Navigating the North Side of 50

  According to Initiative One, a leader's choices when it comes to "thoughtful leaders" within the organization are the key to their ability to rise above Level One or Level Two leadership.   Effective leaders don't wait around for their TLs to knock on their door to deliver unpleasant information.  Effective leaders knock on TL's doors and ask for it.  When the TL delivers the unfiltered facts, the effective leader controls their emotions, then expresses gratitude to the TL for sharing this information.  In this manner, trust is built and the TL is increasingly likely to support the leader in their vision and activities to build a strong and resilient organization. In my first two years in my current district, I have had a few staff members share their thoughts, observations, and sometimes rumors.  In almost every case, the news brought out my Little Scott, expressing fear, anger, defensiveness, and just about every other behavior that destroys trust....

Recently, I had a disturbing thought.  I have been emotionally railing against standardized testing for a decade now, wary of anything cooked up by state legislators who only seem to look for cheap (or free) and simple solutions to complex problems.  Having some knowledge of what goes into creating, validating, and reporting on those assessments allows me to say with great confidence, "they aren't worth the paper they used to be printed on!"  For the past seven or eight years, paper has been replaced with online tests, even cheaper to deliver, and one more example that our government is more inclined to assume we are better off if every boy and girl is measured against a watered down multiple choice test than to truly look deeply at what great learning looks like. First, it is important to understand that public education is one of the most challenging opponents to the Conservative minority.  Public schools have the capacity to teach media literacy, challenging stude...

  Canadian soldiers are learning to take advice from the Inuit people of northern Canada.  Climate change has made frozen waters increasingly navigable, causing fear that China and Russia are eyeing the area as a valuable resource. Non-native leaders are fighting the urge to apply conventional military survival strategies and adopt indigenous practices that come from deep knowledge of the land and weather.  Onishi points to the concerted effect of leaders to drop traditional top-down, authoritarian leadership strategies.   “Leaders need to show humility and understand it’s more important to acknowledge what you don’t know than what you do know” he cites a Maj. Brynn Bennett. This morning I reflect on two of my greatest Achilles heels.  Hiding my fear of being found a fraud with overconfidence and leadership by shame.  I can't hide my impatience and arrogance at times, especially when teachers are showing a fear of change or willful ignorance.  I c...