Everyday is an Interview

I do not believe in Work-Life Balance. It makes no sense to me. Sometimes I live a balanced (work-life-family-workout-self-music-reading-writing-everything else balance) life. Other times, work takes over. Other times, my family takes over. I believe in a Work-Life Flexibility that is based on knowing your priorities and acting on them.

At times, work is going to take precedence. The opening of a new school year is an incredibly busy time. No matter how much you have done as an administrator over the summer, there are always challenges that need to be addressed once your staff arrives and then your students arrive.  These challenges are going to bleed into your family time, your workout time, your hobby time. Eventually, something has to give. My wife and children understand that there are many demands on my time, many late night phone calls, and many issues that need to be addressed outside of the traditional workday. My workouts suffer, but I still work out. My family time suffers, but I still connect with them. The balance is truly shifted towards work, my priority at the time, and that is okay. (Author’s note: I am not perfect at this and I realize that there are times when I need to put work aside to prioritize my family)

Other times, my family comes first. Whether it is a trip to the shore or a vacation destination away from home, I do not check my email, work or personal. I do have my cell phone with me. Everyone I work with has my cell number. If they cannot find it, they can contact my secretary who will decide whether to call me. While on vacation, she has called me once. No one else has ever called me. The schools that I work for are still standing. The selective programs that I have started and continue to coordinate are still surviving.  Our students are still successful.

There are times when I need to concentrate on work, or on my family, or on my music, or on my Taekwondo. I have to be flexible enough to know which one is the priority and act on it.

If you are searching for work-life balance, what is going to happen when your priorities are not balanced? You have to understand your priorities. Everyone has multiple priorities. Which one is the most important priority at the time is the one you focus on. Everything else has to come in second. You need to recognize what your true priorities are and be flexible with your other priorities.

I believe in doing what it takes to accomplish those things that are important to me first, then start working on the rest. I do not strive for a balance, I strive to focus on my priorities

Every day is an interview

How many times have we hear the phrase “Do the Right Thing”. Plenty, I am sure. Doing the right thing is at the core of Everyday’s an Interview Philosophy.

Several times at work, I have had to deal with extremely stressful situations. This year’s start of the new school year was no exception. It was one of the most stressful that I have had in 26 years of education, the last nine spent as an administrator. When I was putting together my notes for the opening day presentation, I realized that we had four new initiatives going on in the department. It was way too many to handle comfortably. We planned diligently, but one of the initiatives did not go well. 

After going through the opening day workshops on Thursday and Friday, we went home for a long weekend. I could not sleep Friday night. I never have a problem sleeping. I am very regular in my sleep times. Something was wrong and I had to figure it out fast.

The issue that kept me awake was that our new digital textbook teacher rollout did not go well. This was an initiative that accounted for over a third of our operating budget for the academic year. While reviewing the technology for our two new digital textbooks on Friday, we realized that our Academic-level textbook’s technology was not performing as well as it should. My staff was not happy and they were starting to blame people. (Aside – I am never happy when people start to blame others, but I am really unhappy when blame is sent around and no one has a solution.) Everyone was frustrated and no one had an answer. The textbook company’s customer service was closed for the long weekend and nothing could be done until Tuesday when the students reported to school. 

It was a three day weekend, one that I was looking forward to, but on Friday night, I could not sleep. I used Box Breathing, my go-to anti-anxiety strategy, and I visualized what the future should hold if I did the right thing. I fell asleep pretty quickly. The strategy of box breathing and visualization is something I learned in my self-improvement studies. (Email and I will send you the book, the author, and the podcast). When I woke up on Saturday morning, I realized that I had to solve the textbook problems right away. That morning, I made a few phone calls, got our salesman on the line, and listed everything that needed to be fixed, the timeline it needed to be fixed by, and how important this was to possible future sales. It was the weekend, but his people needed to get it together. Our students’ successful start to the school year was dependent upon it.

Being where I was physically and mentally, I knew that I needed to sleep and recharge that weekend, and so did my family. However, in order to sleep and relax, I needed to do the right thing and work for part of the weekend. When I returned to work, the staff was happy that the solutions were being developed and that some of the fixes were already implemented.  It still did not go as smoothly as I hoped and there were a few challenges that still had to be overcome. My staff was great, worked through them, and in one case, one of our teachers developed the solution to one of our problems that their customer service could not figure out. Next time, I will make sure that she collects a consultant’s fee.

