Great Advice - Patton Wisdom

In honor of the Memorial Day Weekend, a quote from “Patton on Leadership,” by Alan Axlerod, that resonated with me early in my career as a principal.

The essence of the quote was, “Victory is achieved when you declare it.”

The school year is a marathon. If we don’t announce and celebrate our short-term victories, we will do one of two things. We will wear our staff (and/or students) down because they will see no progress, or we will demoralize them as they begin to believe that their effort does not matter.

Set meaningful short-term goals and make it a big deal when the campus (or your class) meets them. Patton used this leadership tool to beat the Nazi’s. We can use the same tool to improve graduation rates and state accountability tests results. And the tests are not trying to shoot us.

Think. Work. Achieve.

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