I just finished reading a book titled, No Excuses Leadership: Nine Bold Choices Exceptional Leaders Make by Damen Lopez. It’s a quick read with some solid, practical advice for school leaders. As I was reading, he made a point in Chapter 7 that stayed with me. He talked about the need for us to find balance between learning and doing.

There are people who spend all of their time doing, but they never slow down to collaborate with others or spend any time learning about new, different, or more efficient ways of doing whatever it is that they are engaged in. Then there are people who spend all of their time learning, but they never actually “do” anything. They’ve read all of the books. They talk to others about it. They are “experts” that never actually accomplish anything. Damen just points out that we have to find our balance somewhere in the middle.

I know I have been guilty of not having that balance in my life. Personally, when I am out of balance, I default to “learner.” Generally, I want to know as much as I can about something before I jump in, but I have found over the years that if I have to know “everything” before committing, you end up not getting a whole lot done.

I still consume a lot. I read as much as I can, and over the last couple of years, I have become a fairly avid podcast listener. It’s very easy for me to get caught up in spending all of my time learning. However, I have realized that learning, by itself, does not add the most value to my life or to the lives of others around me. At some point I have to put my oars in the water and start rowing. That’s part of what this blog is about. I am intentionally forcing myself to create and publish something two times each week. I have really started enjoying the process of sharing with others the things that I am learning. Occasionally, someone will even reach out to let me know that it’s made a difference for them. That’s been awesome, but I have to be honest. Creating this blog is also somewhat self-serving because I have found that by creating content about what I am learning, I actually learn better! #Winning

When I was reading through Damen’s book, I was reminded of the first training I went to as an assistant principal. Let me take you there for a moment…

“What are you going to do?” That was the question that was posed as I was sitting in “New Assistant Principal Academy” with a room full of excited educators who had just gotten their very first job as school administrators. We were all wide-eyed, and we were ready to prove our worth. Some of our district-level administrators were running the training, and they were giving us various scenarios to work through.

They first time they asked, “what are you going to do,” most of us gave some very pleasant, generic answers… “Be present…” “Listen…” “Ask guiding questions…” “Lead by example…”

One of the directors kept asking, “Yeah, but what are you going to DO?” Someone would throw out another answer, and he would repeat, “Yes, but what are you going to DO?” The directors were supportive in a very “bless your heart” kind of way, but they made sure to get their point across. This new position that we all found ourselves in was not a position of leadership philosophy. It is a position of ACTION.

That was an important lesson for me to learn.

I’m not discounting “active listening,” “collaboration” or any of the other leadership buzzwords that are so often talked about. I believe each of them to be very important in their own right. However, after we’ve done each of those things, we actually have to DO something. That’s what’s at the heart of this blog post. We are meant for action. The only way we can truly make a difference is if we DO SOMETHING.

Don’t fall victim to paralysis by analysis, and don’t rush off recklessly. Find that balance somewhere in the middle, but make sure that at the end of the day you have taken intentional action that gets you closer to the end goal.

As I was writing this, I thought about a similar blog that I wrote almost 3 years ago. I just went back and read it, and I think it’s probably better than the post I just wrote. Here’s the link if you’d like to give it a read:

Don’t Just Consume. Create Something.

Thank you for taking the time to read and share my blog with other learners!