The "Skinny" on Leading and Judgement

I thought I would take today's SAIL blog to branch off of the direction Dan Keyser took us in last week regard to "the skinny" on change as it relates to Michael Fullan's Motion Leadership text. I see all of you as leaders, regardless of title, position, or experience. You are educators. You are all leading the change day-by-day, week-by-week, and year-by-year. This occurs in your classrooms, in your numerous weekly meetings, in your attitudes, your actions, and in nearly every aspect of your work. I have learned in my 10 years in education that it is easy to pass judgement on those who may be operating in a different manner than ourselves. It is also easy to judge a system or an individual for not pursuing something, for doing something different than what WE want and believe, or for focusing direction in one area over another. It is something I am constantly checking myself against as I grow into my own leadership. Since I can't articulate myself quite as well as Michael Fullan, I'll quote it directly from the text:

"Leaders who want to become savvier about change have to practice being nonjudgemental because it does not come naturally. This is hard to do, especially if you have a strong sense of moral purpose and urgency. ...It is possible to know that something is terribly ineffective and still have empathy respect for people who have not had the opportunity to develop the capacity to become effective" 

This paragraph resonated with me and I have since reread it several times over. I truly believe if we could all take this to heart and practice this type of thinking, we could avoid numerous assumptions and associated conflicts while setting an open stage for change. We have all operated in an antiquated or ineffective manner at some moment in our careers, likely because we didn't know any better at the time. If we are able to suspend our judgment and start working towards understanding and mutual respect, we will be primed for building capacity in others as well as ourselves.  Thanks for listening to the "skinny" of my thoughts on this today and good luck with the last 3 weeks!