Timeout for Leadership-your one-minute leadership idea

Tip Sheet #4

 “Does your staff own mirrors?”

Hey, isn’t this the same title as last week?  You are 100% correct.  However, last week was all about appearance and how one presents oneself.  Today, I want to take a look at what is underneath the skin.

Do you and do your teachers have the ability to self-reflect?

I want you to think about this statement.  I heard it somewhere and I can’t at this time recall where I heard it, but I wrote it down because I thought it really hit home.

• “Looking in the mirror is useless unless honesty looks back at you”.

Always remember that as a new principal the worst thing you can do is to tell the truth (yes, I am being sarcastic).  In most districts, if you do tell the truth you will not be there very long.  Isn’t that cynical?  Of course, it is.  The reality is that most people do not want to hear the truth.  And more importantly, do they have the ability to look honestly in the mirror as to what is beneath his /her own skin?

I think self-reflection is a skill that can honed and improved.  It will take hard work and it will take a commitment from each individual to attempt to see the truth in that mirror. On a personal note, I have gotten better at my own self-reflection with age.   Saying that, I ask each school leader to add this professional development to your long list of professional development activities.  Talk about the process of self-reflection with your staff.  Even a superficial conversation may hit home and some of your staff will begin to look deeper into the mirror and approach a level of honesty in their own self-reflection.  When we are able to do this, true self-improvement will occur.

I also think back to a favorite movie of mine, A Few Good Men when Tom Cruise asks Jack Nicholson to tell the truth.  Nicholson responds in the way only Nicholson can respond when he tells Cruise “You can’t handle the truth”.

How true it can be.