When you have anxiety, it usually means that you have something to do that you and it is bothering you deep down. It takes time to find the reason for your anxiety. It is important to take the time and figure out where it is coming from. Do the right thing, find the problem, address the solution, and make sure that your actions are aligned to your purpose. When this happens, you are ready to live the Everyday’s an Interview philosophy

When coaching people through the interview process, I find that most of my mentees have the wrong focus. They are solely focused on getting the job and they feel that the best way to get it is to make the interviewers like them. This is all well and good, but in reality, it is only part of the process. They forget that they are also interviewing the company, school, university, institute, etc., that they are applying to.

I am lucky enough to work with a lot of new teachers while they are going through the interview process. One of these teachers was working as a leave replacement for us for two months. During this time, she was interviewing at other schools looking for a long-term (tenure-track) contract. A few weeks later, one of our teachers announced her retirement. Our leave replacement teacher successfully interviewed for the job and received a long-term contract.  Being the professional that she was, she wrote to all of the schools that she was also interviewing with to let them know that she received a long-term contract and that she would not be continuing with the interview process at their schools.

As expected, most of the schools wrote her a thank you letter that congratulated her on her new position. One did not. Instead, the principal of the school wrote her a scathing letter asking her how she could have done this to him. She was a finalist and he trusted her to take the job if he offered it to her. (This job was a leave replacement and it was not going to lead to a  long-term contract). Our new teacher was upset and did not know how to respond. I advised her not to respond at all and to move forward. As we talked further, she felt bad that the other principal was mad. She had the wrong focus. Instead, I asked her if she would ever want to work for this guy or his school district. She said no. Good answer. At this point, she started to realize that she was not just interviewed by the principal and the school, but that she had the power to interview both the school and principal as well. In her eyes, they clearly failed the interview. During the interview process, she was so focused on getting a job that she did not pay attention to the signs that told her that she did not want to work there.

In order to maximize your success, you must never forget that you are also the interviewer at all times, no matter what.

We later hired another teacher, who worked for the same principal that wrote our successful candidate the scathing letter. She too got a scathing letter. None of my mentees will ever get a recommendation to work in the district or for that principal. Every day is an interview and he, and the school district that hired him as a leader failed.

Over the years, I have developed different strategies to help me overcome my weaknesses and bolster my strengths. One of my weaknesses occurs when I lose focus and I try to get numerous things all done at once. This is an unproductive cycle that usually has me focused on efficiency rather than effectiveness. One of my techniques for battling this is called RQA – Recognize, Question, & Act.

Overcoming a weakness happens when you first observe the weakness and then pay attention to how it has impacted your thoughts and actions. I try to maintain focus and complete one task at a time. However, I do tend to lose focus and start dwelling on all of the things that I need to or want to get done. When this happens, the quality of my work decreases. I get caught in a cycle where I focus on completion rather than quality. I am concerned with efficiency over effectiveness. It is good to be effective, but I don’t want to be effective at the expense of getting things done with integrity.

Recognizing that you have the wrong focus is never easy. Sometimes you are lucky enough to have someone close to you who will tell you when things aren’t right. The rest of the time, you have to make the discovery on your own. This is not easy to do.

When you have been made aware that things are wrong, you have to open to the criticisms about your focus. Even when I know that I am multitasking, I do not always recognize that I am doing so. I do not want to admit that I need to refocus my thoughts and actions. When I am lucky enough to recognize that things need to change, I am ready for the next step, Q&A

I have developed a series of Questions that I use to help me work through my lack of effectiveness. They are as follows:

1. Is success defined by your efficiency to get things done or the quality of your work?
   1. It can be both, but which one is more important?
   2. Are your actions aligned with your answer?
2. Are you focusing on the task-at-hand or the end-goal?
   1. Are you focusing on crossing the task off your list or are you focusing on completing the task with quality and integrity?
3. What do you want to achieve?
   1. Quality work?
   2. Completed Checklists?
   3. Why?

Being honest with myself is essential for my success in correctly refocusing myself and my priorities. These questions will not work unless you answer them with honesty and integrity.

Next time that you recognize that you are not focused on effectiveness, try this out and let me know how it worked for you.

