Timeout for Leadership-your one-minute leadership idea

Tip Sheet #12

 I am who I am.

These are the words that God spoke to Moses.  When questioned by the Israelites, Moses was to say the same thing to them, “I am who I am.”  Today’s message is quite simple.  Be true to who you are.  It is so easy to say but yet so hard to do.

I think of these words today because this is the time of year that football coaches get fired. Each nightly news will share the drama of each situation.  Most are quickly re-hired as the coaching carousel continues to spin around and around.  College and professional football coaches know that they are hired to ultimately get fired.  I think the same can be said about school superintendents in today’s highly volatile and political school leader job market.  You must know that your life span on any job tends to be tenuous.  I would make a friendly wager that if you were to interview an outgoing coach or an outgoing superintendent they would probably lament that in their tenure in their recent position they lost themselves.  They forgot who they are or what they stand for. Getting lost is easy.  Finding yourself is hard. But when the time comes to move on, and it will, are you going to look back and say that you remained true to yourself, your ideals and your principles?

Did you ever sacrifice who you are for a person or a thing? We all take jobs swearing to ourselves we will never let this happen, but I can just about assure you that you will.  And when you do are you going to be able to live with the tradeoff?  I know that as the time has come that I can be reflective on my career in educational leadership I lament the times that I made this choice.  I am fortunate that I can say that I never did anything unethical or illegal, yet it was the times that I made these small tradeoffs that caused personal anguish.  For you see, I have come to realize that for survival you must sometimes make these small personal sacrifices.

Being true to who you are is hard work but I remain convinced it is worth it.  Just like Moses, you are who you are.  And just like Moses, you will at times stumble. Quickly stand tall, right yourself, and get back on track to complete your mission; being true to yourself..

Think about it!