Leadership / First Year of Teaching

Leadership /First year of Teaching

Complacency-The Poison of Excellence

When addressing his players, Vince Lombardi, the legendary Hall of Fame Football Coach of the Green Bay Packers once said, “Gentlemen, we will chase perfection, and we will chase it relentlessly, knowing all the while we can never attain it. But along the way, we shall catch excellence.” (Carlson, p.145)

Excellence to me is a destination. A destination that we must continually pursue. As educators, we are compelled to bring our students along on this journey. A journey that if navigated successfully will change lives.

It is essential that your school’s culture supports excellence. We have spoken a great deal about culture and will continue to reflect back upon the importance of a healthy school culture. The pursuit of excellence can be seen within the culture by a well-focused, engaged, and driven group of administrators, teachers, staff, students, and parents. All work is purposeful, and there is a drive to successfully accomplish both personal and school goals. You know a culture of excellence when you see it!

Thriving in a culture of excellence requires thought, organization, and intense preparation. Once again, pulling from my coaching background, one must continually prepare to compete. This competition is very personal and can best be summarized in the concept that with every activity one does, that activity is designed to make you better. You will be better today than you were yesterday. There are no shortcuts. The pursuit of excellence will be quickly derailed when one decides to take shortcuts. Shortcuts ensure that everyone gets shortchanged!

This past weekend, I had the opportunity, while channel surfing, to come upon an interview on ESPN with Nick Saban, the Head Football Coach at Alabama, the defending NCAA champions. Some may say that Saban is perhaps the best in the game. He said something that resonated with me. His simple statement was extremely powerful inasmuch as it helped focus my almost 40-year pursuit of excellence. Saban stated, and I paraphrase, that complacency is the biggest obstacle to excellence. To me, this statement is true. It applies to the classroom, school building, district, corporate office, or athletic field. I ask each principal that may read this article, how do you combat complacency in your school? I ask each classroom teacher, how do you combat complacency in your classroom? When you begin to unlock the answers to this question, I am convinced that performance and achievement will improve. You must work to eliminate complacency from the culture of your organization. When you do, perhaps the first tangible evidence you may witness is that people will enjoy being there. They will intrinsically push themselves harder and ultimately produce better results. People may begin to hold each other accountable for the successful pursuit of excellence. You see this happen when a team starts to gel.

A recent article in Forbes can help serve as a guide and resource for leaders. The article discusses signs that employees are becoming complacent. It can serve as a good gauge for you to use in your school. The signs of complacency are listed below:

Disengaged-Is your staff focused?
Stop Thinking-Has your staff stopped asking questions and challenging themselves?
Stop Taking Initiative-Has your staff stopped taking leadership roles on initiatives? Are they disconnected to others?
Don’t Invest in Themselves-Has you staff stopped caring about personal achievement?
Taking Shortcuts-Has your staff stopped paying attention to detail?
Do Not Take Risks-Is your staff afraid to take any sort of educational risk?
Lost Their Passion-Has your staff lost their personal enthusiasm and excitement for their jobs?
Not Managing Personal Brand-Has your staff forgotten what is important to each person?
Disgruntled with Career Path- Is your staff unhappy with the way their career has worked out? Unfortunately, I have personally witnessed far too often the disintegration of an individual teacher where they were once full of excitement and commitment with unlimited potential as an educator to a malcontent complacent clock watcher. This happens with 20 years left in his / her career.
Lost Any Hope for a Brighter Future- Has your staff given up? The challenge now becomes how one can re-claim this person. They must somehow be mentored and guided to re-start their career. A distinct challenge to your leadership skills. (Llopis, 2013)

Today’s message was about complacency. As a new teacher or a new principal, this seems like a remote concept. It will never happen to me. It will never happen in my building. Words I have heard from new teachers and new principals. Noble thoughts. However, I assure you that the realities of life have a strange way of changing these thoughts. Before long, especially in an unhealthy culture, you could become satisfactory, average or mediocre and you might be comfortable with that. Great teachers, great principals, and great leaders never accept mediocrity and have a way of combating this plague and overcoming it. This cancer must be sent into remission. You must persevere and maintain your journey to excellence. It is hard work, but I am convinced that you can do it.

References

Carlson, C. (2004). Games of My Life: Memorable Stories of Packer Football. Champaign, Illinois: Sports Publishing LLC.

Llopis, Glen. (2013). 10 Signs Your Employees Are Growing Complacent in Their Careers. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/glenn/llopis/2013/07/08/10-signsw-your-employees-are-growong-complacent-in-their-careers