Everyday is an Interview

Sometimes, I get too busy for my own good. This time, it was not the band, it was with my oldest son. I was on my way to a recruitment presentation at a local school, informing middle school students about the benefits of the Magnet Program that I coordinate. As I was driving to the school, my oldest son called me and told me that he had missed the bus (Of course through the car’s Bluetooth/ hands-free system). To make things worse, he kept cutting in and out. I was not pleased. I was really not pleased. I did not handle this well. I was short and loud in my responses to him. “What happened?” “What were you thinking?”. Not once did I consider the fact that in three years, this was the second time that he had missed the bus. Not perfect, but close enough. My response to his situation, based on his good record was the reason for Interview failure #1.

I could not leave the presentation. The last time that an event happened (car accident) and I could not make a presentation, the person who took my place did not have all the answers for the parents in attendance. The issues that were created by the lack of information took a long time to overcome. It was not fun. It was not the fault of the presenter. It was my fault for not having someone else prepared to speak about the school. The fact that I still did not have someone to take my place if needed was the reason for Interview failure #2.

Now that I was at school, I called my oldest son again. I asked him what happened and I was not pleased with his response. He was on the couch watching TV when he realized that the bus was passing by the house. He still had to put the dog in her crate and lock up the house before he left. It was impossible for him to get this done and chase after the bus. I was still not pleased, but I was responsible for the presentation. He would have to wait until I was done so I could pick him up and get him to school.

In my head, I was going through what I would say to him, “Do you realize how important it is that I make my meetings?”, “If I cannot handle my job responsibilities, I will no longer have my job?”, “Do you mean to tell me that I had to interrupt my day because you were watching the television?”. Though all of these were true, none of them applied to the situation or the level of emotion/anger that I was feeling inside. My thoughts were not directed at correcting the mistake, they were directed at the fact that my day was inconvenienced. Though not directed to my son at this point, my thoughts were wrong and my use of emotion was wrong as well. Interview failure #3.

Finally, I took a few deep breathes and started to get my head together. I was now able to try and solve the problem. My wife works in the same school system that I do, I called her cell phone, but she shut it off for the school day. I then called my secretary who could transfer me to the phone in her room. My secretary was out of the office because her building was having a fire drill. I called the main office at my wife’s school. No one was picking up, which is common at that point of the day as they are very busy. I waited a few minutes, got my breath, called my secretary again who was back in the office, she transferred me to my wife. She was able to get release time to get my son and drive him to his school. Finally, I am starting to pass the interview. Funny what a few good deep breaths can do towards improving the situation.

I called my son, told him that Mom was on the way, to have a good day, and that I love him. In the back of my mind, I was contemplating how my reactions to his lateness could have affected his day. I did not want to sour his day. He made an honest mistake. He made the difficult phone to rectify the situation. He did not try to lie. He took my poor response “like a man” and did not make excuses or blame others. Pretty good job for an 8th grader. My son passed the interview.

I have sat through numerous sales pitches and vendor presentations in my career. I keep an open mind at the beginning of the presentations and try to maintain it throughout the presentation. However, there is little I can do if the presenter is bad. I have not built up the discipline to withstand a bad presentation and I do not plan to. I cannot stand a bad presentation. Whether it is faulty data, incomplete data, trying to make sales through partial truths, or poor public speaking skills, my decisions to purchase a product for my staff and our students are negatively impacted by a poor presenter.

The other day, I sat through a textbook sales pitch that I was not looking forward to. I had sat through a number of these presentations (most were not good), I was being pulled in various directions at work, and I was not particularly excited about sitting through another bad presentation. (Here I failed the interview as I came into an important presentation with a bad attitude… Be strong and keep an open mind). I was hooked right away by the presenter. After introducing the team of presenters, the lead presenter asked if we could let her know what questions we had and what we wanted from the textbook. She wrote down each of our six items on the board and checked them off when she answered them during the presentation. I was stunned. In 25 years, I never once heard a presentation start with “What do you want?”. These five words told me everything I needed to know about the presenter and hopefully the company that hired her. These five words corrected my attitude and helped me to focus on the task at hand. Now, I wanted to listen to the presentation, I wanted the presenter to teach my students how to present, and I wanted to hire the presenter. (As an aside, I did not force the textbook committee to buy this book. I actually did not tell them how much I liked the product until they told me that they liked the product. I did not want to influence their decision)

Clearly, the presenter passed the start of the interview by asking us what we wanted. She followed this up by covering in depth each of the items that we had listed on her chart. I want every presentation that I sit through in the future to start with these five words. It was the best vendor presentation I ever sat through. It helped that the product had everything that we needed and was customizable to our needs. If the presentation was bad, we might have missed this. The presenter passed the interview and in the process, taught me how to be a better presenter.

