Dr. Z's Tuesday Tip

Action: Do an attitude audit. Ask 15 people in your work area to anonymously score your attitude on a scale of 1 to 10 ... with 10 being the best or most positive. If your scores average less than a 7, you've got some serious work to do on projecting a more positive attitude.

Anyone interested in trying this after Thanksgiving Break - let me know. I will put my form out after break. As I was reading his tip this week, I thought of myself in terms of: "How am I around the students? The staff? Our parents?" You are leaders in the classroom, the building, the district and the communities you live in.

(abbreviated version this week)

What Dr. Alan Zimmerman Has To Say:

Good leaders pay attention to creating positive energy because they know leaders are never "energy neutral." They're either giving people energy or taking it from them.To create more energy in the people around you, I recommend three strategies.

=> 1. Exhibit great amounts of positive energy.

Yes, it starts with you ... not them. As Richard Lenny, the chairman and CEO of Hershey Foods, proclaims, "I guarantee, as a leader, no one will ever be more optimistic than you are. But if you are a pessimist, I can almost equally as well guarantee that they will be more pessimistic than you are."Good leaders lead with attitude. And as I like to ask the leaders in my audiences, "If attitudes are contagious, are yours worth catching?"

But please, don't mistake a positive attitude for denial. These are tough times. I know that, and you know that. And your coworkers know that. So you can't pretend everything is great when they aren't.

However, as government executive John W. Gardner puts it, "The first and last task of a leader is to keep hope alive." So you continue to show your understanding and your caring of their situation by giving them something to hang on to ... namely, your own positive, hopeful, energetic altitude ... despite the tough times.

And as medical center executive Nancy Baker put it, "It's not always easy, but offering compassion is a very disarming and effective management tool."

No matter what's going on, you've got to show a lot of energy. You've got to show an energy where people see you working with determination, working on the organization's goals, and working for the people in your organization.