Timeout for Leadership-your one-minute leadership idea

Quick hits #3

When do you pause to evaluate yourself??

Fact:   You are constantly evaluating people.  Now pause a moment and evaluate yourself!!!

You are constantly evaluating.  You evaluate people, programs and in certain cases your opponents or adversaries.  Do you ever take a time out to evaluate yourself?  I doubt it.  Stop what you are now doing and do perhaps the most important evaluation of the year.  EVALUATE YOU.  As we get ready to close out the year, there is no better time.

I am consistently criticized for my sports analogies and metaphors but to me it is quite simple.  Good leadership is good leadership, no matter what the venue, so I venture back into the world of sports for today’s lesson.

In the National Football League, all teams have a “bye” week.  This is a week where they are not scheduled for a game.  Most teams relish this opportunity to rest up, recharge the batteries and get healthy.  However, during this bye week, the coaching staff is busy evaluating their own program.  Most staffs will spend this time scouting themselves.  They take a good look at what works, what doesn’t work and what predictable tendencies exist.  And yes, many times the team experiences that “A-Ha” moment where they learn quite a bit about themselves.  They then have the time to implement change, break tendencies, and focus on what does and does not work.  They have the opportunity to add and delete items from their playbook.

For my friends in leadership positions in schools, the “bye” week between Christmas and New Year’s is a great time to conduct this self-evaluation.  Your school year is almost half over and you surely will have a good idea of what is or is not working and then you have plenty of time to make the corrections and salvage your season (your school year).

You will also have the opportunity to make personal style changes in how you lead your school.  Maybe you have been unaware of your lack of visibility.  Maybe somewhere along the way you forgot about gratitude.  Maybe you have to coach some folks a bit harder and with others you may have to lighten up.

At the end of the day, it is essential that you periodically schedule your bye week in order for you and your leadership team to take a step back and do some well needed self-reflection and course changing. 

I guarantee that you will be a better leader as a result of this exercise.  Try it!