There goes my hero, watch him as he goes (Foo Fighters)

 

Dan Rockwell on coaching:

Coaching is slow

In the short-term command and control is fast. Eventually, authoritarian styles stifle initiative, create bottlenecks, add stress, cause adversarial relationships, and demotivate.

Coaching requires up-front investment that produces long-term benefit. Coaching-leaders go slow to go fast.

Big me to talk about it, I could stand to prove, if we can get around it, I know that it's true (Foo Fighters)

Photo by James Lee on Unsplash

Wisdom from James Clear:

"You'll probably surprise yourself with what you can accomplish—if you're focused on one thing.

You'll probably frustrate yourself with what you fail to accomplish—if you're doing 5 or 7 or 10 things.

Nobody performs well when stretched in a half dozen directions."

If I fail, if I succeed, at least I'll live as I believe (Whitney Houston)

 

Having just completed my appraisal with my manager, I'm reflecting on the process and value of having so many diverse people (colleagues, students, parents and my manager) contributing to it after I did my self-review.

In the final wash up my self-review scores and those of the collective 'other' were pretty similar, but surely, too many cooks spoil the broth, by diluting it in the process.

Again, Marcus Aurelius has a pithy thought on the subject:

I'm constantly amazed by how easily we love ourselves above all others, yet we put more stock in the opinions of others than in our own estimation of self....How much credence we give to the opinions our peers have of us and how little to our very own!

Don't overthink it!

Some good advice from Marus Aurelius:

Don't tell yourself anything more than what the initial impressions report. It's been reported to you that someone is speaking badly about you. This is the report – the report wasn't that you've been harmed. I see that my son is sick – but not that his life is at risk. So always stay within your first impressions, and don't add to them in your head – this way nothing can happen to you.

Characters do not change. Opinions alter, but characters are only developed (Benjamin Disraeli)

I'm with Ben on this one. I've seen a lot of students develop in my time but their essential character remains unchanged.

This is true of me too. I still feel the same character I was as a 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60-year-old. My opinions have definitely altered - but I remain, at core, the same person.

On my commute each day, I've been listening to Mel Brookes audiobook, All About Me - his autobiography.

I can tell from his voice that Mel Brooks remains the same little boy he was as Melvin Kaminsky.

The challenge for us all is in the opinion altering and the character development along the way.

It isn't manly to be enraged (Marcus Aurelius)

Staff absences have had me stretched this week - at times I've been doing three people's jobs and after two weeks away from routines it takes a while for students to adjust to school life again.

All very testing. 

Marcus Aurelius always seems to have the perfect advice:

Keep this thought handy when you feel a bit of rage coming on – it isn't manly to be enraged. Rather, gentleness and civility are more human, and therefore manlier. A real person doesn't give way to anger and discontent, and such a person has strength, courage, and endurance – unlike the angry and complaining. The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength.