Leadership in a Tweet

I had the pleasure last week to teach a class of heads of school and principals on leadership. When I asked them to tweet me what leadership means to them, here is what I received from several members of the class:

• Being a value-based person with a clear direction willing to be joined by and support others.
• The art of assisting others in developing and applying their skills for the good of others.
• A proposed cycle: listen, observe, analyze, communicate, serve, empower, protect, host, nurture, encourage, rest, play and repeat.
• Engaging others in the actualization of core values in the service of a higher purpose.
• Attend. Listen. Observe. Consider. Connect. Engage. Decide. Inspire. Nudge. Assist. Reflect. Adjust. Celebrate. Translate. Share. Step aside
• Inspiring others to do more and to be more.  A true leader leads by example and fosters leadership in others.
• Serving others; taking responsibility for other’s well-being & growth; willing to learn from others; & having the courage to forge new path.

Such good tweets.

Reading to Preschools — a Delight

While I was reading The Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen and Dan Hanna to a class of preschoolers, I turned the last page, ended the book, and smiled at their joy of hearing this wonderful story.

Immediately, a five-year old child raised her hand and said, “It seems to me that there is one more page to the book.” I smiled and said, “Hmm, let’s check to see.” To everyone’s delight, I did forget to turn to the very last page, and we all had a good laugh.

Caring For the Head of a School

For those of you who are a head of school, trustee, teacher, or parent, you might be interested in reading about caring for the head of school. Here is an article I wrote, "Care of the Head" and below is a webinar, "Caring for Your Head." Both the article and webinar can be especially helpful to school boards and school owners.

Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging

Be it a family, a classroom, a school, or a larger community, Sebastian Junger's latest book Tribe has so much to say about building lasting, purposeful communities—small and large—and humanity. This is particularly important as we reflect on the shootings in Minnesota and Dallas.

One of my favorite excerpts from this short and powerful book is basic advice he quotes from the George Washington Law Review, a 2015 survey of more than 6,000 lawyers.

“. . . human beings need three basic things in order to be content: they need to feel competent at what they do, authentic in their lives, connected to others." (From pages 21-22)

Here is a seven minute interview with Junger on the PBS NewsHour:

Reading to Children is for the Child AND the Adult

Listening to Sherman Alexie's interview on Tuesday night's PBS News Hour, he talked about his newest book — a children's book — Thunder Boy Jr..

In the interview, he states "Well, the big thing is, you spend — probably you want the book to be about 70 percent for the kid and about 30 percent for the adult reading to the kid." I immediately thought of how the TV hit series The Simpsons is written to appeal to young people AND adults.