs and development, while growing their mindset and confidence to succeed. Let’s focus on the latter, our mindsets and the role they play in our success.

In her bestselling book Mindset: The New Psychology Of Success, Stanford Professor Carol Dweck talks about people’s mindsets with regards to their ability to perform new tasks. She describes people who stay squarely in their comfort zones and others that venture well beyond them. Dweck labeled these mindsets as “fixed” and “growth,” respectively.

Why principals should “loop” students back in

One of the big questions facing school leaders right now is what things will look like when the new school year begins. No one fully knows whether teachers and students will be able to fully or partially return to their classrooms and, even for those who can enjoy “business as usual,” the atmosphere at school is likely to be filled with uncertainty, unease, and lots of distancing.

While it can be difficult to build and maintain a learning atmosphere under such conditions, it may be even more challenging for teachers to develop the nurturing relationships that are so critical to student development, particularly after having endured so much uncertainty already in the previous half year. To expect teachers to connect with their charges and be able to support them during the formative first weeks may be too tall an order for many and could set students up for an even more challenging year.

You say it, but do they understand it?

Yesterday, as I was getting my skis 🎿 on, an instructor tells me "TGIF!"

But he didn't mean THAT #tgif.

He was telling me, "Toes Go In First." 💡

But that wasn't what I heard.

And for a Sunday, his #fridaytalk sounded strange.

Moving From Resolution to Achievement: 8 Tips for Making Your New Year’s Commitments Stick

If you are like most people, you will take some time on New Year’s Day to reflect on the outgoing year and set some resolutions for the year ahead.

Maybe you’ll decide to make a lifestyle change, such as eating healthier and exercising more.

Perhaps you’ll determine that it is time for more work-life balance or to travel more often.

You may set some business-related goals, such as making more sales calls or taking other action steps that will improve your bottom line.

These, or any other constructive goals, are the first step in living a better, more fulfilled life.

Choose Empathy Over Efficiency

When you speak with clients, customers, or prospects, do you focus more on empathy or efficiency?

Empathy: the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

Efficiency: the ability to accomplish something with the least waste of time and effort.

When you focus on empathy, you can’t be as efficient.

When you seek efficiency, empathy must be kept to a minimum.

Small Gestures Go a Long Way (Let It Go, Part II)

My "Let It Go" video post got such a powerful response.

I think it's because there was a rawness to the message.

The idea that we could be hurt and hurt in serious ways and it's really up to us to decide how we want to move forward.

Many of us hold onto things and we just have a hard time relinquishing the pain because we feel that if we let it go somehow that's going to vindicate the other side. And we need to remember that letting it go is primarily for us.

Because if we let it go, then we can start to heal, and we can start to move forward. We can start to think differently about what occurred and what our future holds for us.

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