New Beginnings Require a New You

     I've often wondered what percentage of educators heading back to school in any given year start the school year in a new position. There are numerous possibilities in this scenario:

• a teacher with a new prep, a new grade level, or a new leadership position (i.e. grade level chair or department chair)
• a new-to-admin administrator or an administrator with a new position
• an educator (teacher or administrator) at a different school than last year
• a teacher or administrator with some combination of these, such as an educator with a new position at a new school 

All of these scenarios qualify as new beginnings, and they all can be equally exciting and terrifying, even for seasoned veterans.

     Many educators who will be starting the school year in a new position or with new responsibilities earned their way there. Conversely, there certainly are many other educators who find themselves beginning the school year in a new position due to some other circumstances. Nevertheless, new beginnings are new beginnings no matter the "why" of the "new." Chances are that one of these scenarios applies to you or someone you know.

     Clearly there are numerous qualities, skills, performance indicators and past successes that might earn you a new position. They might include:

• distinguishing yourself as a master teacher
• demonstrating leadership skills and potential
• mastering new skills or competencies
• completing a training programs, certification or advanced degree
• consistently hitting or exceeding benchmarks or targets 

     Whether you earned your new position because supervisors observed these firsthand or because you demonstrated your excellence to an interviewer, the very things - both qualitative and quantitative - that got you there may, in fact, threaten your success in the new position. Seriously. This may seem counter-intuitive, so take a moment to consider that statement again but written in a slightly different way. The very qualities that made you successful in the past and helped earn a new position or new responsibilities might actually threaten your future success.

     What???
     It seemed all wrong to me, too, at first. Let's explore this idea, though.
     Your new position has "new" written all over it. You can count on new challenges to overcome, new problems and puzzles to solve, new relationships to build, new personalities to figure out, new culture(s) to learn, new social/political dynamics to navigate, new stakeholders to serve, new supervisors to please, new goals to set, new plans to develop and execute, and more. If, when you attack all these new tasks and challenges, you use only the arsenal and toolkit you brought with you from your former position, you will not be equipped to be successful.

     New beginnings require a new you. It's that simple. The more "new" that lies ahead, the more "new" you are likely to need in your personal inventory of qualities and skills moving forward. Perhaps you excelled at speaking to and addressing small audiences and now you will be addressing full auditoriums. Maybe you excelled at teaching pre-calculus and now you will be teaching AP calculus. It could be that you successfully served as an assistant to a principal who led a staff of thirty and you now will lead your own staff of forty. Perhaps you led informally and unofficially in your school and now you will be leading from a position that comes with your name and title on the door. You'll likely need new stories and anecdotes to tell, new ideas for meetings and conferences, new approaches to connecting with new stakeholders and maybe - brace yourself - new ways of thinking about things and looking at the world. The list of possibilities is endless but the same principle applies. New beginnings require a new you.

     The good news is that your new beginning does not require an entirely different you but rather a new, upgraded version of the successful you that exists already. In other words, you shouldn't plan to abandon the things that made you successful but rather focus, sharpen, hone, expand and improve those things. There's more good news. There are simple steps you can take to enhance the already-successful you and awaken the new you, the version of you that will be poised for future success. Let's take a look at few of the more important things you should do to start developing the new you that is ready to tackle the new beginning:

• Ask questions - learn as much as you can about the new culture, new systems, new procedures, new personalities, new expectations, etc.
• Read voraciously - from articles online to blogs to books, there simply is nothing you can't learn more about if you will seek out quality reading material.
• Be humble - do not pretend to know it all or have all the answers, but rather be vulnerable, honest and willing to seek counsel.
• Find partners - seek out people who you can go to for advice, to use as a sounding board and who will be a source of encouragement.
• Request feedback - ask for 360-degree feedback on how you are performing, how others feel about you, how you can improve, etc.
• Address shortcomings - acknowledge then attack your growth areas head on and work to get better in those areas.
• Be yourself - never forget who you are and the things you've experienced that make you who you are today, just don't become complacent and content with yesterday's version of you; a new you is still you.

