Four Ways to Stay Motivated as a School Superintendent by Ty Howard – [ Article ]
Copyright © 2018 by Ty Howard. All rights reserved.
In the majority of school districts across the United States, there is a set of issues and problems that are becoming the main tension line for school superintendents. In some states, superintendents are leading by example and working the best they can to stay in front of challenges like ensuring quality education for all, building student character, keeping educators happy and engaged, alleviating bullying, increasing civility, addressing substance abuse, and maintaining safe schools. Now more than ever ― it is urgently important for all school superintendents to not only take care of their schools, school board leaders, administrators, teachers, students, staff members, parents, and partnerships within the community, but they ultimately must take good care of themselves as well.
Here are four ways for you, as a school superintendent, to stay motivated, positive, productive, effective, resilient, and happy in your daily performance.
1: Grade and Refine Your Professional Effectiveness, Daily:
If I asked you on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being good enough and 5 being exceptionally effective, how would you grade your daily professional effectiveness as a school superintendent?
When you’re exceptionally effective at work, your daily performance results will show that you manage your time well, communicate clearly, build cohesive teams, execute an ongoing strategic plan, control stress, and have a good attitude and perspective on your purpose at work.
Exceptionally effective superintendents are often the most respected and the most productive in their school districts. They often conduct a job analysis to uncover what their job is really about and build positive professional and community-based relationships to keep themselves motivated for success.
2: Incorporate Compassion into Your Leadership Success Habits:
Compassion is an essential skill for effective leaders. Compassionate leadership begins with the courageous ability to see as others see and feel as others feel; it has also referred to as leading with both the head and heart. Research shows that dedicated mindfulness diffuses conflict, builds collaboration, increases healthy behavior, and helps you to better perform under pressure while positively influencing the behavior and well-being of others.
By practicing authentic empathy, you as a school superintendent better position yourself to cultivate mindfulness in others, enabling them to fulfill their potential and to elicit it from those around them for a greater good throughout the school district.
3: Seek Positive Help and Professional Development, Often:
To be mentioned with the best of the best of school superintendents today, you should commit to seeking positive help and take professional development courses, often. Seek and confirm a reliable and active mentor, if you do not have one already. Then surround yourself with positive and effective people that you can call on for advice, support, and strategic guidance. We win in life with positive and successful people within our personal and professional network.
It’s also important that you keep learning and developing your skills. To begin with, carry out a Personal SWOT Analysis to identify the areas that you need to work on and improve. In addition to the technical skills required to do your job, you also need to develop your soft skills continuously. These include areas such as leadership skills, emotional intelligence skills, innovative thinking, and problem-solving skills. Anything you can do to improve these skills will pay off in your professional effectiveness and keep you up-to-date.
4: Take Criticism Positively and Appreciate Yourself, Daily:
Most importantly of all, you need to keep your behavior appropriately professional and positive when it comes to criticism. The ability to positively handle criticism is one of the most valuable aspects of effective leadership today. If at any stage of your duty of being a school superintendent you are criticized, take it as a helpful review and opportunity for improvement.
A little bit of criticism can be a good thing. But when criticism exceeds your ability to cope with it effectively, your productivity goes down, your emotional intelligence goes down, and your mood suffers. You can lose your ability to make solid, rational decisions; and too much stress can cause health problems, both in the short and long term.
Each day, practice self-appreciation. That’s right—appreciate yourself and your purpose! Self-appreciation is the practice of removing any judgment, doubt, or question about the value you bring to your work, school district, and to the world.
If you are a passion-driven and active school superintendent—I applaud you for being an inspirational and courageous executive leader in education. The above four strategies can assist you daily to being a part of the solution, achieving the goals of quality education, making an ongoing difference, and creating and leaving a lasting legacy for others to appreciate, model and follow.
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Hello! Thank you for visiting and reading this article. If you’re a school superintendent, what is a positive way you get and stay motivated? Kindly tell us in the comment box below. Thank you in advance for sharing!
About the Author: Ty Howard,
Mr. Untie the Knots®,
True Greatness Is — As True Greatness Does!
Ty Howard is America’s Untie the Knots® Consultant, and Capturing Greatness and Passion Expert. Over the past 21 years, he has spoken to nearly 3 million teenagers, education professionals, school superintendents, governing school board members, early education professionals, student leaders, student athletes, school bus drivens, school resource officers, school nurses, school counselors, parents, fatherhood groups, youth development professionals, and associations across the nation and around the world. For information on his programs and services, visit: http://capturinggreatness.com.
