Back to School: Teachers are Our Early Leaders-Have You Thanked The Ones that Made a Difference?

August 19, 2009 By 6 Comments

Note from Art: Every year I write a “Back to School” piece to celebrate what I believe is one of the great milestones of the year.  While your teenagers might beg to disagree, in reality, most are bored by summer vacation and ready to get back to friends, football games and yes, even classes.  It’s a fresh start filled with endless possibilities for learning and growth.  This year we’re back to school with both sons at college, and I continue living vicariously in education by serving as an adjunct professor starting in a few weeks.  I love fall!

My “Back to School” theme this year is one of giving thanks to that special educator that made a difference in your life.

Have you Thanked the Teachers That Made a Difference?

By a show of hands, how many of you have gone back and thanked that one teacher that had such a profound impact on you that he or she may have helped set you on course for your life and career?

Hmmmm, I didn’t think so.

I bet you’ve thought about it, like I have, but haven’t taken that extra step. After all, teachers are timeless, aren’t they? Certainly, they are locked in our minds as they were when we were younger. As nice as that sounds, we all know that they grow older like the rest of us and retire to give way to the next generation of educators.

With school starting back up in most parts of the country during the next few weeks, now would be a good time to reach out to that teacher from 20 or 30 years ago and let them know that they made a difference. Catch them before they move off into retirement. I believe my former favorite teach just recently retired, and now I’m stuck trying to look him up, when I had almost 30 years to drop him a note at school. Talk about procrastination!

I have no doubt that your expression of appreciation will be well received.  Since few teachers that I’ve ever met are in it for the money, the knowledge that he or she made a difference will help reinforce their own earlier decision to dedicate a lifetime to serving as an educator.

Don’t Procrastinate, Thank Someone Now!

Another way to offer thanks is to provide a shout-out to the teacher here on the blog. I’ll start things rolling and hope to entice a few of you into sharing your “inspiring teacher” stories here.

My special thanks goes to Mr. Dennis McSherry of John Hersey High School in Arlington Heights, IL. Mr. McSherry was the Speech Teacher, and is the person responsible for helping me understand how important it is to work hard at becoming an effective communicator. He taught the Introduction to Speech course as well as Argumentation (something I was naturally suited for), as well as courses in Broadcasting. Additionally, he ran the Debate team.

He convinced me to join the Debate team when it was considered less than cool by the cliques that determined what was or was not cool, and I had a blast and learned a lot about myself in the process. Since I’ve never really been cool anyways, I guess I fit in.  Ironically, way back in 1978, the subject was something like, “Resolved, a system of national health care funded by taxpayers and administered by the government is critical to the health of our country.” While I’m sure those were not the exact words, it was something pretty close. I worked the negative side of that debate. It’s a bit disturbing that it is still THE subject of debate here in our country.

I recall that Mr. McSherry was passionate about all things “speech” and he helped take the fear out of the activity by relating to the students and making us comfortable with the processes and approaches of effective speakers. To this day, I carry those lessons with me every time I speak on stage, in the classroom or am working and talking with one of my teams.

Thanks Mr. McSherry!

The Bottom Line:

Teachers are the early leaders in our lives. Like the bosses we work for, some relationships are just passing acquaintanceship and the lessons of others are with us for a lifetime. Treasure those leaders and teachers that make the difference and offer up that one overdue note of thanks. You’ll make someone’s day.

Filed Under: "To Do" List, Career, Leadership, Professional Growth Tagged With: , , , , ,

Seven Survival Tips for the Newly Independent

February 11, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I suspect that we are all engaging with former colleagues, friends and family members that have recently been furloughed from the corporate world. 

A few that I have spoken with are struggling to adapt to the new reality and are finding themselves floundering as they struggle to replace the comfortable routine of getting up and going somewhere with wandering around the house wondering what to do and where to start.  

Here are some ideas that I’ve either learned myself over time or have gained from others that have mastered the art of working alone and managing themselves without the services and security of a mother ship.  I would love to hear your suggestions as well

7 Suggestions to Survive and Prosper in your Period of Corporate Independence:

1. Define your new work, establish goals and create and work your plan. 

If you are looking for a job, that is your full time job.  Set goals for yourself. Create plans to achieve the goals and dive into your new work.  A number of people I know like to establish daily targets for networking and prospecting activities.

