It’s always a joy when I get to sit down and spend time with my friend Carie, a principal in New Jersey. Our conversations flow easily because we’re both genuinely interested in what’s happening in each other’s lives—both professionally and personally.
This week, I had the pleasure of meeting her new assistant principal, Sam. After Carie introduced us and we spent some time getting to know each other, I asked him what the greatest lesson he’s learned from her was in their first month working together. After a thoughtful pause, he mentioned her remarkable ability to listen. I couldn’t agree more—it’s one of the reasons our conversations are always so meaningful.
Another quality I admire about Carie’s leadership is that she’s a “doer.” To me, that’s a significant part of what leadership is about: seeing what needs to be done to create positive change and then making it happen. This can manifest in small, individual acts, like noticing a piece of trash on the hallway floor and taking a moment to pick it up. In fact, these small acts often reveal latent leadership in others, especially in students. More often, leadership is about the more challenging task of creating positive change for and with others—something each of you does every day in your schools.
Despite your best efforts, you’ll inevitably face critics—people standing on the sidelines asking, “Why are we doing this? Is this really necessary? Aren’t we good enough already?” They might say, “I knew this wouldn’t work. I said this was a bad idea.” If you allow it, these voices will grow louder as the school year progresses, if only in your own head. I encourage you to resist believing them, and instead reflect on the words displayed in Carie’s office:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
—Theodore Roosevelt, The Man in the Arena
Each of you is the “Man in the Arena.” By the very nature of your work, you dare greatly every single day. Ignore the critics. Keep moving forward. Keep doing the work. It matters. You matter.
#ChooseToBeGreat
Angelo
CHOOSE TO BE GREAT 