LEADING THROUGH LISTENING

There are escalators for all walks of life. Like anything else in the modern era, the wheel of escalators continues to be reinvented. There are up escalators, down escalators, long escalators, short escalators, and even flat escalators for those that are in more of a hurry. As a side note, have you ever noticed that many young children are afraid of the down escalator? They only want to ride up. Regardless, most often, escalators are devices that help an individual get from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’ in a manner that requires less effort than normal. However, what about the other escalator? What about the escalator that relates to emotions and human management of stress? It’s funny how even in these situations, most humans choose the ‘up escalator’ as well. Given the opportunity to step back from a situation, think about the options logically, and make a conscious choice to de-escalate a situation; most human beings will choose the opposite. They will choose to escalate something and cau...

Do you remember those times when kids want to help themselves believe something that they know isn't right? I always love the laughter of a child that exclaims, "It's opposite day!" The ensuing laughter and joy of having everything be different than it is supposed to be is just fun. I mention this because I often wish I could have an opposite day, or back in time to a point where the human race did not feel so entitled to everything. The growing trait of entitlement in society is alarming. There was a point in time where people were proud to have a job, to have a responsibility, and they would do anything for those that provided their family a way in life. In today's society though, having a good job or being a part of a good community isn't enough. People frequently defy their responsibilities and ask for extra if they have to do one iota's worth of work outside the normal scope. All too frequently, people feel that they have privileges that others shou...

During the past few weeks, Mother Nature has certainly decided to flex her muscles a bit around our country. Having several family members currently Florida, and friends working through the challenges in Texas; I, like many of you, have experienced the concern and worry for our friends and family dealing with catastrophic events. I can recall many of us making comments about the a-typical summer that we had here in Central New York. Looking back at some of our simple cloudy days, lower than average temperatures, and maybe some rain; our summer doesn't seem too bad. Reflecting on what hundreds of thousands of others are dealing with because of Mother Nature, really puts things into perspective. I talk a lot about how an individual's perspective can influence their attitude, and this is a perfect example. There are many things in life that we cannot control, but our perspective is not one of them. We can control whether or not we seek to understand a situation/event. We control...

Over the course of 2 years in Rome, the one thing that continues to concern me about our school community is the level of disrespect shown toward each other. Almost on a daily basis, I learn of a story where someone disrespected a colleague, a parent, a secretary, a custodian, or an administrator. It is just saddening to me that in 2017, we as adults still don't have the personal strength and desire to treat others with respect, every day, all day. We have a responsibility to our children to help them learn how to treat others and help our society move forward, but for some reason our own community struggles with this quality at times. I expect that at times our children will say or do something that disrespects an adult; after all, they are kids and they make mistakes. It's our job to show them way. It's our job to lead by example, by treating each other respectfully. There is never an excuse or reason to pick up the phone and yell at someone, call another adult names (...