Achieving greatness is really a state of mind not a destination. It is not something will take me years of setting and achieve goals to attain. It is a framework I create for myself to operate in. Every day I will have a chance to either operate in my sweet spot or not. Most of the time it will be my choice whether I operate there or not.

The sweet spot is different for everyone. You have to determine what is important to you. The challenge is your willingness to adapt when things change. My sweet spot today is not the same as it was when I was 20. I am glad for that because with the passage of time, my life has truly gotten better. I would say that my sweet spot is actually a much larger area now than it was then.

With that said, what does greatness look like for me? What is my sweet spot?   While I don’t have it 100% figured out, here are some things….

• Chasing Dreams. I am a dreamer. I love the world of possibilities. If I am not chasing dreams I am not living. If I am not chasing dreams I am nowhere near greatness.
• Partner in Crime. Kelly (my wife) is my ultimate supporter. If I am going to operate in my sweet spot, I she has to be with me. I can’t imagine chasing dreams without my partner in crime. One of the great things about having a partner in crime is that I get the opportunity to chase after her dreams too.
• Mini Me. Nathan (my son) is my ultimate balance. What is great about Nate is that he doesn’t care if my day was challenging or if something has not gone according to plan. He just wants to hang out and spend time with Dad. It amazes me how just a few minutes with him can wipe out the most difficult of days. So quantity and quality time with my son is critical.
• Doing what I love. This is about my career. Life is way to short to work at a place or someone who makes me miserable.   This is a job that challenges me to think critically, find solutions, build relationships, work as part of a team, and aligns with my values.   I was reminded of that this week while in India with some colleagues. Passion, honesty and a desire to win. I love that.
• Fulfilling my purpose. God is of the utmost importance to me. I can never achieve real greatness without keeping Him at the center of my life.

Life for me needs to be an adventure. It can’t one that I measure with a rubric. It needs to be however one that I think about regularly and hold myself accountable to ensure that I give my best effort every day. I can’t ever achieve greatness by giving less than my best.

When is the last time you chose to be great?  Do you even know what that means for you?  I have been thinking about this a lot over the past several days. There are several challenges I see for myself in achieving this.

1.  How do I define this for myself?

2.  How was it defined for me by others?  Can I break that and go my own way?

3. What is my commitment to achieving this?

4.  Am I specific enough in my definition to know when I have gotten there?

5.  Once I do get there, can I maintain it?  Do I need to re-evaluate greatness?  Can I live up to the new expectations?

I am making a commitment to myself to define this for me and go for it.  I am in Mumbai India and have a nice looooooooong flight home to Phoenix beginning Thursday night.  No better time than that to come up with a plan!

My challenge for you is to do the same.  Well, minus the long flight part.

What does achieving greatness mean for you?  What will it take for you to get there?  I think we owe it to ourselves to  maximize our potential and our lives.

I will share mine once I figure it out:)

Today I witnessed recognition at its finest.  Most times when “everyone gets a trophy” I am one of the first to roll my eyes.  This was different.  Why?  Because it was done uniquely for each person.  This was not a manager in a company, but a 1st grade teacher.  She had a certificate for each student.  No student got the same certificate.  She commented on each student and why she thought they were special and what they brought to the class.

This was my son’s class (I don’t typically hang out in 1st grade classrooms).   I was enamored with what I saw.   I could see each student filling with joy and excitement as their name was read and they got to go to the front of the class to get their certificate.  It was meaningful to each student because the teacher was recognizing them for their accomplishment.   It was meaningful because it was personalized.  It was meaningful because she cared.  It was meaningful because she showed them they matter.

This had a profound impact on me.  Some of my feeling is personal as it was for my son, but I will say it was more than that.  It got me thinking about how we recognize a job well done in the workplace.  It is a rare manager that takes the time to publicly recognize an employee for the great work they do.  Even more rare is a public recognition for a specific accomplishment.  Today was not about recognizing mountains, but recognizing the specialness of the individual.  I was humbled by the gesture.  Well done Ms Brooks, well done.

My hope is that I learn from this and my staff benefit from it:)

When you come to a fork in the road (and there is always a fork in the road), remember to seek wise council.  I have grown fond of that saying “none of us is as smart as all of us.”  Leveraging other’s thinking can only improve outcomes.

What I have learned about this over the years is that it is not just about seeking wise council.  It is seeking wise and trusted council.  When you reach forks in the road, whether personal or professional, you want to be able to talk with someone who has your best interest at heart.  Someone who will keep things confidential.  Someone who can offer good, solid advice.

The forks can sometimes be for small decisions.  Things like:  I am looking to contract out a service for X.  I have two companies that seem reputable.   If I go with company A, I get this.  If I go with company B, I get that.  You can obviously make the decision yourself, but having someone who is not in the thick of it may be able to offer a perspective you did not see.

So, long story short.  Forks are good.  Forks are opportunities. Wise council can help to ensure that you make the most of your opportunities

Does higher education need accreditation reform or an overhaul?  I have been thinking about this question a lot lately.  We seem to want to tweak the system in hopes that it will improve.  Is it getting better?  Ahh….No.  I think it’s time to actually fix it by starting anew.

I don’t understand the need for both regional and national accreditation.  It seems that we should have one.  Figure out what the standards should be and make all higher education institutions jump through those hoops.  I agree that there needs to be some set of standards, but two sets creates a class system.   Regional is considered better than national, but is it really?  Do we honestly believe that if colleges/universities are “for profit,” then they only care about money?  I have spent a huge chunk of my career working for nonprofit colleges and universities.  I can tell you first hand that they too focus on the all mighty dollar.  All businesses (for profit and non profit alike) need money to operate successfully.  More is always better.

Times have changed.  Needs have changed.  Options have increased.  Methods have increased.  Time to do this differently.

