Quote-A-Day: Day 357

The best #leaders understand that sometimes, they just have to let things go.  #QuoteADay #Day357 #edchat #edu #NYedchat #satchat #ASCDL2L

One of the most important lessons for a leader to learn is that there are no absolutes in leadership.  Anything can be on or off the table at any given point. 

While it is true that we need to hold true to our core values, we also need to make sure that we can be flexible enough to let things go that aren’t at the top of our priority list.

Life is a negotiation, in part, and as such, we always have to be willing to move on a continuum of what is acceptable, and what is not.

A wise leader taught me that a true negotiation is only successful when all parties leave with a small bit of frustration.  It is true that you can’t always get what you want.

Therefore, as a model to those we serve, and as a way to foster our own collaborative skills, we need to make sure that we are always reminding ourselves that some things need to be let go.  When there is room to move around a subject or a point, sometimes we just have to let that movement happen.  Negotiating is never about who is wrong or right, but always about whoever is willing to accommodate someone else.

The key?  To make sure that we have one or two structural cores to who we are as leaders.  These should emanate from us in whatever we do.

And these are areas around which we should not bend, nor break.

However, for everything else, we have to be comfortable changing course, seeing things through a different light, and letting our own grip on matters go.

After all, it’s better to share a hold with others, than to grip so tightly that no one else can get their hands involved.