TEAM: Together Everyone Achieves More

TEAM

Coming together is a beginning.

Keeping together is progress.

Working together is success.

Good morning. It's been a while since my last blog entry. All of my writing this summer has been dedicated to the two graduate courses I took this summer on Multicultural Issues and leading for the Transformation of Student Task systemically at the school level. TEAM is a word that's been on my mind lately and I wanted to spend some time this morning sharing my thoughts around it. 

As schools return for the 2018-19 school year we all have dreams. Those dreams, hopes, and aspirations innately are connected to your North Star (vision/purpose) that drives your organization. A question often asked is how? How is the vision achieved? What is the path to get there? No successful organization, particularly within the Education setting, ever fulfilled a vision due to the work of one person. One is to small a number to achieve greatness. That is such an important truth to remember. More and more in today's education landscape I see people, especially principals, thrust into the spotlight, viewed almost as Neo was viewed as "The One" in The Matrix. 

Success is seeing what a community can build together. Not to discount the impact a great school leader can make. They absolutely set the tone to develop a culture of excellence within a school. Culture drives expectations and beliefs. Expectations and beliefs drive behaviors. Behaviors drive habits and habits create the future. This is important work that the school leader sets the tone for but isn't solely responsible for. The culture of the school is the responsibility of everyone. Every interaction that occurs within the school is either money in or money out in your school culture bank. School culture is a both an individual and collective responsibility. That said, what any great leader will tell you is they didn't accomplish anything on their own. There is always a team serving together that propels the organization to greatness. 

The team is vital to the success of any organization. If the team is to reach it's North Star, fulfill it's vision, first it has to come together and function as a team. Leadership expert John Maxwell shares that "Great teams have commitment that inspires results, contributions that make a difference, competency the raises the standard, communication that increase effectiveness, cooperation that creates harmony, chemistry that enhances personal connection, creativity that enlarge's potential, conflict management that reduces tension rapidly, cohesive that allows change to be rapid, and community that makes the journey fun." One of the best analogies I've heard about the power of team comes from Mike Krzyzewski, head basketball coach at Duke University. Coach K refers to a team like the five fingers of a hand. Some hands have small fingers that come together easily as a fist. Other hands have very large fingers, but, if they never come together as a fist, they probably won't be as powerful as the smaller hand that does. Growing up I played on talented sports teams that were like the big fingers, talented, but never able to come together. I've seen the same happen in schools both as a teacher and as a school leader. Talent is not enough when the talent doesn't work together as a team. Great teams have five fundamental qualities that make them great: communication, trust, collective responsibility, caring, and pride. Think of each like they are a finger on your hand. Individually, all are important. Together, they are unbeatable! 

Take a moment to think about an organization or sports team that imploded. Usually, communication was a part of the problem. Communication so often is taken for granted and a mistake leaders make is thinking that people are actually talking to one another. Remind people to talk with one another. In schools, leaders need to model this through adult learning experiences to support the transfer of communication through the teachers lessons with students. Who is doing the talking is who is doing the learning in our schools. We need to be mindful of this especially at this time of the school year as we prepare learning experiences for our returning teachers. Intentionally plan to model what you expect to see in classrooms. 

With trust, there is no more important word within an organization. Trust must be developed if success is going to be achieved. Far too often teams fall into a situation where they are beating themselves, allowing divisions within to hamper their success. Great teams must establish a relationship based on trust that enables them to navigate the waters whether they are calm or crashing with waves. Having a collective responsibility to one another and those you serve that does not allow for excuses, finger pointing, shame, blame and judgement is crucial. You are going to win and lose together. Responsibility is something that great teams embrace. Teams that care for another one, care deeply about their North Star and have a tremendous amount of pride in their work and for organization do special things. 

Think about those five qualities of team mentioned here and the power they bring when they come together like a fist. Teamwork is going to make your dream work. Go at it with the left and right hands of Mohammed Ali and not the one finger pointing at someone or something else making excuses. The great thing about the future is YOU get to create it. 

Over the summer I had the opportunity to read Jon Gordon's new book "The Power of A Positive Team".   This is the best book I've ever read about the principals and practices of developing a team. Many schools often do a book study involving every member of your staff. I can't recommend this book enough for that work. Every school leader should read this book. Every teacher should read this book. If we get down to it, breakdowns in school culture usually result in the breakdown of the team. I'm a big fan of Jon Gordon's work and wanted to close this entry with the Positive Teacher Pledge Jon shared on Monday of this past week. This is for every educator, administrators, teachers, para-professionals, facilities and cafeteria teams. This is a pledge for anyone privileged to serve within a school. I encourage you to read it, reflect on it, and take action. 

If you commit to being a positive educator I encourage you to read and commit to The Positive Teacher Pledge.

The Positive Teacher Pledge

• I pledge to be a positive teacher and positive influence on my fellow educators, students and school.
• I promise to be positively contagious and share more smiles, laughter, encouragement and joy with those around me.
• I vow to stay positive in the face of negativity.
• When I am surrounded by pessimism I will choose optimism.
• When I feel fear I will choose faith.
• When I want to hate I will choose love.
• When I want to be bitter I will choose to get better.
• When I experience a challenge I will look for opportunity to learn and grow and help others grow.
• When faced with adversity I will find strength.
• When I experience a set-back I will be resilient.
• When I meet failure I will fail forward and create a future success.
• With vision, hope, and faith, I will never give up and will always find ways to make a difference.
• I believe my best days are ahead of me, not behind me.
• I believe I’m here for a reason and my purpose is greater than my challenges.
• I believe that being positive not only makes me better, it makes my students better.
• So today and every day I will be positive and strive to make a positive impact on my students, school and the world!

Much success to you and your team! Build those positive relationships, believe in everyone in your organization, expect to make a difference and celebrate successes. Together, you will accomplish great things.

CJ