The Together Leader. Heyck-Merlin Maia
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typical day involves reigniting the best friend status of two middle students, providing instructional feedback to teachers, and planning or leading teacher training.
What is your favorite Together Tool and why?
I'm a huge fan of the software program Flow. It allows me to focus on my priorities, break down larger projects into bite-sized pieces, and monitor the deliverables of our team.
Tell me how you start and end each day to remain Together.
I begin every morning with a ten-minute meeting with my secretary, Elsa. We preview the day and discuss any tasks that need to get done. I end each workday with a fifteen-minute meeting with my codirector, Liz. We support each other by staying focused on the big rocks and holding ourselves accountable to our To-Do Lists for the next day or week.
What is a challenge you still face with Togetherness?
I'm addicted to e-mail and ESPN.com. I'm working on allocating specific time frames each day for checking e-mail and focusing on one task at a time without self-interruptions.
How do you remain focused when the work is swirling around you?
I often take a five-minute break and go interact with our students at recess or gym. This instantly puts me in a better mood. Our students have the ability to motivate me without even knowing it. After time with them, l head back to my desk to write everything down and reprioritize as needed.
What happens when you get interrupted or ambushed?
In the moment, I tend to deal with the problem at hand. Afterwards, I like to take a step back and identify the organizational breakdown that led to the interruption and strategize about how I can prevent it from occurring in the future.
It's 10 am on a Saturday morning. What keeps you rejuvenated and renewed?
Saturdays involve taking a spin class with my wife or playing Battleship with my nieces and nephew.
What have you learned to let go?
I've let go of organizing e-mails into specific file folders and ironing my school embroidered polo.
Chapter 2
Take Stock
Assess Your Togetherness Level
Togetherness is a means to an end – strong results and retention of great people, I would argue. But you may have picked up this book for a number of other very valid reasons. At the beginning of workshops, I usually have all leaders write on a card what they hope their Togetherness outcome will be and the benefit they think it will have. I get all kinds of thought-provoking responses, but some of my favorites include these:
• Balanced so I can do my job for a long time
• Consistent so my team knows what to expect
• Proactive so I feel like I'm moving the most important work forward
• Focused so I can make progress toward goals
• Intentional so I make thoughtful decisions
Reader Reflection
Overview and Objectives
This chapter will describe different levels of Togetherness, ask you to take an honest self-assessment, and set your purpose for how and where to focus your reading.
In this chapter, you will do the following:
• Define your current level of Togetherness and envision your next steps.
• Articulate the mind-sets necessary to execute Togetherness.
• Identify the key tools required to pull off Togetherness.
• Determine how you will build the habits and keep them alive.
Togetherness Levels
In my experience, people fall along a few different levels on the Togetherness spectrum (figure 2.1). This book will work for you no matter where you are – but it helps to know, so you can target your growth and next steps!
Figure 2.1 Togetherness Spectrum
Level 1: I need to hunt and gather! This is the earliest stage of Togetherness. If this describes you, it's likely that your desk, bag, and in-box are a complete mess. You may leave a trail of paper or digital breadcrumbs in your wake. You keep a lot of stuff “in your head.” You may be stressed, overwhelmed, and prone to missing deadlines. If you are a hunter-gatherer, your Together Task is to write everything down and locate all important items.
Level 2: I need to consolidate! You know where your To-Dos are (written on whiteboards, sticky notes, and other locations), but you have too many systems going on. You have the right instincts but the wrong habits. You may be considered a “promiscuous organizer,” one who hops from system to system without a faithful commitment. If you are a consolidator, it's time to reel in all of those To-Dos, dates, deadlines, and projects and get them in one single location.
Level 3: I need to plan! You know where everything is and it's all in one place. You rarely miss deadlines and you have a strong sense of your work – in the day-to-day. But you are not as planned ahead as you would like to be. You may fall prey to the lure of the lusty checkmark, becoming easily distracted by the immediate work right in front of you but forgetting to look ahead. If you are a planner, you will focus on planning beyond a single day or week.
Level 4: I need to prioritize! You know where everything is in your world, and your To-Dos and deadlines are reasonably planned out. You get a lot of stuff done, but is it the right stuff? Have you proactively determined what is most important in your work and figured out how to let everything else fall in place around it? If you are a prioritizer, your job is to engage in the painful process of identifying your most important work and building structures to support it.
Level 5: I need to protect! Ah, the final stage of Togetherness … the protector. You've gathered, consolidated, planned, and prioritized. Now you need to fiercely protect your time to focus on the most important work. You set clear boundaries with colleagues, bosses, and team members; your focus and discipline are razor sharp. You are rarely distracted by emergencies, and people feel a slight level of trepidation when randomly interrupting you. If you are a protector, you will focus on articulating expectations with your team and others.
Reader Reflection
The Tools You Need
Mind-sets and routines matter most (and more on those in a minute), but you will also need a set of practical tools to support yourself on your journey. Not all leaders will need all tools; I encourage you to use the self-assessment later in this chapter to help you pick and choose the ones best for you. For example, if you scored low in the questions about prioritization, then you should double down on creating a Priority Plan. Let's take a peek at our guiding graphic – something I affectionately call Maia's Togetherness Tools (figure 2.2).
Figure 2.2 The Togetherness Tools
Let's review the definitions of each tool I will share in this