{"id":616,"date":"2014-03-28T14:45:36","date_gmt":"2014-03-28T18:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.benschersten.com\/blog\/?p=616"},"modified":"2014-03-28T14:45:36","modified_gmt":"2014-03-28T18:45:36","slug":"are-you-just-a-teacher-or-a-just-teacher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.benschersten.com\/blog\/2014\/03\/are-you-just-a-teacher-or-a-just-teacher\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You Just a Teacher or a Just Teacher?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"origin_497731537\"<\/a>Last week I read a blog post by Deborah Mills-Scofield<\/a> on Switch & Shift<\/a> called Are You Just a Leader or a Just Leader?<\/a>\u00a0Like many of the business leadership blog posts out there, it applies to teaching too. In fact, after reading it, I went back and reread it replacing “leader” with “teacher,” and “people” and “customer” with students. This left me with a great blog post, about management<\/del> teaching.<\/p>\n

Here’s some of the post, through an educator lens:<\/p>\n

Being a leader<\/del> teacher<\/em> requires taking the right road, not the easy road. Treating our people<\/del> students<\/em> fairly requires judgment, subjectivity, and clear communication of expectations and goals on an ongoing basis since the world around us changes all the time. When we treat our people<\/del> students<\/em> equally but not fairly, we tell people<\/del>\u00a0our students<\/em> it\u2019s ok to underperform and under contribute undermining the morale of our dedicated and passionate people<\/del> students<\/em> and are then surprised when we get mediocre output and outcomes.<\/p>\n

What if we modify the culture to recognize people<\/del> students<\/em> fairly, based on their work, effort, passion, and results \u2013 as individuals and teams? We will be surprised to see the positive difference it will make.<\/p>\n

I versus You<\/strong><\/p>\n

…I often ask my corporate<\/del>\u00a0educator<\/em> colleagues if focusing on \u2018I\u2019, on themselves, has really gotten them the career satisfaction they sought. As leaders<\/del> teachers<\/em>, we need to help our people<\/del>\u00a0students<\/em> focus on the \u201cYou\u201d \u2013 the customer<\/del> student<\/em>, the recipient of our services and products and you the employee<\/del>. If we honestly ask ourselves who matters more, \u2018I\u2019, ourselves or \u2018You\u2019 our customers and people<\/del> students<\/em>, what is our answer?<\/p>\n

A true leader<\/del> teacher<\/em> is a servant who leads. So, is the business<\/del> education<\/em> about our needs or the needs of \u2018others\u2019? Are we really focused on delighting our customers<\/del> students<\/em> (to quote my friend Steve Denning), which means we will delight our people<\/del> students<\/em> because they are working on meaningful, purposeful solutions to real needs (outcomes) that result revenues and profit (outputs)<\/del> in learning<\/em> that can be reinvested in the delighting our customers<\/del> applied to their lives<\/em>? Or, are we doing this for the next perk, the accolades from our peers, the prestige from our position? I\u2019m not suggesting total altruism (though that\u2019s not a bad idea!), but I am suggesting we ponder why we\u2019re leading<\/del> teaching<\/em> and whom we\u2019re leading<\/del> teaching<\/em> \u2013 is it about \u2018I\u2019 or about \u2018You\u2019? Can we really lead<\/del> teach<\/em> if it\u2019s about us? Would we want to be led<\/del> taught<\/em> by someone who was all about himself? Does our leadership<\/del> teaching<\/em> truly reflect our why and who? If someone asked one of our people<\/del>\u00a0students<\/em> who mattered to us, \u2018I\u2019 or \u2018You\u2019, what would they answer?<\/p>\n

As we approach the middle of 2013<\/del> spring<\/em>, ask yourself two questions: do you treat people<\/del> students<\/em>\u00a0equally or fairly (or both) and does your leadership<\/del> teaching<\/em>, hence your classroom<\/em>\u00a0culture, value \u2018You\u2019 over \u2018I\u2019?<\/p>\n

So, are you a just a teacher or a just teacher?<\/p>\n

photo credit: InsideMyShell<\/a> via photopin<\/a> cc<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week I read a blog post by Deborah Mills-Scofield on Switch & Shift called Are You Just a Leader or a Just Leader?\u00a0Like many of the business leadership blog posts out there, it applies to teaching too. In fact, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14,7,6,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bpschat","category-cpchat","category-edchat","category-education"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2B5HK-9W","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benschersten.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benschersten.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benschersten.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benschersten.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benschersten.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.benschersten.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":624,"href":"https:\/\/www.benschersten.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616\/revisions\/624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benschersten.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benschersten.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benschersten.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}