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This week presented two interesting challenges. The first was a question from a leader, ‘What do you do to maintain your focus on Wednesday morning when all the pressure is on?’ The second was a quote from Georgia O’Keefe, ‘Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing.’ They each offer different challenges. The first asks if all this thinking really works once reality kicks in, the second questions the value of success criteria. Both remind me that failure is baked in one way or another. What we do may not work at all, work partially or only work until we leave, retire, get bored or something gets in the way. Therefore, we are left asking ourselves whether what we are doing has any value. When things are not perfect, i.e. almost always, the temptation is to doubt ourselves and fold. But a resilient response would be to return to the mission, values and objectives we set and know that we do not need perfection to be successful. Who we are matters at least as much as what we do.

Which brings us to this week’s teacher tip which is to review your progress or, compare what is happening with what you intended. Begin with what is working. Suppose your mission is to teach great lessons and your values include kindness and contentment. Think of your best lesson, an occasion when you were kind and another when you were content. By recalling each of these you will be reminded that you do all these things. More accurately, you are kind, content and teach great lessons. The question is how to be like that more frequently and consistently. Remember your dignity and integrity. Your dignity says that you are valuable, your integrity says that you bring something valuable to other people. Allow that to shape what you do. Try to balance the desire to teach a great lesson every time (integrity) and the desire to be content (dignity). You will never make every lesson great and you will not always be content. But you can be more content when you accept that not every lesson can be the best and enjoy those that are as well as those that are not. This is being kind to yourself and the consequence of doing that is that you will be kinder to other people. The same applies no matter what your mission, values and objectives are, start with the positives and focus on your character. Ultimately, this will make the greatest difference to you and to the people you work with.

In this episode, the headteacher reviews his progress quite publicly. It is high stakes but we need others to hold us accountable, support us, challenge us and let us know when to make a change. To deny your mission, values and objectives is a surefire route to failure. In his case via burn out or being replaced by the governors. Reflecting and refocusing, alone is good but even better is to reflect with a supportive community who remind you that you are not trying to be perfect, you are trying to grow, one step at a time in a particular direction. The fundamental question is, did I take one step forward and how do I do it again?

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