Won't you listen to what the man said (Paul McCartney)

Photo by Astrid Schaffner on Unsplash

Leadership is not easy. 

Actually, I'll rephrase: strong, effective leadership is not easy.

I guess, if it was - everyone would be doing it, right?

Dan Rockwell makes a great point about this when he says that leaders need to exude strength and be gentle enough to give in. In his words:

Fight for things you believe AND listen to others…AND change your mind when appropriate.

The trick is knowing when to fight, when to listen, when to reconsider.

A great fear for leaders is appearing weak and vulnerable - hence the urge when cornered to box on, not listen, and not rethink something.

Elon Musk is a good example, with his take over of Twitter becoming a case study in what not to do. Clearly, I am not privy to his mind and inner circle of advisors (does he even have any?) but on the surface he's made a right pig's ear of the takeover.

From outside, he looks like he acted quickly - far too quickly. I suspect he didn't listen to others and so he is needing to walk back some of his firings of  crucial Twitter staff. 

Thus, from the outside he looks weak, ineffectual, and even stupid. But clearly he's not amassed a huge fortune and gained weasel cunning over the years through being stupid.

But he sure looks like it now. Strong and effective leadership it sure isn't.

I pity the poor Twitter staff who he fired but now needs back desperately.

I am also really considering ending my Twitter account because of my low confidence in him as a leader. 

Twitter won't miss me, and I won't miss Twitter necessarily.

All the little birdies on Jaybird Street love to hear the robin go tweet tweet tweet (Michael Jackson)

A timely reminder from the good people at The Guardian about educationalists on Twitter can be found here.

A long time ago in a galaxy far away, I went to a ULearn conference in Rotorua and attended a session by Craig Kemp. He made the bold claim that Twitter gave him the best Professional Development he'd ever had.

And you know what? He was right!!

If you are a teacher and you want to get better at what you do and you are not on Twitter you are crazy. Insane in the membrane.

Join up. NOW! 

How? That Guardian link (here it is again) will tell you how.

I was a teenage malt shop (Captain Beefheart/ Frank Zappa)

Dr Ian Hunter in Imagine directs his readers to: 

develop a greater awareness of the time, taste, fashion, and context in which you exist. A deeper sympathy toward these aspects of the world can only aid you in the work of innovation.

I've always aimed to be aware of these things. I like pulp culture and I like to know what's going on generally in the world of music, art, literature, film and such.

My Walrus Gumboot online newspaper links directly to news and current happenings in education and elsewhere that I follow on Twitter.

Feel free to go to this link to subscribe - it updates daily:

http://paper.li/purdzilla/1417123242?edition_id=95822210-a2c8-11e4-8c49-0cc47a0d1605&utm_campaign=paper_sub&utm_medium=email&utm_source=subscription

I am becoming quite dependent on Walrus Gumboot (comes from the Beatles' song Come Together which is also my ring tone!). Pulp culture is no longer as homogeneous as it once was.

Music has splintered into myriad forms and sub genres. Once upon a time you could buy a music magazine like Sounds or Melody Maker and it would cover music in all its popular rock forms. Now (apart from Mojo Magazine) you can buy specialties like Blues, Prog, AOR, Classic Rock, Kerrang!, Hit Parader, Metal Hammer, Uncut, Q and so on. Each looks at a musical niche.

A look at The Guardian's music pages online reveals that another narrow form of Indie/urban musical bands featured regularly.

It's become tougher to keep track of 'the context in which you exist'.

So - if I want to know what is currently happening in the pulp culture context of 2015 generally, I check out (plug plug) Walrus Gumboot.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T Find out what it means to me (Aretha Franklin)

The fifth law of Velocity is as simple as it is groovy: Respect human nature.

Part of why I'm loving reconnecting to Twitter is the human contact with people I'd otherwise never know. 

I have been getting loads of follows from musicians who seem genuinely pleased to reply when I tell them they delighted me so I'm sending them a message of encouragement. 

I don't do it lightly. Their music is amazing and I've never heard of them. A very humbling experience.

Anyway - back to Velocity.

The thrust of this law is that Velocity doesn't get blinded by technology - on the other end of a tweet or an app or an anything is a person.

In terms of education this means that behind every student in my class is an extended family of people.

I well remember when this dawned on me. It was 1983. 

My first teaching job was as an English teacher at New Plymouth Boys' High School. 

When my first parent-teacher evening had finished I was pleasantly exhausted and fizzing. My students had parents. Who knew?? Parents who cared about them enough to meet me. I looked like I was 16 but I was now the 'expert' who was giving a report and advice on their son.

It was seriously cool!!

We recently had some PTSIs at school - Parent Teacher Student Interviews. It was, again, a wonderful experience.

I had indicated to the parents who I REALLY needed to see but loads more came anyway. Fab! Again - fizzing and pleasantly exhausted - and long may those feelings continue.