If your new work is reinventing yourself or pursuing a venture other than a job, it may be a bit harder to set goals…but you need to identify the priority activities that will move you towards your objective and focus on those activities.  Exploration, networking, research, plan development, vetting, more networking and so on. 

2. Create a new routine.

Allow yourself to enjoy the break from fighting traffic every morning, but don’t lounge away your time reading the paper.  I like to hit my home office with cup of coffee in hand by 5:30 a.m.  I allocate 45 minutes to write a post and then I’m off to the races on my priority tasks. (Note: not all of the neurons are firing this early, which explains my occasional typos and editing lapses!)  Breakfast consists of a run for another cup of coffee, enough time as it takes me to assemble a bowl of oatmeal, add milk and raisins, heat it in the microwave and return to my desk.  Elapsed time: about 3 minutes.

Depending upon what I’m working on, I’ve identified optimal times for networking calls and prospecting as well as time for content creation/preparation for the next engagement etc.  It took some experimenting, but there are better times to catch people than others, as any salesperson will tell you.

 3. Give yourself a routine break and work off stress.

Some new independents have a severe guilt complex if they vary the routine off of work.  If that ‘s you, get over it.  There’s nothing more energizing for me than the mid-day workout at the health club.  As long as I’m comfortable that I am not missing prime networking opportunities, an investment in one hour at the club returns huge dividends in the form of stress relief and energizing you for the next part of your day. Oh, you can turn this into a networking opportunity.  Unplug the headphones from your ears and say hello to the person next to you on the treadmill.  It might just be the CEO of the company down the street that is looking for someone like you.

 4. Learn to leverage the new technologies but don’t become consumed.

I’m a huge fan of the power of social networking technologies and am active on LinkedIn and Twitter.  I do however set strict time limits on my use of these services.  I allocate 15 minutes per weekday.  Otherwise, it would be possible to get lost in an on-line existence. 

I’m still under 1-month new to Twitter, but I’ve met a number of great professionals who are now part of my extended network. A few benefits thus far: I’ve conducted and have scheduled numerous phone calls with prospective clients or partners that I met on Twitter.  I’ve been invited to be interviewed for a podcast aimed right at my target market, and I’m talking with other successful bloggers about exchanging guest posts.  My blog traffic is up considerably thanks to the Twitter referrals and the free access to new prospective readers. Plus, I’ve reconnected with former associates in a way that a simple phone call would never allow.  We are interacting daily…140 characters at a time. There’s something to it, and you need to approach it with clear objectives in mind. 

Also, as an fyi, that was a long commercial for Twitter.  LinkedIn offers some remarkably powerful professional networking tools.  You should learn how to leverage this great service. It may be one of your best friends in a job search.

5. Invest in yourself.

I don’t care what you do, but do something that shows that you are concerned about your own personal/professional development.  Take a class, read books, start a blog and immerse yourself in a topic to feed the creation of posts.  Start your MBA or explore courses that fit with your business or career aspirations.  Do something productive with your brain or it will atrophy or worse yet, it will allow negative thoughts to take root and grow like wildfire. 

6. Help others. 

Strive to give way more than you are asking for.  Help others with their networking activities.  Help at school, at church or check to see if your county has a Volunteer Center.  I am now on the board of my county’s Volunteer Center and excited to be helping this organization recast its vision and strategy.  

7. Stay positive, celebrate your victories and your progress.   

Don’t preoccupy on the defeats and rejections.  Again, every great salesperson knows this style of thinking.  They have to stay positive or the rejection would push them over the edge.

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There are many, many more ideas.  Feel free to share your own in the comments. 

My bottom-line for now is: keep moving, keep thinking, keep planning, follow-up and keep improving. 

 

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Back to School!

August 25, 2008 By 6 Comments

We delivered our oldest son to college on Friday and our high school senior survived (barely) the annual “first day of school picture” in our backyard this morning.  I am busy preparing class  materials for my Fall MBA courses and it feels like summer is officially over regardless of what the meteorological calendar says.

