Keeping Hope Alive
Our careers have taken us far. For us, the Habits of Mind have provided
ways to stay resilient and to maintain hope for the public schools. We
believe one of the greatest needs of leaders is to keep hope alive (Som-
mers, 2007); we conclude with an acrostic using the word hope.
His for humility—remaining open to continuous learning. If we are
not humble enough to say we don’t know or that there might be a better
way, we tend to think we have the answer. As Robert Pascale (1990) has
said, “Nothing fails like success.” When we are successful, we stop look-
ing for more right answers. As leaders, we must remain humble.
Ois for options. Options—the products of thinking flexibly,listening,
creating—can help people and organizations develop. Looking for more
options to learn, teach, and lead can move people and organizations to
higher levels of performance. Creativityincreases options for people. As
our world increases in complexity, leaders will need more and more
creativity.
Pis for persistence. We persist when we have the passion for learning
and performance. Impatience with systems means that we both continue
to battle with our impulsivity. After a staff meeting, a former colleague of
Bill’s gave him a note with “T T T” written on it. She told Bill that no
matter how much he wanted something, “Things take time.” We still get
impatient, and we remind ourselves to go slow to go fast.
Eis for everyone—thinking interdependentlyand remembering that
we are not lone rangers. There are always others who want the same
results. There are always others willing to help. We have to widen our
vision to include others. Our work should not be done by one person, one
thing at a time.
We k n ow w e h a v e p r o b l e m s i n e d u c a t i o n , a n d b e c a u s e i t i s a h u m a n
endeavor, we always will. We also believe we have solutions, many that we
have not thought of yet. So our pearls of wisdom are these: keep on think-
ing, keep modeling the Habits of Mind, and keep on leading and learn-
ing. Isn’t that what developing other leaders is all about? Isn’t that what
students deserve?
314 Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind