Quote-A-Day Day 144

We should never retreat from situations that require #leadership. We can only get better with practice. #QuoteADay #Day144 #edchat #edu

Some days, we just don't want to take something additional on.

Maybe we've had a rough week.  Or maybe we feel we don't have enough experience in a given area.

Or maybe we just don't believe in ourselves.

The only way we become better is through practice, and whether we consider ourselves to be good, great, or amazing leaders, we can always get better; even the best leaders still have room for growth.

So, when those leadership opportunities arise, we need to take them, if for no other reason than to expand our boundaries and strengthen our repertoire.

Over the last few weeks we've been working on a grant through New York's State Education Department.  I enjoy writing quite a bit, but I'll be the first to admit that I have very little grant-writing experience.  So, we're working with a professional to help us take our plans and put them into words that fit the grant requirements.

Since our grant writer is on vacation for the next few days, my supervisor and I have become, in some sense of the words, grant writers in training.  Neither one of us feels that we excel in this area, but work needs to be done, and because of that, we're embracing the process as best we can.

Yesterday, we were able to do some really deep work, that was intense, exhaustive, and, in my opinion, came out quite good.  I'm still a bit intellectually drained from the process.

This practice in a leadership frame that I don't experience regularly is extremely important to me.  It allows me the opportunity to begin turning a weakness (or simply an undeveloped area) into a strength, and provides additional challenge (regular challenge is a necessity for growth, which is why we need to put ourselves in environments that provide the opportunity for rigorous learning).

As people, we crave the feeling of comfort, which often comes with being in a place that feels familiar with people we know.  Stepping out of our comfort zone puts us into less "known" space, and that can be scary.  As leaders, though, we can't take the time (or energy) to worry about this.  Rather, we need to welcome new leadership opportunities as they arise; it's the only way to learn and grow.