Some random questions for this fine Friday.

• Would the work week be more fun if every day felt like Friday?
• Does working from home make you feel like you never leave the office?
• Is routine the killer of creativity or the foundation for it?
• Why does Converse make the Chuck Taylor shoe a 1/2 size too big?
• Why are some of the most critical professions paid the least?
• Is one rock any dumber than a box of rocks?
• Why do people not value online learning as much as in-person?  Is it the lack of learning or the crummy content and delivery?

Ok, discuss.

Higher Education has been pushing “Student Success” as an outcome model.  I would say that over the past 5 years or so, this term has been used to define a wide variety of things relating to students.  I’ve heard it talked about with small wins, like course completion.  It is also used to celebrate larger wins like degree completion and university transfer.

Don’t get me wrong, measuring and celebrating small and large wins are important.  Knowing the uniqueness of each student can be important as well in measuring true success.  The challenge in higher education is coming to a consensus on what “Student Success” really means.  It seems like the target constantly moves.  I also wonder if the definitions that institutions use is coming up short.

Should we be measuring student success beyond what they did at our colleges?  If you are a community college, should you measure the graduation rates of your transfer students?  What about job placement in you occupational programs?  For Universities, should you be measuring job placement?  What about graduation rates from graduate programs for your students who moved on to graduate schools immediately after their undergraduate degree?  I guess I wonder if student success should be tied more to longterm outcomes rather than short term wins?

If your average student goes to college to get a job in their chosen field after graduation or make more money, it seems like this should be a top indicator of student success.

What your definition of “Student Success?”

I have been thinking lately about all the high school students across the globe who are preparing to graduate May and June.   For many, the college years will be their next life chapter.  I have some advice for now and over the next few years……

1.  Choose your college based on what you need, not what their reputation is.  Can they help you achieve your dreams?  Will they help you achieve your dreams?

2.  Do some soul searching for what you want to achieve in your life.  Make sure you are following YOUR dreams.

3.  Spend some time thinking about what you love to do.  What major do you need to do that for a living?

4.  Choose your college and major based on #2 and #3.

5.  Choose your major as quickly as possible.  Taking a bunch of classes to figure it out can delay your graduation and cost more money.

6.  Decide if student loans are the best way to go.  You could be paying them off for a really long time.  Like 20 years!  You have to pay interest on those loans.

7.  Taking student loans is necessarily bad, betting on yourself can be a good bet.  Just balance out what you want to do with what it will cost to get there.

8.  Surround yourself with people who will support you in achieving your goals.

9.  Be a support to others trying to achieve their goals.

10.  Be an active learner.  Participate in class discussions.  Be someone your team can count on for group projects.

11.  Build your resume with your actions in college.

12.  Find a mentor.  This should be someone who can help you improve, not just someone you like.  Your mentor should be someone who pushes you to achieve your goals.  If you are not sure who to ask, talk to your faculty member about what your goals are.  They may have someone they can recommend.

13.  Be focused on your career.  College can and should be fun, but in the end it is about being employable.  Don’t forget that.

15.  If the door of opportunity cracks open, kick it wide open and step through the door.  Seriously.  Too many people let great opportunities pass them by because they were afraid of the unknown.  Think about someone who you think has lead an interesting life.  Do you think they let opportunities pass by?  NOPE!

16.  Dream every day.  Never let your mind stop thinking about all the wonderful possibilities life has for you.  Lets change that.  Don’t just dream.  DREAM BIG!

17.  Make friends with the quiet people too.  You will find that they may be the most interesting people you know.  They just don’t feel the need to tell everyone how great they are.

18.  Get to know the people teaching your classes.  This is important in all learning modalities.  You should know the teachers and coaches in your online classes as well.  More importantly, you want them to know you.

19.  Network, Network, Network.  You never know when you will need someone to help you out.

20.  When you finally get your degree and your first “real” job, take the time to say thank you to the people who helped you get there.  Not a text or an email.   Make it meaningful.  They cared enough to help you achieve your goals, the least you can do is let them know they matter to you.

Higher education has become a master of assessment.  I have been wondering lately if we are actually measuring the things that truly matter.  We are so tied to what our accreditors want to see that I wonder if we are losing site of the big picture.   Does it matter if we can check every box on our learning outcomes if students graduate yet didn’t develop the skills to be employable?

What is the main reason students go to college?  My personal experience tells me that the main reason has something to do with jobs and making money.  Are we preparing them to do this?  Are we requiring enough hands on project based learning to build their resumes to make them marketable?  One college internship doesn’t seem like enough anymore.

Maybe we should be measuring our success by their success AFTER they graduate, not just how well they moved through our course and degrees?

What are your thoughts on this?

Leaders are readers. Here are some ways reading can sharpen your stone.

1. Reading will increase your knowledge base. Leadership is a skill that needs to be developed. The more you know the better.
2. Reading will broaden your perspective. Read more than just leadership books.
3. Reading will give you “ins” with people.   Reading can provide topics for conversation and help you relate to people you do not know.
4. Reading allows you to learn from experts.
5. Reading opens your mind to new thoughts and ideas.
6. Reading allows you to go far without leaving.
7. Reading keeps you relevant and current on trends in your field.

It is okay to be a book nerd.   Find what you like to read.  You will find leaders in all genres of books. I prefer historical non-fiction, but also love Tolkien. Bilbo Baggins takes one heck of a leadership journey in The Hobbit!

What it comes down to is this. Leadership is a skill that needs to be nurtured and developed.   If you fancy yourself a leader, you owe it to those you lead to ensure your stone stays sharp.

Make a pledge this New Year to read a minimum of 6 books.   If you are an avid reader and leader, work with someone you know who is not a reader. Walk along side them on this pledge to sharpen their stone.   Read on!