Carie Johannsen
Forget Pecking order
I enjoyed this video and love when someone can express in words what you have thought but never knew how to organize into words. I have been in schools with fantastic leadership and leadership that is less than ideal. Recently, I have experienced a less than perfect situation. Margaret Hefferan stated “culture of helpfulness is essential to success” and this could not be truer. When leadership believes they must come up with all the answers on their own the teachers with skills, drive, and determination to help are placed in the goodwill box and closed off.
"...When leadership believes they must come up with all the answers on their own the teachers with skills, drive, and determination to help are placed in the goodwill box and closed off."
The company suffers a tremendous loss when the staff loses focus on a goal that united them. There is a ripple effect when leadership doesn’t cultivate helpfulness. Your "helpers" are being isolated, and you are left with a pile of bricks and no mortar.
What a beautiful visual Margaret Hefferan presented with the mortar being what motivates people.
My son is currently on a football team, and they run drills, practice the plays, and scrimmage, but there is no “team.” They are not encouraged to give high fives when a great play is made or to lift up a team member when they are down. There is no team building aspect of the team, and there is 1 “super chicken” that is able to shine. At last week’s game when they lost the coach stated, “why are you not playing as a team, why?” I wanted to jump over the bleachers in front of me and make my way down to the huddle and give an explanation as to why they were not playing as a team. However, my daughter sitting next to me, assured me that it was a theoretical question. This type of behavior happens all the time in the corporate world and education, and we are left wondering why our students or our companies are no longer performing at the level “they used to perform” or the level we have set for them.
I was a team captain for my volleyball team in high school and college, and since then I have taken on many leadership responsibilities, and it isn’t because I’m a “super chicken.” I was never the best player on the team nor am I the best teacher. I am always working towards great, but there are those that run circles around me and truth be told, many days I’m taking virtual notes expeditiously to learn from them. I do, however, I want to be the best at whatever I do so I rely on those with gifts, to use them, and to collaborate with me so as a team we can be great. “No idea is born fully formed.” This quote from Heffernan should be on the door of every great invention or successful company and school. I’m excited about working with our groups and extremely excited about how we can help each other be better than we were the first day of class.
“No idea is born fully formed”
-Heffernan
