Tag: The Leader Inside

Embracing Opportunities

On By LaurenMKaufmanIn 1. Mission, Vision, and Core Values, 6. Professional Capacity of School Personnel, 7. Professional Community for Teachers and Staff, Personal Learning, Professional Standards For Educational Leaders4 Comments

A Calling

Teaching and leading is not just something you do, it’s a calling; it’s a beautiful gift; it’s an opportunity to unleash the talents within every human being you encounter; it’s a time to cultivate powerful relationships that have the chance to stand the test of time; teaching and leading creates a space to collaborate with colleagues and builds bridges to connect previous learning to new and innovative ideas. Educators and leaders are responsible for shaping significant moments in time that can leave profound imprints in the hearts and minds of every learner and colleague they touch. Teaching and leading is also hard work. It can be extremely emotional. It can be draining. But, it’s so incredibly rewarding. That said, as an educator and leader, how will you leverage your experiences to serve as a mentor for your colleagues, staff, and students, fostering their personal and professional growth in a way that leaves a lasting impact on their journeys? 

The Leader Lives Inside

The journey to becoming a great educator and leader is an ongoing process of self-discovery and eternal growth. The mentors who were and continue to be placed in your path have played a crucial role in helping you bring out the best version of yourself. As you continue to discover the leader that lives inside you, you may recognize the significant influence your mentors have contributed to the educator and leader you are becoming.

When you take a journey back in time, can you still see and hear the people who believed in your gifts and unleashed the leader inside you? I can. My story starts at a young age. When I close my eyes, I can still see myself sitting at my desk in my 4th-grade classroom. I don’t remember other classrooms as vividly as I remember this one. I can clearly see my teacher, Mrs. Roth, greeting me at the door, wearing a genuine smile of hope, and offering sincere nods of encouragement. I can feel her positive spirit permeating through my malleable heart. When you are a young learner, you are more impressionable. So, when you are lucky enough to have teachers with high emotional intelligence, they can be more responsive and less reactive to your needs. There were times I could feel myself losing the confidence I needed when learning new things or doing hard things. Regardless of how I felt, Mrs. Roth showed me appreciation for the person I had the potential to become. For example, I was a struggling reader, who lacked the stamina to persevere through a reading or writing task. When Mrs. Roth saw my head meeting my desk, I heard, “Lauren, you can do this. You’re a reader. Lauren, yes, you can do this. You’re a writer.” When I was charged with the privilege of reading aloud to younger students to instill a love of reading while improving my own reading abilities, I would hear, “Lauren, yes, you can do this. Those little ones look up to you. You’re a role model. You’re a leader.” 

Embracing Opportunities

As you progress in your career as an educator, it’s crucial to prioritize the needs and goals of students and keep them at the heart of decision-making. As you keep your eyes open to new opportunities that align with this purpose, you’ll not only develop your own capacity but also inspire and uplift those around you. It always feels important to acknowledge and appreciate the people in your past and present who have enriched your educational experiences. There will also be people you have yet to meet who will make vital contributions to your growth, and shape the leader you are striving to become. Those people are awaiting your arrival at your next destination because you were meant to be there, with them. In the book The Infinite Game, Simon Sinek shares “Faith is knowing that you’re on a team, even if you don’t know who the players are.” Consider every moment on your journey as a significant step towards your future. Every action you choose to take is a chance to refine ideas and collaborate with individuals you may have not known existed. When you approach every observation and interaction as a learning experience, you are enhancing your leadership lens and embracing new opportunities that nurture your talents in unanticipated times and places. In best selling book, Atomic Habits James Clear shares “Every action we take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.” When you are striving to be your personal best, you are taking necessary actions to step out of your comfort zone to explore other opportunities a little more deeply.

Moving Forward

My commitment to stepping out of my comfort zone remains unwavering and I am grateful to share that in my upcoming book, I will be illuminating stories that highlight the leader that lives within each of us.  I am grateful for the support and guidance of George and Paige Couros of IMPress books, who have always encouraged me to write, believed in me, and empowered me to amplify my voice and the voices of others. I am also appreciative of Dave and Shelley Burgess for this opportunity. As a result of my own experiences and the mentorship of great educators, leaders, and friends over the course of my life, I am committed to continuing reflecting on my learning, writing more blog posts, and using my upcoming book to connect with, empower, and inspire others to step out of their comfort zones to embrace new opportunities. My hope is that this book serves as a mentor that can lead the greater educational community to pathways of hope and promise. These defining moments in our journeys shape who we were, who we are, and who we are destined to become.  

The Leader Inside

On By LaurenMKaufmanIn 1. Mission, Vision, and Core Values, 2. Ethics and Professional Norms, 6. Professional Capacity of School Personnel, 7. Professional Community for Teachers and Staff, Professional Standards For Educational Leaders, Uncategorized

Leadership is a choice. It rests on the shoulders of influence and inspiration, not compliance and control. Leadership is not a title, it’s an opportunity to recognize the greatness that lives inside others. It’s not about taking the credit for the work, but giving it to others. Leadership is about inspiring others to cultivate confidence in themselves so they can breathe life into ideas that will awaken their soul. Leadership is harnessing the gifts that are manifesting within. It’s letting others recognize their potential by planting seeds that they can nurture and grow.

