Lessons Learned from the South

I have spent the last three years working in North Carolina and am now shifting to a focus on the midwest. I didn't realize it until this last week but I have learned a lot from the time I have spent there. Since I always have a microfocus on education this reflection is through that lens:

1) You cannot judge someone by their age or by their speed of speech. When I first met the principals and teachers that I was going to be working with I made some prejudgements. An older teacher with low tech skills I wrote off immediately, a principal who spoke slowly and with a heavy accent I determined would not be a strong leader. I was wrong on both counts.

2) When people are ready to change, push them as hard as you can. I initially started out saying things like "I think it would be good to..." and didn't get much mileage. When I started using phrases like "no one has tried that successfully and I am going to coach you away from..." it was much more successful. I think people can hear confidence in your voice and tone and respond accordingly.

3) If you walk into a top-down culture you can't expect a grass roots movement to take fire. You can push from the bottom but you really have to slam-dunk with administrators if you want to get a fast revolution. The other way around is a slow train ride.

4) The most successful approaches in life are when you can make people think it was their idea. My most successful training is when people walk away empowered and say things like "I knew all that stuff already." Makes me look bad but I know that as I disappear from the horizon, the biggest compliment that I can be paid is that they just don't need me anymore.

5) Efficiency is king. If you cannot make your value known to someone in the first five minutes, they don't want you ever. I am still working on a hook but I think I have made progress in that area.

6) If people don't want or need you, then don't pine away after them or try to get them to see it your way. Offer up what you have and provide it to those who want it. If someone takes a personal day while I am on site, or has a meeting that takes precedence, so be it. Making a fuss over someone being out on the one day a quarter I am on campus is bad for them and for me. My new approach is to say "Oh you are going to be out? Have a good time!" If they feel sad about it, then they are simply facing the consequences that these choices bring. I am not going to take it personally either. This is major progress for me by the way.

7) The human ego is fragile. Massage, massage, massage. ALWAYS start with a positive even if you can't really find one at first.

8) If you have a great idea, find four other people and convince them with all your might that this is the one and only right way to do something. If you don't have four people around when the idea gets implemented, it falls apart. Maybe this is why Obama is pleading for Germany.

9) If people are excited and energized by your training and refer to it as "drinking the kool aid" then you know you are doing something great. Someone referred to it as brainwashing last week and I fully and wholeheartedly embrace it.

10) No job is without its heartache and mistakes. I made some early mistakes that have haunted me to this day and I still wonder if I could have done something greater had I done some things better the first year.