     If you mistakenly believe that everything that has worked for you in the past will work again, you may be headed for trouble in your new position. Many of the intangibles that may have made you successful previously - flexibility, adaptability, people skills, emotional intelligence, humor, innovation - will still be valuable, so don't discount those. You likely will need to hone and refine one or several of those, though. Furthermore, your leadership style may need adjustments, your go-to methods for giving and receiving feedback may need to change, even the vocabulary you use daily might need revision. With some effort and a growth mindset, you can be every bit as successful moving forward as you have been in the past. Your new beginnings, though, require a new you. Your new beginnings, whatever they may be, provide you an opportunity - and one you might not have had otherwise - to create a new, improved version of you that keeps you moving toward the best possible version of you. Embrace your new beginnings and be proud of the new you that you're going to become.    

Going Back to Work

     Going back to work... There's more here than meets the eye. First, the new school year starts for me in two days, so I will be going back to work in the most traditional and obvious sense very soon. Second, I have taken a hiatus from posting here for some time but I will be returning the blog to record, reflect and share ideas, so this will be a different kind of work for me. Third, I have committed to take better care of me physically, emotionally and intellectually than ever before, and that is yet another kind of work.
     Allow me to make a confession. I love summertime as much as anyone else in education and I often find myself clinging to the last days of July, wishing they would pass by just a little more slowly. Don't get me wrong. I love being a high school principal and that's what I am meant to be doing right now. It's a tough job, though, and a job that requires a great deal of emotional and physical energy. Summer provides me the time I need to recharge to get ready to hit the ground running when the new school year arrives so I covet my summer days and nights. As I mentioned, my summer ends shortly and that time for me will be here in less than 48 hours. Gasp!
     Every year, though, something interesting happens a few days before I return to school, and it happened again this weekend. I woke up this morning completely energized and entirely ready for the year. Just like that, I'm recharged and ready again. Well, sort of... In truth, I never fully disconnect from the previous year and I never really keep the upcoming year at arm's length. While I don't spend hours during any given summer day reflecting or thinking ahead, I do spend mental energy doing both at least a few minutes each day. I read books, articles, blogs, tweets and more. I jot down ideas for calendar items, themes for the year, points of emphasis for the year, and topics for assemblies, faculty meetings, new-teacher in-service and more as they come to me, but I often don't dwell on them. Instead, I let these ideas swirl around, largely unsupervised, in my mind all summer and then - I promise it happens every year - I wake up one morning and I have concrete ideas and energy to spare. That morning was this morning, and I've spent a significant amount of time today thinking and preparing mentally for this week, the following week, the week the kids return and beyond. Let the record show that I am ready to go back to work.
     At least one of you has noticed (you know who you are and you may indeed be the last of your kind) that I have not posted here for quite a while. Most of the mental energy it takes to write has been devoted to a creative writing project. I won't bore you with the details here right now, but it has taken much of my spare time and creative energies. I'm only a fraction of the way through it, so don't expect any announcements any time soon. Nevertheless, I have been thinking for a few months now that returning to my blog might be a good idea. I think it will be healthy for me. I like (read need) to hash out ideas in writing and I certainly will be exploring new ideas and new perspectives in my professional life in the coming weeks, months and years. Additionally, my hope is that some of the things I share here will be helpful to you, too. My goal will be to blog and continue writing creatively, and that's going to require a lot of energy. Let the record show that I am ready to go back to work.
     As I wrap up a successful tenure at one school and begin a new chapter in my life at another school, I already know that the new job will require me to be at the top of my game. To prepare for that challenge, I have worked hard this summer (and the past several months, actually) to make sure that I am in the best shape possible physically, mentally and intellectually. I have devoted serious time and energy to taking care of my body, my mind and my soul recently. I can say without hesitation that I am in the best overall shape I can remember. In fact, I'm pretty sure my overall health right now is better than it ever has been. I am not finished, though. My commitment is to continue to improve. Why now? I know I have a responsibility to my new team, my new kids, and my new community, while I still have an ongoing responsibility to myself, my family and my friends. This is going to take a lot of effort. Let the record show, however, that I am ready to go back to work.
     I realize this post borders on reflective rambling so I am thankful you are still reading. The next post, though, will be substantive and will touch on each of these aforementioned ideas as I talk more about my new position, the new challenges it will present me, and - most importantly - how this new chapter will require a new improved version of me. I hope you will follow along as I share this and many other reflections and ideas, some of which I've been considering for quite a while and some of which I am sure will surprise me along the way.