Wow. I feel good. I knew that I would now (James Brown)

The Frontline Leader Impact course is coming up to its third week, and so far, so great.

I am actually really enjoying it and look forward to seeing what the next week has in store. I've even completed week 3 and itching to get into week 4. Steady tiger!

How come?

Well, I've been thirsting for some quality focused professional development for a long time.

As well as that, I'm motivated to interact with other course attendees who are all OneSchool Global employees like me, and it's fun watching the impact points (top right) accumulate as I participate. Quite clever that.

My colleagues have warned me that it's good while it's unfolding for the six weeks duration, but then, after it finished, they have found it hard to sustain the 'now what'.

I'm picking I'll be okay because my choice of Key Leadership Challenge is really relevant to me and I can see the benefits of sustaining the efforts with it beyond the six weeks.

Big fan!

Metal guru has it been just like a silver-studded sabre-tooth dream? (T Rex)

Photo by Mathias Jensen on Unsplash

I'm currently working my way through a six week leadership programme - from the Center for Creative Leadership (sic). It's snazzily called Frontline Leader Impact!

Currently, I'm on week two of six.

It's an enjoyable way to consider a key challenge that I'm currently thinking about.

I chose the District Principal themed one from a few posts ago.

Here's where I am at:

• My focus will be on the areas/skills/strategies I need to develop to be effective as a District Principal.
• Greater alignment with what is happening in other similar regions (North America, Europe); a greater sense of what the role entails; a greater understanding around what my CPs need to adjust to working within this new organizational structure; what strategies I could use to be successful in this role; what skills I need to develop to be successful in this role.
• In summary - How might I develop my skills and strategies to be an effective District Principal?

It says right here on page 43 that you should grab a hold of it else you'll find It's passed you by (David Crosby)

During a question and answer session with my new Year 3 students I was asked some really great questions.

One was around - what do you do to help the teachers?

My immediate response was that I meet with the team daily, first thing in the morning for ten minutes, and I aim every day to start the day in a positive way. That was followed by a rather lame, 'and I empty the dishwasher each morning'.

I could have used Seth Godin's list, “What do you do around here?”

I like these ones: 

I challenge the status quo

I show up on time 

I absorb nonsense and create calm for others

I raise our standards

I help people feel seen

I’m steady

I don’t cause trouble

I bring energy

I lead the way

I turn mountains into molehills

I must remember that last one for next time.

The decisions about time and resources–about what to do next–change everything (Seth Godin)

Photo by Vadim Bogulov on Unsplash

Seth Godin asks good questions. For instance - how do we decide what’s next? Is it based on urgency, proximity or values?

Mostly, I suspect, it's the first one. Ideally, it's the last one.

The question I am often asked at meetings (and I am guilty of asking others) is - what's on top? Or, any issues I need to know about? The implication of that question - name the things that are taking priority at the moment (I like present tense). 

These often tend to be things relating to our urgent deadlines.

A better question that I could ask is - what are your current challenges?

Ubiquity (for a while)

Photo by Andrea De Santis on Unsplash

There's been a lot of commentary of late about AI assisted writing accompanied by a lot of hand wringing. I like this piece by Seth Godin:

The coming ubiquity

The fuss about AI might be mis-focused.

It’s easy to point to a computer-created essay, song or illustration and find the defects or errors. Given hard work by 1,000 trained people, it’s likely that a human could make something more useful or inspired than a computer could.

But the real impact of AI isn’t going to be that it regularly and consistently does far better than the best human effort.

The impact will be that it is widespread, cheap and always there.

Search for anything and the Wikipedia page will ‘write itself’ just for you.

Brainstorm 12 variations of a solution to any problem you’re thinking about. Have a Rogerian therapist and idea coach on call at all times.

Press a button on your fridge and see a dozen recipes that use what’s in the produce drawer, and just that.

Everywhere, all the time.

Ubiquity is the quiet change we rarely see coming.