No Excuses Leadership

Model: Character

We live in interesting times.  The proliferation of social media has literally turned billions of people into commentators. There's no shortage of opinions on any and every topic under the sun.  The beauty of this new age is that everyone has a voice. The drawback is that . . . . everyone has a voice.  Our ability to unite around a core set of ideals is becoming more and more difficult at every level.  What used to be "right and wrong" are now shades of gray.  In otherwords, with a well thought out argument, you can be made to feel right in any situation.  

Character is doing the right thing even when no one is watching.  But before we can model character, we need to decide exactly what the "right thing" is in the first place. What are the rules and methods to our teaching practices that are universal in and out of the classroom? BOLD leaders are explicit in their preparation and take the steps necessary to remove interpretation from the equation.

TAKE ACTION

When the "character movement" began in schools almost 30 years ago, my staff and I did what every other school in America did.  We talked to kids about several character traits, put posters on the wall to reinforce the message, and held an assembly or two focused on being good citizens. The result?  Nothing changed.  Office referrals were just as common as they were the previous year and students struggled with the same behavior challenges as before. Realizing this, we tore down all the posters, stopped talking about character in the classrooms and did a complete reboot.  That reboot started with one simple question during a staff meeting:
 
What does character look like to us as adults and how can we first model it to our students?

Each month we chose a different character trait, asked ourselves the same question, came up with clear examples of each trait in context and then taught it to our students.  While this explicit modeling dynamically changed our results related to behavior, some naysayers didn't embrace the idea of "model first, then hold students accountable next".  However, with time and lots of modeling, many saw the tremendous results that followed and came to see the benefit of moving beyond individual opinions and embracing a united approach.

BE BOLD

"Don't let others define you.  Don't let the past confine you. Take charge of your life with confidence and determination and there are no limits on what you can do or be."

- Michael Josephson-
Founder, Character Counts