Episode 003: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Private School Leaders

Links and Resources

• CLICK HERE for the 45 minute webinar: "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Private School Teachers" (Please use as a "Plug and Play PD")
• Click here for Guided Notes for the Webinar

Habit #1: Be Proactive

• Remember that YOU have the power to choose how you react to every situation.
• “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” Viktor Frankl
• The BIG KEY here is that every day YOU CHOOSE whether you are a proactive person or a reactive person.
• Every day YOU CHOOSE whether you are a proactive leader or a reactive leader at your private school. 
• Reactive people complain. 
• Complaining gives a person permission to put forth less effort.

Habit #2: Begin With The End In Mind

• Think about what you want people to say about you at your funeral.
• What will they say about you when they read your eulogy?
• Remember that the first thing that you do when going on a trip is enter the destination into your GPS

Habit #3: Put First Things First

• Remember the story of the jar, the big rocks, the pebbles, the sand and the water.
• You must decide on your “big rocks” and put them in first.
• Stop prioritizing things in your day and start scheduling your priorities.
• Decide on your big rocks. Schedule them into your calendar. Treat them like a doctor’s appointment that took you six months to get.
• As private school leaders we are always mistaking things that are urgent, but not important for things that are important and not urgent.

Habit #4: Think Win-Win

• Life is not a zero sum game. For you to win, someone else does not have to lose.
• Use courage and consideration so that all parties can benefit from your interactions with them.
• Ways to “Think Win-Win”:
• Display humility
• Remember that life is an interdependent reality
• Maintain a long term/big picture perspective
• Am assertive
• Use heavy doses of consideration and courage

Habit #5: Seek First To Understand Then To Be Understood 

• Listen for the real problem that is behind the first problem.
• “The biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” George Bernard Shaw
• We have to set aside agendas, ego, temper, the need to “be right” and just stop and try to be totally present and listen with every fiber of our being.

Habit #6: Synergize 

• We can always accomplish more together than we can alone.
• In 2013, The Harvard Business Review published research where they studied 60 teams within a large information processing company. In the study, the highest performing groups averaged 6 positive comments for every 1 negative comment and the lowest performing groups averaged just 1 positive comment for every 3 negative comments.
• If we want to have synergy on our teams we need to:
• Treat others with respect.
• Emphasize positivity in the ways that our teams communicate with each other. 
• Model respectful communication
• Stay curious a little longer
• The kids deserve the results that can come from strong teams.

Habit #7: Sharpen The Saw 

• Your most important asset is you.
• Always remember to put on your own oxygen mask first.
• Make sure that self-care is one of your “big rocks” and schedule it into your calendar like we talked about in Habit #3 Put First Things First.
• Start small. If you try to go from not sharpening your saw at all to doing a bunch of things, you will fail. Just pick one of these four areas: physical, social, mental or spiritual. Pick one area and pick one thing that you are going to do for 10 minutes a day. Do that for four weeks and then pick something to add to it.

Links and Resources

• CLICK HERE for the 45 minute webinar: "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Private School Teachers" (Please use as a "Plug and Play PD")
• Click here for Guided Notes for the Webinar
• Click here for 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Summary Video
• Click here for The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey (This is an affiliate link. If you purchase through this link, I get a commission of 4% of the price of the book to help defray the costs of the podcast and the website. You don’t have to use this link.)
• Click here for “Put the Big Rocks In First” video
• Harvard Business Review article on the “Ideal Praise to Criticism Ratio”
• Music by Twisterium from Pixabay