The other day I was working with a group of principals and during an unstructured time together they began sharing some of their problems of practice. One principal brilliantly walked her peer through a problem they were facing in a manner the other person had not considered. After receiving thanks for her help, the principal remarked that she was “much better at solving other people’s problems and not her own.”
We all chuckled, but then I started thinking about how common this occurrence is in all of us.
I have heard myself write this off a hundred times when helping others or receiving help by saying something like, “It is hard to look from a wider lens when you are in the fight” or “sometimes it’s hard to see the forest through the trees”.
These quips may be correct, but as I thought back on the interaction I saw I started to reflect on the greatest leaders I know. The greatest and most effective leaders I know have the ability to see problems before they are, well, problems. They have the ability to see a really complex situation and distill it down to the very essence of the issue.
Said differently, what commonly sets the great leaders of any organization, whether it be a Fortune 500 company, a new start-up, or a public school system, apart from everyone else toiling away is not that they have more skills necessary to solve the problems facing all of us; instead, the ones that truly transcend seemingly always solve the ACTUAL problem.
I was working with a coaching client last week after thinking on the topic of this newsletter for quite a bit of time. After the leader debriefed the issue facing her, I asked the question, “What problem do you want to solve?” The person I was working with paused . . . I assumed this was because she thought the problem was self-evident in the situation she described.
However, after about three iterations of the same question it became clear to her that her mental energy and effort were being focused on the wrong problem. She was addressing a symptom of the real issue instead of working to combat the actual disease causing the problem. When we do this it is like giving someone Tylenol when they have a serious infection. We only mask the symptoms for a while and the actual issue not only persists, but almost always intensifies.
Find your ‘disease’ and you find your problem to solve. That is our charge as leaders. To be great we must see beyond the problems that are presenting themselves to us and find the issues causing those problems to occur in the first place.
REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS TO GUIDE SOME THINKING
- How
- What problems are you NOT solving because you are too focused on addressing the symptom instead of the real disease?
- If you only had one problem to solve in your personal life what would it be? If you only had one problem to solve in your professional life what would it be? (Hint: Think deeply)
- Are you better able to discern the actual problem when you are emotionally charged or thinking more rationally? What does that tell you about when you should seek the counsel of a peer or coach?
- If other people help you see the issues you (or your organization) are facing more clearly, how often do you prioritize sharing and collaborating with them?
- The line between something being an asset and a roadblock is often razor thin. How often are you assessing your ability to evaluate between your personal and organizational strengths and roadblocks?
THE BEST THING I READ/WATCHED THIS WEEK
Maybe: Chinese Proverb
Sometimes we assign value to the things happening in our life when instead we should just focus on processing them and keeping our eyes wide open as to where each event may take us . . .
ORGANIZATION YOU SHOULD KNOW
FITLEADERS
Well, there is quite a fitness and health movement among leaders and educators on social media and it all starts with this account and the hashtag #fitleaders. I feature them this month because as we enter February a lot of those resolutions and promises you may have made yourself seem less important. This account can help you stay focused throughout the dog days of February and March.
WHERE YOU CAN FIND ME
ON DEMAND – Manage Your Time or Time Will Manage You Book Study
ON DEMAND – Communications – MicroCredential Certification through Illinois Principals Association
SPEAKING-CONSULTING-CONFERENCES
February 3
Manage Your Time or Time Will Manage You – Online Administrator Academy
February 10
Institute for Educational Innovation – Winter Conference
February 18
National Conference on Education – The Unfinished Leader
MORE OF MY MUSINGS
Pushing Boundaries Podcast Episode 78 – We Spray to All Fields on This One
Interesting Interview in which we spray to all fields – Personal, Leadership, Education.
Thruue – The Great Re-Negotiation
Honored to be a small part of the research on the future of work alongside giants in leadership such as General McChrystal and others.
Writing
Teach Better Team – So, You Want to Write a Book
A longer blog detailing what prospective authors should be considering as they enter into a prolific, but seldom discussed industry.
Illinois ASCD Quarterly Journal – Hard Stop on Learning Loss
I fear that districts and schools may be rushing into solving a problem that we are not entirely sure exists at this point.
This is why I am so bothered by the term “learning loss”. First, an examination of the data shows that it is factually inaccurate. Very few students regressed during the COVID-19 Pandemic. This means that learning did occur. Now, to be transparent, learning may not have occurred at the levels we are accustomed to seeing—but learning was not lost. If anything, perhaps it was delayed.
Edutopia – How School Leaders Can Build Realistic Optimism This Year
As part of cleaning off my plate, I forced myself to make a list of the five things that bring me the most joy in my job. The list included one-to-one meetings with my direct reports, proudly representing the district in different capacities, data talks, coaching my leadership team through difficult situations, and spending time investing in my board of education.
Then I intentionally rerouted my calendar for two weeks to dump as much joy—those five activities—into my day as possible. It worked.
What happened by default was that I spent less time on the distractions that were not only a time sink but also an emotional drain. It turns out the very loud minority of people who were making my job very difficult didn’t deserve the attention and cognitive space I was giving them.
Thanks for taking the time to read this newsletter.
It would mean the world to me if you could share it with one person each week. We all get one chance to live a life of passion and purpose. Help me maximize my one at-bat.