Salute the Person

Growing up, I had leaders all around me. My Dad was one of them. He was and still is a well-respected educator who put people first. As a matter of fact, since he was an educator in the town I grew up in, we could not stop at a local restaurant or store without his former students running up to him and thanking him for his kindness, support, and the lessons learned from his classes. I still live where I grew up and the first thing people ask me is, “How is your Dad, Lauren? Please send him my best, he had a positive impact on me.” Although my Dad didn’t hold a formal leadership title, I always knew that he was a leader who left a legacy of influence in the hearts and minds of the students and colleagues he served. I also know that he learned this from his father who was a leader in his community and spent a lot of his time giving back to people who were less fortunate than him. As I journeyed through my childhood, teen, and adult years, I still turned to my Dad for advice. One of the pieces of advice he continues to share is, “Lauren, leaders salute the person, not the title. There is a leader inside us all.”

As I have navigated 17 years in education, those words actively live in my mind. I am a natural observer of people. I take great interest in what others say, do, and act on. I look closely at the body language, reactions, and responses of others. I try to understand others perspectives and have empathy for the hidden stories I cannot see. When truly reflecting on the people I have saluted throughout my life in any capacity, the common gifts they possess are their ability to lead through inspiration. I can still hear and see the leaders who didn’t limit my potential, instead, they fueled it. When I formally stepped into leadership, I often reflect on the experiences that shaped the leader I am becoming.

Three actions that have inspired me to unleash the leader inside:

Trusting People: My 5th grade teacher saw the leader inside of me. She recognized a shy girl’s potential to lead and support others. She chose me to take on the responsibility of being a 1st- grade class helper. Every Friday, I woke up in the morning with some extra pep in my step. I knew that I would be spending a period in Ms. Miller’s 1st-grade classroom where she gave me the responsibility of facilitating a small reading group. It felt so good to feel important, to sit in front of a group of students and model what it meant to be a good reader even though I was a reader who had challenges of my own. Looking back, I think my 5th-grade teacher knew that I lacked confidence with reading and asked a 1st-grade teacher to let me lead this work so I could develop confidence of my own. In the book Trust and Inspire by Stephen Covey, he shares, “Operating with a trust and inspire mindset means you manage things and you lead people.” When we lead people by elevating them, it helps them to recognize their strengths. They may not see the power of that move in the moment, but will eventually recognize its impact.

Asking Good Questions: Recently, my superintendent shared an article with our leadership team during a professional learning session titled, “A Beautiful Question” by Jim Knight. Knight shares, “Good questions are real manifestations of your curiosity and caring. Good questions are like intellectual fireworks, leading to explosions of ideas and more learning for the questioner and the conversation partner.” Although I highly recommend reading the article, there are really two ideas I want to highlight. One is that my superintendent is masterful at planting seed ideas within the people she serves. She is always sharing resources, quotes, and thoughts that spark collaboration and innovation among her team. I have seen this happen through a simple group text message. All she has to do is share an article in a text and ask one question, “What do you think?” This brings me to my 2nd idea and that is that great questions can lead to more creation and meaningful conversations. Once the article is in the group text, it takes minutes before there is an explosion of back and forth conversation in the text thread between her leadership team. I have seen the new ideas get implemented only days after the intellectual fireworks commenced! She is leveraging our intellectual power and elevating the leaders inside us.

Choosing Words Wisely: When bringing out the leader in people, we must recognize the powerful impact words have on ourselves and others. In the book The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, there is a chapter titled, Be Impeccable With Your Words: Thanks to ChatGPT, I curated some of the quotes from the chapter:

  1. “The words we speak create our reality.”
  2. “Whatever we swear to, we create the truth.”
  3. “The word is a force, and it can create happiness or suffering.”
  4. “It’s not what you say, but how you say it.”
  5. “The way we communicate can either heal or destroy.”
  6. “The first agreement is the key to everything, because it opens the door to the other three agreements.”
  7. “Be impeccable with your word, and you will avoid your word becoming a poison that destroys yourself and others.”

Everyone’s perception is their reality. As leaders, when we are mindful of the words we use, we can better help others recognize the leader that lives inside them. You can help others shape the perception of themselves by positively communicating ideas, intention, purpose, and instill happiness that leads to bringing out the best in those you serve. Those actions directly impact every stakeholder in your organization and at the heart of it all, students.

Moving Forward

When you salute the person and not the title, there is greater potential to find more leaders living among us. You have the potential to rekindle and ignite the spirit and joy within others. Great leaders inspire others to have confidence inside themselves. People yearn to be inspired. Breathe life into their gifts and ideas and show them the leader that awaits inside.