One of my favorite authors, activist and change-maker Glennon Doyle, was being interviewed on the podcast, Good Life Project. Glennon writes from her personal experiences but as an introvert finds it difficult to do book tours. During the interview, Glennon quipped that she became a writer so she could stay in her pajamas and said that she was asking her father advice on how to make the book tour mean something more than just calling attention to herself. Glennon’s father advised her with the words “when you get to the party you gotta dance with the one that brought you.” This made Glennon reflect on what brought her to do what she does (basically her “why”) and led her to focus the book tour’s attention on those who live out the purpose in their lives.
After reading Jon Gordon’s The Power of Positive Leadership, our Garrard County leadership team was inspired to periodically remind ourselves to focus on the “why we do what we do.” It’s a common motto or theme in schools to say we are “all about kids” or we are “student-centered” or that all our decisions are made in the best interest of children, but we have taken it a step further in creating our own mission/vision statements. We know that we want to have a positive impact on children, but this summer we started the process of thinking about what really brought us to the dance of education leadership. We thought about how we could use the talents and gifts we were given to make a difference in the lives of children from our positions.
My personal vision is to use my enthusiasm and positivity to serve staff and students in providing a collaborative environment of continuous growth and improvement where students want to learn, and staff want to teach.
It is my mission to encourage and motivate each and every member of our school staff so together students and staff can “risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight” as we learn and grow together.
These statements keep me going. I truly believe I was given gifts to serve the staff, students, and families of Paint Lick. They help me focus on meaningful work that I hope will make a difference.