Jim Collins: The encodings that could change your life
What to make of a life? At first glance, the premise American researcher, author, speaker and business advisor Jim Collins poses in his latest bestseller seems simple enough.
For many executive leaders and founders, the story follows a familiar path: Earn the prestigious degree, build a career through years of hard work and leadership, or launch the company that changes everything in pursuit of success, financial security and the rewards that come with it.
But then what?
The day is just beginning in Sydney and coming to a close in Denver, Colorado when I connect with Collins to discuss his latest release and specifically, this question.
Yet before a single question is asked, we spend several minutes discussing early mornings, strategic napping and importantly, why every recording should have a backup.
“Two is one, one is none,” Collins says, matter-of-factly.
When People Don’t Know
I love it when people say, “I don’t know.” Ignorance is the point of growth.
Ignorance can mean, “I don’t want to say.” Or “I’m not sure.” Or it can be real.
Rule #1: Don’t yield to the temptation to give answers when people don’t know. Proving how smart you are doesn’t increase another person’s capacity.
When you give answers others can find, you steal power. Coaching keeps responsibility on the person being coached.
Novices may need mentoring, training, or advice. But don’t do for others what they can do for themselves.
How to Give Novice Teachers Mindful, Learning-Focused Feedback
f you’re a teacher mentor, this scenario might be familiar: You sit down with a novice after a lesson observation, prepared to deliver a classic compliment sandwich. Compliment, “bad news,” then compliment.
You open by praising how well the teacher’s class handled its “do now” routine, with nearly every student responding to the bell ringer right away. Notes in hand, you continue, “I see you only had a handful of students actually involved in your class discussion; why do you think that was?”
Before you can add your planned second compliment about how efficiently students turned in their exit tickets, the novice’s shoulders drop. They mutter something about how the class was “just quiet today.” Then they pose the question that mentors hear frequently: “So what should I have done?”
Why Speaking Up Doesn’t Always Make You More Visible
Two people speak up in the same meeting.
Both say something worth saying. One of them gets heard. Someone then repeats the point back an hour later and credits them by name, and by Thursday they are in the follow-up conversation. The other person gets barely a nod, and the conversation moves on.
Ask anyone who was sitting there what the difference was and you will get a shrug. Something about presence. Something about confidence. Nothing you could write down and practice on Monday.
But I’ll suggest it’s none of those things. The difference is not the words, and it is not the delivery. It happened about thirty seconds before either of them opened their mouth.
If you have ever walked out of a meeting knowing you said something important and were still not heard, that gap is likely what you were feeling.
Many Teachers Are Bored in Team Meetings. Here’s How to Keep Them Engaged
Elisa MacDonald’s first day as a teacher in the mid 1990s was unusual.
She had applied for a job with a public school in Boston but never heard back. That is, until the school’s secretary frantically called her, asking: “‘How fast can you get dressed?’ she asked me,” said MacDonald, recalling how she learned that she had the job. “That was my first day.”
The surprises didn’t stop there. Early in her first week, MacDonald was asked to lead a team meeting with unfamiliar colleagues and assigned to lead the group for the whole year. MacDonald was told to simply “slap an agenda together,” but she knew that wasn’t the best use of teachers’ time. As she led more meetings, MacDonald realized that team meetings needed a revamp—shifting from a boring, bureaucratic exercise to a space where adults could learn, practice new skills, and share experiences.
3-2-1: What good judgement requires, how to direct your attention, and the hidden path to happiness
3 Ideas From Me
I.
“The measure of a life is not what you consume, but what you contribute.
Spend less time owning, consuming, taking. Spend more time giving, creating, making.”
II.
“Everyone wants to be happy now, but it might be better to optimize for being satisfied later.
Perhaps the key to happiness is to not worry about being happy today, but rather to make choices that will leave your future self feeling satisfied with how you chose to live. Do you feel a sense of satisfaction with the choices you made? With the way you lived today? With the things you chose to focus on over the last year? Are you “happy” with the impact you are making?
Momentary happiness is hard to predict, but deep satisfaction is easier to control. It is on the other side of good choices, good habits, and meaningful impact.”
When you’re held to a different standard, defy expectations
Female leaders in K12 are held to a different standard, which sometimes forces female leaders to hold themselves to a higher standard, Superintendent Zandra Jo Galván acknowledges. Her answer: flip the switch, defy expectations.
“It’s never crowded when you go the extra mile,” Galván, superintendent of California’s Salinas Union High School District, tells host Amy Dujon on the latest episode of DA’s “A Good Lesson” podcast. “If you’re going to hold me to a different standard, or expect something different out of a woman, let me show others what’s possible.”
Aspiring female leaders often wait longer to apply for promotions, and are asked more questions and given more responsibilities once they become superintendents, Galván attests. “We have what it takes, yet we wait a long time to make sure everything is just right,” she adds.
Clarity During Uncertainty
You don’t need certainty to have clarity.
Uncertainty means you can’t predict the future. Clarity shapes your actions.
You can’t predict outcomes. You can choose direction.
Clarity During Uncertainty
Waiting for certainty is paralysis.
You don’t know why sales dropped 20%. One leader says, “Let’s wait until things become clearer.”
Another leader says, “Focus on retaining key customers. Let’s preserve cash. Keep our best people. Set up a team to evaluate this situation and to plan next steps.”
You can’t predict the storm. You can adjust the sails.
Clarity is more than setting direction. It’s also creating confidence.
What Excites and Scares Principals Walking Into New Jobs
The start of the school year can be a nervous time for everyone—a student starting middle school, a teacher fresh out of college, or a principal starting a new job at a different school.
For Katie Law, moving to the principalship of the 200-student Wyoming Indian High School after 18 years at Arapaho Charter School on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming is both daunting and exciting. In her new role, she’ll get to try out her successful strategies to reduce absenteeism and boost family engagement on a much larger canvas.
“It was a lot easier in a school of 60 with maybe 10 of them having some attendance issues to be able to kind of track down those 10 kids. Is that system that I had in place going to work in this school?” said Law.
3-2-1: On the power of curiosity, winning vs. improving, and taking control of your to-do list
I.
“Being curious and excited can take you far, especially over the long arc of a life. The person who is a voracious lifelong learner will figure it out eventually. A strong reader with a healthy dose of curiosity and a willingness to try things is hard to stop.”
II.
“Delaying a conversation doesn’t make it easier.”
III.
“Who is initiating the items on your to-do list?
When I’m most productive, I decide what I want to create and work on the task that will help build my vision.
When I am less productive, I spend my day responding to what someone else sends to me — emails, texts, etc. — and often that means I end up building someone else’s vision.”