In honor of the Memorial Day, I will share a quote from “Patton on Leadership,” by Alan Axlerod, that resonated with me early in my career as a principal.

The essence of the quote was, “Victory is achieved when you declare it.”

The school year is a marathon. If we don’t announce and celebrate our short-term victories, we will do one of two things. We will wear our staff (and/or students) down because they will see no progress, or we will demoralize them as they begin to believe that their effort does not matter.

Set meaningful short-term goals and make it a big deal when the campus (or your class) meets them. Patton used this leadership tool to beat the Nazi’s. We can use the same tool to improve graduation rates and state accountability tests results. And the tests are not trying to shoot us.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn…
Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com! http://tinyurl.com/4ydqd4t Upcoming Event / Presentation Schedule June 11 (TASB) – The Fundamental Five; Improve Now! June 15 (TASSP) – Improve Now! June 16 (TASSP) – Conference Breakfast, hosted by E. Don Brown (LYS travel tumblers for the first 1000 attendees, last year we ran out) June 16 (TASSP) – Book Release Event, “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction” June 16 (TASSP) – Fundamental Five; Tech Tools for the 2.0 Principal June 17 (TASSP) – PowerWalks June 18 (TASB) – The Fundamental Five; Improve Now!