You come home late at night from picking your son up from practice. You have not accomplished all of your goals for the day. Chronologically, it has been one time crunch after another that has forced you to put your goals aside for the day. You walk into your house and see that there are pots and pans in the sink and that the dryer is full of clean and dry clothes, that now happens to be wrinkled and in desperate need of ironing. How do you feel?

Me, I used to think that I got angry. One more set of tasks that are going to pull me away from my goals. Actually, angry is the wrong term. Instead, I was feeling sorry for myself. Why? Because something that is not on my list or goals for the day needs my attention. There is something that needs to be done, I do not want to do what needs to be done, and now I have to make a decision. That decision that I want to make is wrong and the decision that I do not want to make is right. Now, what do you do? Remember – Everyday is an Interview.

I may be mad at my family, but I do not know the context that led to the pots and pans in the sink. The laundry in the dryer is on me. I do the laundry in the house. I got caught up in other things and I forgot that the dryer was on. I was not there to fold the clothes when they were ready.

When I am not sure of how to act, I usually rely on my purpose, which is to help others get better. This could be taken in different ways. Because of this, it is important to look at the situation from different perspectives. If this was an interview question, what would I want the interviewee to do? I would want him to turn on the dryer for a few minutes to get rid of the wrinkles and fold the laundry. While they were waiting for the dryer to finish, I would want them to clean up the sink. Then I would want the candidate to prioritize their surroundings and decide which of his goals for the day could get done today and what could be accomplished tomorrow.

No one wants to be the guy who “could” have risen up and done the right thing. I have heard people tell me that they could have done this and they could have done that. I used to be one of them. I remove these people from my surroundings until they can get the right focus and perspective.  I do not hire those who could have been excellent. Besides, I surround myself with people who may not be excellent yet, but they really want to be, and you can see it in their actions.

In the situation above, would you pass the interview? If yes, what did you do to stop feeling sorry for yourself? Every day is an Interview.

I enjoy watching my son play lacrosse. I make his games a priority when I am planning my week. One evening, as my son was warming up for his game, he was on the home team, I was watching the game that was still on the field. At one point, four of the athletes, two from each team, got into a fight. More pushing and shoving than a real brawl. Nonetheless, these middle school boys needed to be separated and order restored. The refs were the first ones there to settle things down and stop the altercation. The coach from the visiting team ran across the field and instructed his two “fighters” to get off the field. He then told them that they were done for the day. The home team’s coaches lumbered onto the field as they were clearly out of shape. By the time they got to the melee, the two players from the visiting team were already walking dejectedly to their bench and the refs had calmed things down, In addition to the four home team coaches, a mother of one of the home team players involved in the fight was on the field.

What happened next was disappointing. The home coaches yelled at the players on the other team to stay away from their players. They then yelled at the refs to stay away from their players. They then yelled at the referees as the referees told them that their two fighters, by rule, were also being excluded from the game. Not one of the home coaches stayed on the bench to make sure that none of their athletes on the bench ran onto the field. Not one of the home coaches acted with the same class that the visiting coach had when addressing the fight. What was a great teaching moment was lost on the home coach’s wrong mindset. I have higher expectations for our teams and our coaches. 

I kept watching the game, waiting for the final whistle so that my son’s team could start their game. There was one more incident that bothered me. One of the home coaches called timeout with less than one minute remaining. Not only were they up by 6 goals with time running out, he only did it to save possession while they were playing keep away from the other team. Even the home parents were upset. The move was unsportsmanlike. The only way it could have been a constructive move was if the coach wanted to teach, AKA coach, his athletes. However, there was nothing that I would want him teaching my son during that timeout.

      Every day is an interview.

Throughout my adult life, I have always used checklists to assist my productivity. My checklists have given me focus, provided me with guidance, and helped me to reach some of my more important goals. I am known for getting a lot of things done and for doing so in a timely manner. For a time, I thought that my checklist was the most important tool in my arsenal. Then I realized I was addicted to my checklist. Maybe brainwashed is a better term. I was so focused (brainwashed that is) on my checklist, that I stopped getting things done with integrity, and instead, I just got things done. The focus was on the number of tasks completed vs. the quality of each completed task. I became someone that I did not want to be. I was trapped in the mindset of efficiency. I got to the point where my sole focus was crossing everything off my list. My measure of success was directly related to my ability to complete the checklist. I became efficient at getting things done and for a time, I thought this was good.

