Time management, negotiation & leadership

"Only dead fish swim with the stream" made me smile. I have never been known to be one who 'goes with the flow' just for the sake of it and I'm pleased about that -not sure I'd ever want to be compared to a dead trout.

At first reading of Sanders (2004), I thought that the idea of conflict being a useful part of the change process as it can "isolate the weaknesses in the proposals in time to correct them" was a new idea to me. However, after some thought I saw how conflict often worked in the meetings I've attended over the years where there have been differences of opinion and lively, productive, passionate discussion has taken place, usually ending in something being changed, often for the better. In quoting Wertheim et al (1992), Sanders tells us that "conflict management is a skill that can be learned" and that there are four major ways in which we respond to conflict: fighting, pacifying, avoiding discussing and compromising. In a school setting I must admit that usually my first response to conflict is to try to compromise, as it is in my nature to try to keep the peace and I generally run a mile before I involve myself in heated conflict. (It's a different story when I'm dealing with my teenage kids, though).
The idea of using "I" statements rather than "You" statements and describing the offending behaviour rather than the offender are not new ideas. These have been highlighted numerous times in the psychology courses and inservice training I've attended over the years.

Covey (1990) tells us that "Leadership is ... an art; it's based on a philosophy. You have to ask the ultimate questions of life when you're dealing with personal leadership issues." While leadership decides what "first things" are, it is management that puts them first, day-by-day, moment-by-moment. I feel that as a manager I'm good at 'getting the job done'. One former colleague once commented that the reason I was so busy and on so many committees is because people believe that a job will get done if you give it to a busy person - and that was usually me! I like the idea of activities fitting into one of four quadrants in the Time Management Matrix. I realise now that I need to take time out to think about and reflect on my Quadrant 2 activities to be able to give them more priority.

One way I can make myself more productive is to delegate the ordering of resources to other teachers. Until now I have worked solo on ordering, but in the new school year I intend to tap on the shoulders of teachers who are passionate about children's literature and ask them to assist. I'm also thinking about getting a signature stamp made so that invoices can be stamped by one of the library clerks, instead of each and every one of them (and there are many) manually signed by me. Not sure if this is legal or even acceptable in my school, but it will save me a lot of valuable time that could be spent better elsewhere and is certainly worth a try.