I love “Back to School” time every year.  There’s a palpable level of excitement in the air tinged with just a bit of sadness about the end of vacations, beach reading and weekend barbecues.  It’s also a time where education is (or should be) the focal point in many households as students and parents get ready for homework, tests and projects.  And while we all know that education and learning have no season, our reliance in the U.S. Midwest on an arcane but not unpleasant long summer break (versus year-around school interspersed with shorter breaks in many other regions), makes the return to school all the more dramatic. 

One of the things we often lose as busy working adults is that sense of excitement about learning.  It’s easy to let years and even decades slip by and focus on everything but our own self-development.  Sure, we attend mandated training in our company and possibly even the periodic seminar to earn the Continuing Education Units (CEUs) mandated by our professional certifying organizations.  Unfortunately, neither of those formats creates the exhilarating sense of learning and discovery that we may have had at some time earlier in our lives, but lost along the way to becoming responsible adults.

As a hiring manager for many years and now as a leadership development trainer and consultant, I’ve talked with hundreds of people about their continuing education, and I am always surprised when people struggle to describe anything substantive in this area.  Somewhere earlier in my school career, I remember an educator banging the drum repeatedly that “learning is a life-long process,” and I believed him. 

It’s my observation that the most capable and most successful individuals are constantly seeking knowledge, relentlessly working to expand their skills and often driven by some inner-sense of the need to learn through exposure to new ideas.  If you fit this description, quit reading and get back to what you were doing.  If you have to go back decades to recall the last course you took or the last time you read a book that wasn’t on the fiction best-seller list (nothing wrong with fiction best sellers, but diversity is good), here’s a list of activities to help you rekindle your love of learning and your pursuit of knowledge:

  • Join a local book club (contact your library for ideas) and gain from the perspectives of others and the rigor of having to stay on task with your reading assignments.
  • Start and lead a book club at your place of work—you might even get the company to pay for the books!
  • Spend some time researching the state of the art in education and certifications for your profession.  If you end up feeling hopelessly outdated, it’s time to take the next step and choose a workshop, a certification program or even another degree program.
  • If you hate the idea of physically attending class, investigate on-line opportunities.  The number of programs delivered on-line is growing daily and the flexibility is great for busy people.
  • Consider a program outside your core field of expertise.  In the Chicago-area, Northwestern, University of Chicago and DePaul all have some remarkable humanities and literature programs that are designed for and filled with doctors, lawyers, teachers and professionals from every other possible vocation.  If you don’t want the rigor of a degree investigate certificate options or possibly even just auditing a course.  Individuals that I know that have gone through these courses credit them for helping open their eyes to a whole world of ideas that they didn’t know existed.
  • More reading.  Put down the trade journals for a while and pursue something in the history or biography sections.  It’s remarkable what we learn from studying what others have already gone through.
  • Executive Education can be exhilarating.  I go to Kellogg to recharge and I always leave a program with ideas to help improve my performance and my business.  Exec Ed is big business and big $, but many companies support the initiative.
  • Take advantage of tuition reimbursement dollars from your company.  Most organizations never spend what they’ve budgeted in this area.  You can help solve this problem.
  • Seek out a mentor.  Depending upon where you are at in your career, this can be an enlightening experience. If you are beyond the “seeking” phase, consider becoming a mentor.
  • Teach a class.  A wise person indicated that if you want to learn about something, sign up to teach a class about it. 
  • Volunteer to lead an initiative in the community.  Some of the best leaders and project managers that I know are found on the teams and programs in schools and churches.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

The brain is a lot like the body…use it and it stays fit and ready for action.  Allow it to atrophy and everything becomes a struggle.  You have a remarkable capacity to learn.  Whether you use it or not is up to you. 

The concept of the Learning Organization is well established and widely acknowledged as a requirement for realizing and sustaining success.  Senge described the need to not only create organizations that learn and adapt, but to realize those that become generative and to create their own futures.  Your ability to consistently add value to your organization is in large part related to your active pursuit of new ideas and new ways of looking at the world. 

What’s on your mind today?

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