Burn the Boats!

Have you ever been faced with a situation in which you were not sure you could get full support from your team?  A situation that required complete buy-in from all constituents, yet you doubted standard operating procedures would garner that support?  Well, I have a strategy for you!  I know how to get the support you need—burn the boats!

                Hernan Cortes arrived in Mexico in early 1519 on shaky ground.  His commission legalizing his trip to Mexico has been canceled and he doubted the loyalty of his men.  He was a long way from home, his support was dwindling, and failure looked inevitable, so he burned the boats.  Now, there truly was no turning back; no way to head home,  Cortes left them with no choice but to press on.  He took away any safety net his men believed they had and gave them no choice but to continue to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan and face down the most-feared warriors in the area.  No matter what you think of Cortes, he was successful implementing this strategy given that he went on to conquer the Aztec empire and four years later he was named Governor and Captain-General of New Spain.

                Last year was my first year as a school leader and with the support of my administrative team, we decided to burn the boats.  We wanted our school community to know we were serious about academic achievement.  We wanted them to believe us when we said it was unacceptable for any students to fail.  I saw the eyes rolling and the looks between some staff members when we told them it was unacceptable for students to fail.  Moreover, we knew that some of our students had heard this message before and believed they could always rely upon summer school to get to the next grade.  We knew all of this, so we figuratively burned the boats.  I spent the money we allocated for summer school.  Technically I reallocated it and informed our staff and students we were going to do it right the first time and not have a need for summer school.  We did this knowing that over 30% of our students were retained or had to attend summer school the previous year.  In short, we gave them no other options.  Did it work?  Last year we promoted 99.9925% of our students to the following grade and had an aggregate academic average of 83%.  If you really want to get something done, burn the boats.  Give people no other option but to press on and move forward.  Burn the boats: make failure painful and most people will work their tails off to avoid it.

                

Position Yourself To Win!

I knew Alabama would win yesterday.  Okay, to those of you who know me well, you are probably rolling your eyes and thinking, "Tell me something I don't know."  I am a huge "homer" when it comes to the University of Alabama and I generally believe they are going to win every football game.  Now, if you are not a sports fan, don't worry, I am going to bring this back to leadership and life, but you will have to bear with me for just a bit longer.

Yesterday the University of Alabama traveled to College Station, Texas to square off against the Aggies from Texas A&M University and last year's Heisman Trophy winner, Johnny Manziel.  Now if you follow football, that is enough said.  However, for those who are not college football fans let me just say that Johnny Manziel is about the most exciting player in college football and Kyle Field, where the Aggies play, might just be one of the biggest home field advantages in all of college football.  That is to say, my beloved Crimson Tide had their work cut out for them.  Nonetheless, I believed deep in my heart that the Crimson Tide would prevail, because they had put themselves in position to win.  You see, while the Crimson Tide were preparing for this game, the Aggies were dealing with discipline issues.  A total of eight players were suspended for all or part of the first game of the season, including Mr. Manziel,  and at least four players were suspended for all or part of their second game.  Put simply, the Aggies did not put themselves in position to win considering they were going up against the #1 team in all of college football.

I thought about this quite a bit the weeks prior to the game, but related it more to life than the upcoming game.  How many times have we failed to put ourselves in position to win in life?  It is easy to criticize these student-athletes, but how do we fare when we perform a self-assessment?  How many times have we done that which we know we ought not to do?  How many times have we taken a short cut?  How often have we shown up late or even "mailed it in?"  Life is difficult enough with all it throws at us, but often we are our own worst enemy--just like these young men from Texas A&M.  Each of us, I would argue, knows what we are SUPPOSED to do and even when we are supposed to do it, but we fail to mange the moment.  Far too often we don't make the decision we know we should make.  We put our selfish interests ahead of our team or we allow what we believe to be good in the short-term to trump what we know to be good long-term.  Life often comes down to being bigger than the moment, making the right decision even when we don't want to go that way.  However, getting into the habit of mastering these small moments will make it that much easier to choose correctly when faced with some of life's toughest choices.  Remember, what we do today, or leave undone, always has consequences for tomorrow.

Those We Love And Those Who Need Our Love

School doors open around Michigan tomorrow.  Most teachers already have their homeroom and class rosters and have no doubt given it the once-over and made mental notes about the students in their classes.  I have no doubt that some teachers are eagerly anticipating seeing certain students in their classrooms as they have heard great things from other staff members or have prior experience with elder siblings.  On the other hand, there are those names that make us pause and perhaps say a silent prayer, as our colleagues have shared numerous horror stories about this student or that student.  Perhaps we have even had their siblings in our classes and we remember how challenging they were.  Generally, the former are those we love and the latter are those we hope miss a few days here and there.  However, it is the latter group of students that most needs our attention, our extra effort, and, yes, our love.  These are the students that struggle to conform to the routine of the school-day, they tend to chafe under the consistency of school because they live in such an inconsistent environment.  Their behavior is by-and-large determined by the context in which they live.  Go easy tomorrow.  Be kind, be understanding, be firm, but be gentle; what we do this week will set the tone for the remainder of the year.  Our words and actions will create the context in our schools that leads to the behaviors we desire or adds to the challenges we face.  Create a great year!