20 Apr The Top Characteristic that Defines 21st Century Leaders
Read a really interesting 2015 Forbes article this week entitled Six Characteristics that Define 21st Century Leadership. It got me thinking!
The number one characteristic listed in the article is ‘See Opportunity in Everything’ and I couldn’t agree more.
The best 21st Century Schools are embracing innovation and change to become vibrant and inspirational learning organizations that engage and motivate a whole new generation of young people. However, in doing so they are becoming incredibly busy places and teachers are becoming disenfranchised, unhappy or burning out! You probably know that there are record numbers of young teachers leaving the teaching profession. A travesty!
Travis Bradberry, EQ author, claims that we think about 70,000 thoughts a day. If you focus on problems and change with negativity then about 90% of your daily thoughts are negative. That’s 63,000 thoughts! You know that this is not conducive to creative thinking or a balanced, healthy life. Looking for opportunities in everything actually turns those 70,000 thoughts a day into a positive energy to confront obstacles, problems and life in general. It gives you the energy and the mindset to see possibilities and solutions all of the time.
It’s exciting!
A few years back I was flying to India from Thailand for work. Working and living in Asia I hadn’t seen my daughter who was at university for five months and I was really missing her. She planned a short trip to visit us in Chiang Mai and was flying from Melbourne to Thailand. When we checked the flights I realized I was going to miss her visit and I was devastated.
Always looking for opportunity I saw an amazing coincidence. Our separate connecting flights were landing in Bangkok at similar times with a couple of hours overlap. I remember running through the Bangkok Airport trying desperately to catch my daughter at her boarding gate before she flew off to Chiang Mai. As I was running I saw a huge colorful advertising banner, it was about 12 meters long and in 2-meter high letters it read, “Life offers endless Possibilities”! I can still see it now in my mind.
Well I made it to the gate in time and we hugged and kissed and then sat and had a lovely conversation and coffee. It was so special! OMG! I’ve got tears in my eyes just remembering it.
Anyway, from that day on I use LOEP in texts, FB messages and emails to my daughter and to many of my colleagues and friends. It’s such an awesome inspiration to remind us to look for opportunity in everything, everywhere and every day and make life happen.
Why not seize the day and attend Leadership for the 21st Century workshop in Melbourne on 6 May and learn how to be an awesome 21st Century School Leader. You’ll see opportunities and possibilities all through the workshop and go away with skills, strategies, tools and actions to plan the future of learning at your school. Cool!
If you would like more information about the workshop click here
And remember LOEP!
