There is a positive side to firefighting. Larry Cuban (1985) states that
you have to put out fires quickly, you have to work on fire prevention, and
sometimes you have to know when to start a fire. Good advice. Respond-
ing quickly can save precious time, money, and energy. Paradoxically, tak-
ing responsible risksby starting a fire or two can put new energy into the
system.
Habits of Mind—The Embedded Vision
An old adage says: If you don’t know where you are going, any road will
do. We have found that whether it is we as leaders, staff we are working
with in schools, parents who have a problem, or a community member
with a concern, the impact we have is directly related to helping the other
person create a vision for what they want. Susan Scott (2002), in her book
Fierce Conversations, says people usually have absolute clarity about what
they don’t want. Our challenge as leaders is to help others define, with pre-
cision and accuracy,what they do want. Without being clear about the
goal and what success looks like, sounds like, and feels like, we are less
likely to reach our goals. So leaders help others define what they want
and how to get there. When we help others see what could be—by per-
sisting;thinking about our thinking;applying past knowledge to new situ-
ations;creating,imagining,innovating;andresponding with wonderment
and awe—we develop inspiration and aspiration that challenges and pro-
motes breakthrough thinking and actions.
Finally, leaders must remember that setbacks can be opportunities.
When managed well, setbacks promote new standards of performance by
posing mistakes as opportunities for learning. Instead of focusing on fail-
ure, we emphasize feedback and expect others to grow and learn from
experience. The judicious use of feedback can reframe a problem, clar-
ify the desired results, and provide pathways for making needed adjust-
ments. Richard Farson and Ralph Keyes (2002) wrote a book about the
idea that the one who makes the most mistakes wins. Mistakes are feed-
back. Learning is not making the same mistake twice but learning from
it. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Failure is not getting knocked down; fail-
ure is not getting up.” This is the essence of persistence.
Leading Is a Habit of Mind 313