Leadership Matters - January 2013

Halftime…..How does your game plan look for the second half of the season?

By Dr. Gary Zabilka IASA Field Services Director

sure by next season? Regardless, now is the time to have that conversation and make sure everyone is on the same page moving forward. Financial Review: How is our bank book looking at this point of the season? Have we spent about half of our anticipated expenditures for the

As a practicing school administrator, I would often compare the school year to an athletic season — marking the

year, or are we way beyond that? Is there a reason for being way beyond that, or do we need to hold back during the second half of the season? How are our revenues doing? Are they coming in as projected, or are we possibly having a better “season” than we anticipated? Either way, make sure you plan to adjust accordingly. Personal Reflection: How is the Head Coach (Superintendent) holding up after enduring the first half of the season? Are you doing those things you need to do to keep yourself healthy, while modeling that for the rest of your team? Are you taking the time to reflect on the behaviors,

quarters and the half of the school year to a quarter and half of an entire athletic

Editor’s Note: “Tip from the Field” will be a standing monthly column. IASA’s three Field Services Directors, Dr. Gary Zabilka (Northeastern Super Region), Dr. Nick Osborne (Southern Super Region) and Dr. Bill Phillips (Northcentral Super Region) will write the column on a rotating basis.

season. As such, January becomes halftime for all schools — some as soon as they come back from Winter Break, others in just a couple of weeks. Halftime in a season is typically marked by the All-Star break when the season stops for a couple of days and gives one the opportunity to analyze and reflect on how the first half of the season went, and begin to think ahead to the rest of the season. Depending on how things are going, one may even step up one’s thinking for the season ahead (the next school

strategies, and people on your team to be able to ensure that all are operating to their optimum, and then be able to respond accordingly? As the Head Coach, you must continually do those things necessary to lead your team effectively — that’s why you are the Head Coach! We can continue with this metaphor and question how responsive the fan base (the community) is to our team, how our fields (facilities) are holding up, or even how our team’s “owners” (Board of Education) are doing at mid- season, but I believe you can see these and other important correlations we can make. Most importantly, however, is to remember that January is the beginning of the second half of the year, and it will serve you well to realistically review the first half of the year before giving it all you have for a successful second half. Good luck, and give it your best!

year, to continue the metaphor). Let’s take a look at a couple of specific areas that we might consider during “halftime.” Game Plan: How well is our game plan going? Are the district goals that we have in place being implemented, or have we varied from our plan or lost focus? Halftime is a great time to say “time out”; we need to get back to our game plan and focus on those things we know we need to be focused on for the second half of the season. Player Update: How is our team holding up at this point in the season? Have we been available to them to support them and make sure they are still healthy and focused on the game plan? Do we need to have a conversation or dialogue with any of our players who may be struggling so far this season? Worst-case scenario, do we need to consider a change for our team, either for the second half, or for

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