Steve Mintz's Page
Profile Information
- Hometown:
- Chicago
- About Me:
- Husband, Father of 4 (3G, 1B), skier, guitar player, teacher, lifelong desire to be handy.
- FISH! Experience
- Seen film(s), Read book(s), Attended seminar(s), Received coaching, LeaderFISH!, FISH! Culture, FISH! for Schools, FISH! Skills Assessment
- What industry do you work in?
- Education, Nonprofit, Other
- Size of your workgroup/team/organization?
- 33 - fluctuates
- Are you in a leadership position?
- Yes
- What's your birthdate?
- April 8, 1963
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Comment Wall (10 comments)
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You've been very quiet! I'm currently in England, and actually at a school at present but thats another sotry. I have at least taught my English firend about "choose your attitude", especialy when sitting in the huge traffic jams that occur here.
I teach Art at Trafalgar 3 days a week and I feel like I'm a leader at our school and also, most important, I feel valued as a leader. A little while ago Vicki asked me to join her at a "Women in Leadership" dinner meeting. Well, I thought, I'm a leader and I'd be interested to meet a room full of fabulous women paving the way. I was introduced as Di, part of the Trafalgar Primary School leadership team. When I became involved in conversation I was asked many times was I the Principal of the School or was I the Assistant to the Principal. My reply was that I worked part time at the school as the Art teacher. Interestingly I could sense their puzzlement, why was I at a leadership dinner. Interestingly not once did I feel uncomfortable or uncertain about my place at that table. I honestly do feel a great sense of leadership, I'm not always good at it but I'm getting feedback and listening to it as a professional and not seeing it as a personal attack. I can see other members of staff becoming very active in making decisions and making things happen without waiting for an invitation or feeling like they are stepping over the line. Our spirits are being lifted and I'm sure the kids are noticing. I think Vicki may be a leader of the leaders.
I'm finding this network an interesting place to be. I actually find Vicki's comments interesting even though she works 10 steps from me its interesting to read her reflections of the journey. I can see other Trafalgar Teachers have become members and I can imagine we all will have a different story and perspective about out journey and joy.
Steve, I also have 3 daughters and 1 son how do you manage to stay looking so young? I too looked as young as you until my daughters became teenagers.
You might be interested to know that our school underwent a review about a month ago. An external reviewer is organised by the Dept of Education here and they look at our data etc for the past 6 years and then we spend a day talking about our efforts and progress etc.........rather a daunting day.
During the day I was told by the reviewer and my senior manager that to move forward I would need to get my leadership team to develop some plans and then move the staff. I told them that I dont have a leadership team, that collectively we are all leaders in my school and that we make the plans together. I was then told that this would not work and that I should form a leadership team. I argued that I would not do this and that I would prove to them that the model we have created will work and has worked!!!! The staff members on the review panel were quietly laughing while I did the arguing!
However, to my great delight when the second session began 4 staff members appeared at the door and asked to be present in the review. That almost blew the reviewer away...............then as he began to ask questions and each staff member was able to answer them proficiently I could almost see a light globe go off over his head!
It is hard work to have everyone contribute and at times I wish I could just make a decision and implement it (and in small ways I probably still do) but if we are going to move a culture then it is easier to move it together.
In terms of staff identfying themselves. well some do and some don't but how we follow this up is to actually tell the ones that haven't got it what they are doing. So now if a staff member comes late to a meeting I would expect at least one other staff member would tell them its not our trademark. You see I dont have to be the "parent" we all keep each other honest. That also means staff are able to tell me if I'm not doing the right thing too! We have been through a long process where we have learned to take this as professional feedback rather than personal attack...........its been a long road though.
I'm curious... The staff who are showing up late or reading in meetings (same ones I assume), did they identify themselves asking for support in changing, or were they surprised that others noticed and are feeling pressured to change?
I'm so glad you, personally and professionally, strive to live up to your trademark. By celebrating the successes you bolster everyone's optimism and liklihood of achieving a higher self-rating next time.
Tonights venture was interesting. Certainly many of the things I was noticing were commented on by the staff also, that in itself is powerful because you dont feel alone and you realise that you are not biased either. More powerful though are the comments that come from a colleague rather than the Principal. Tonight we rated ourselves 7/10against our trademark. Some people have been coming late to meetings, some have been late to class, some are reading in staff meetings, but guess what, they were the things that bugged other staff members as much as it bugged me. So last night we decided that those were the elements that we needed to work on.
Our other element however is to celebrate what we do well. Funnily enough the staff identified two main improvements. We felt that now we are choosing a better attitude, and secondly that we feel that now we have permission to have fun and that it wont be considered unprofessional or trivial.
We certainly agreed that we had come a long way but the voice of many works.
The best successes of FISH!, and I tend to think most good endeavors, happen when a team of people are involved. Smart move to magnify the voices of the many.
When I was running a summer camp with over 120 staff members, during high stress times, the senior staff would sometimes get annoyed with the attitude of the counselors. It was common to hear someone say, "They are all so lazy," or "Everyone is complaining." The truth was almost always that there were three or four people who were having an issue, but their problems became the focus, so the issue felt much larger. When we stopped, as we often did, and looked at a staff list asking, "Who is lazy?" or "Who is complaining?", we'd find that the problem was much smaller than we'd thought.
Perspective helps calm the waters.
Have you approached local business about their potential involvement in the schools? Is that done in Australia. Here in Minneapolis, many schools have a corporate partner. The partner provides funding and occasionally programming while receiving the PR benefit of being a helpful community citizen. They probably get a tax write off as well.
I think that obstacles are inevitable with any leadership venture and I suppose that is the difference between leadership and simply "doing" . Of course I have had obstacles on this journey and days of frustration and sometimes even disappointment but I think that my strength and that of many leaders is that you never give in on the vision.
Today I had an interesting talk with a colleague that has worked with us over the past 18months on developing our team "trademark". Together (all the staff) we have decided that at Trafalgar Primary our trademark is to be supportive, united, dynamic and professional, we do this with the belief that we will all have a sense of belonging. We give each other formal feedback about how we are going with the process, but are also committed to giving feedback around the trademark when required. It is common to hear statements like "That was/was not very support" or "we need to be united about our decision" etc.
However, I still have obstacles, people lapse or do not take up some of the elements to the degree that I would like.........my colleague however reminded me today that it is important not to let the few cloud the view. So tomorrow night I will enlist the help of the "converted" to highlight our progress towards the team trademark, then it will not be a sole voice but the voice of many, and I guess that if you have the majority on board then you can use this.
FISH is no different, my staff will take up the principles at many different levels, at present I am trying to model some of the behaviours or some ideas that may then translate into the classroom.
Interestingly I think FISH is harder to ignore when you have communicated the principles to the parent community too. I heard a parent today tell their child to "choose their attitude" (with great success I might add) I'm a great believer in leading by example and using weight in numbers.........the game is to get the numbers on your side!