Eventually, I started to notice that my performance slipped. I was no longer being challenged and I was falling into my comfort zone. As usual, as soon as I felt comfortable, alarm bells started to go off in my head. I realized that instead of looking for a challenge I would stare at my list and try to figure out how I would get things done. I got so wrapped up in planning to get things done that I was no longer getting things done with the quality that was important to me and my job. I was successful, but I was not growing. I was completing tasks, but I was not happy. I was performing ok and my efficiency was allowing me to fly under the radar. I realized that I was not happy and I was not achieving my goals with integrity.

Realizing that I had the wrong mindset was the first step to correct my issue. Next, I used the following questions to determine which eff I was following, efficiency on effectiveness:

1. Is success defined by your efficiency to get things done or the quality of your work?
   1. It can be both, but which one is more important?
   2. Are your actions aligned with your answer to Question #1?
2. Are you focusing on the task-at-hand or the end-goal?
   1. Are you focusing on crossing the task off your list or are you focusing on completing the task with quality and integrity?
3. What do you want to achieve?
   1. Quality work?
   2. Completed Checklists?
   3. Why do you want to achieve this?

My honest answer to these questions was vital to understanding the difference between being efficient and being effective. Once I had the questions answered, I was ready to take action, change my focus, and achieve effectiveness.

When you recognize that you are in the mindset of efficiency, ask the right questions, and rearrange your thoughts and priorities by completing things with integrity. (RQA – Recognize, Q&A, Act). Send me your thoughts and comments.

 

Everyday is an interview.

Growing up, I cannot tell you how many times I was told by my parents and teachers that patience is a virtue. I still struggle with patience, but I work hard at it every day. As someone with a check-off list that guides his day, it is not easy to remain patient. However, when it comes to spending money, especially money at work, I am very careful to make sure that the money is spent well on items that will best affect student outcomes in a positive manner.

At a recent vendor presentation, the presenter was fielding questions from my purchasing review committee. The committee’s job was to select the product and thus the vendor that would best suit the needs of the district. The presenter was kind enough to allow the committee members to ask questions during his presentation. Not every presenter allows this, many ask the committee to hold their questions to the end. His patience impressed me.

However, as the presentation continued, I noticed that the presenter was not answering the teachers’ questions. Clearly, the presenter had an agenda and he was losing patience with the committee members. His good deed of allowing the teachers to ask questions led to a group of professionals who were frustrated because their questions were not answered. The presenter, instead of listening to the complete question, started to answer the questions before the members of the committee had a chance to finish the questions. In fact, he was answering the questions as he wanted them asked and he was directing the conversation to the items that he wanted to talk about.

I could tell that my committee was getting frustrated and they did not know what to do. They did not want to be rude, like the presenter, and kept trying to ask their question. I decided to step up and ask the questions that the committee members were trying to get answers to. When he tried to interrupt me, I politely told him that I needed to finish the question so that everyone in the room would understand the issue that we wanted to be addressed. You could see the frustration on his face, but I was steadfast and would not stop until the question was answered. I had a series of back up questions ready in case he did not answer my original question. I was not going to let him proceed with his presentation until he first answered my team’s questions. It was their time that he was wasting and I do not put up with that.

I was not rude, I did not start a fight, the presenter answered my questions in their entirety and my team got the information that they were looking for. I do not appreciate when anyone has their time wasted. If you want to pass the interview as a presenter, listen to the full question and answer it. If you want to pass the interview as the boss, stand up for your team. Do this in a polite manner at first. If you can change the presenter’s behavior and get the question answered, you pass the interview. If the presenter does not respond to your polite redirection, let him know that he is not addressing the question and that we require the answer before we will move forward. If the presenter does not answer your questions, feel free to assemble your team and leave the meeting. Remember who has the power. Up until this point, the presenter thought that he had the power. In the end, as the buyer, I wanted to make sure that everyone in the room knew that my team had the power. If they were not going to get the power, I was going to get it for them. Noone wastes my team’s time.

As for the interview, the presenter failed the interview. The goal of the presentation is to answer my committee’s questions so that they will consider your products. My team knows not to make a recommendation until they have all of the information that they desire. My team passed the interview for their patience with the presenter. They did not get rude with the presenter as this would have prevented them from getting any of the information that they needed. I need to provide them with the techniques needed to make sure that they get what they want from the presenter. Finally, I stood up for my team in a polite manner and I stopped someone from stealing their time away from them. Every day is an interview.