How do we keep from losing our excitement or passion?
As most of my readers know, I am a school administrator. The school year has started and there is always a feeling of excitement. Some may even describe it as a feeling of anxiety or nervousness. Regardless of how it makes everyone feel, it can be described as some form of excitement. When I think back to my teaching days, I couldn’t wait to get into my classroom and get it all set up. I’d organize my materials and form all my groupings for math and language arts. I was jacked up for the start of the year. I couldn’t help but think, what if we lost this excitement? Over time we stay in our wheelhouse and are content to remain there. We get used to doing what we do, effectively and with honor. There are also times when we may ask ourselves what or why we are doing what we do. We have become stagnant. We lost our joy and excitement for our work. The good news is, we can regain our enthusiasm.
We must bring a positive mindset and embrace what comes. It’s no secret that the tone in our nation is not always positive, especially for schools. We can overcome that. A good attitude helps as we make decisions. What if we looked at every situation as an adventure of some kind? This mindset has helped me over the years. Too often we get caught up in the potential pitfalls of our decisions. Seeing things as opportunities to gain learning or advancement is a great way of viewing uncertainty. Our fear of making mistakes shouldn’t control us. When we make decisions, we must accept the feedback of others with positivity. Mistakes will be made when the views of the people in the organization are not considered. Reframe the word mistakes and refer to them as opportunities to make things better.
Challenges and push-back will occur, so keep your game-face on. We will lose our excitement when people question our decisions and what motivated us to make the decisions. Anyone in leadership could quickly lose their passion if they aren’t willing to face the backlash of decisions they make. Knowing this and accepting it is another story. We must stay the course and execute the plan. Acknowledge other people’s views mixed with your own reasoning. Misconceptions can be cleared up with better communication and reviewing the process of the plans.
We should always be searching for change, that will improve what we do. It starts with goals we set for improving not only what we do poorly, but also what we excel at. The goals should not only reflect your thoughts but those of the team as well. Avoid your blind spots by involving your team. So often we want to focus on the things we do poorly on, but we can take good things and make them better especially if it shines a light on members of the team. When we shine the light on our team, we create excitement in them. This excitement builds up individuals, our team, and the organization. It develops new and existing ideas that foster positive changes and improvements.
We must bring our excitement every day and be enthusiastic about the work we do. We can’t expect our people to be overly positive if our attitude is poor. It always starts with the leader. The leader has to show up in a positive way no matter what. Physically and mentally in the trenches with your people. Going through everything they are experiencing too. When a leader leads from the front pushing through the challenges, it motivates the people. People will follow the leader who leads by example. A good example will bring passion, enthusiasm, excitement, and fun. Making people excited to follow you, the leader, will build the way to a better work environment and organization.
What makes you excited about the work you do?
How do you remain positive when you get challenged?
Are you aware of your blind spots and their relation to organizational goals?
How are you keeping your teams excited about the work they do?
I’m so excited for a new year and the future too. We must keep our excitement close to our heart and never lose it. Of course, there will be times that it might slip from our grasp but if we pay attention, we can catch it before it gets out of hand. Thanks for checking out this week’s post. I hope you are excited about tomorrow and the work you do. Please leave a comment below and share your strategies for remaining excited about life.
Steven C. Bucks- Leading Conversations
