Читать книгу The Together Leader - Heyck-Merlin Maia - Страница 17

In case you cannot already tell, I'm a huge fan of clear expectations, organizational routines, and planning for the unexpected. This is not a book about being organized just to have a clean desk. This book is to help you feel and be more successful driving toward your mission – and maybe, just maybe, having a life along the way! This book is focused on helping you think about your own time – and your people's time – as a manager. This book is about developing tools, habits, and systems to effectively and efficiently lead a team. This book is about creating plans for expected work so we can deal with the unanticipated stuff when it inevitably arises. This book is the nuts and bolts of effective time management in a leadership role at a mission-driven organization: how to weigh the urgent call that comes through against the need to revamp staff orientation, how to plan purposefully for a meeting, and then follow up. This book is not about color-coding, alphabetizing, or creating perfect paper files. In fact, there will be multiple times I encourage messiness and improvisation.

Togetherness matters more in mission-driven work – and no one has taught it – until now!

Togetherness Talks: Shawn Mangar

Name: Shawn Mangar

Title: Founding principal of Baychester Middle School (NYC Department of Education)

Why Togetherness matters: My workload is endless but my time isn't. Togetherness allows me to make the most of every minute.

Tell me about the mission and scope of your work. What are you most proud of?

My goal was to develop an organization that places the needs of students above all else while simultaneously providing staff with the best resources and opportunities to excel at one of the hardest jobs in the world. I'm proud of the fact that we've taken our student community service commitment from an ideal to a reality by ensuring every student has the opportunity to actively support the Bronx community with their advisory class each year.

At 10 am on any given workday, what might I find you doing?

A typical day involves reigniting the best friend status of two middle students, providing instructional feedback to teachers, and planning or leading teacher training.

What is your favorite Together Tool and why?

I'm a huge fan of the software program Flow. It allows me to focus on my priorities, break down larger projects into bite-sized pieces, and monitor the deliverables of our team.

Tell me how you start and end each day to remain Together.

I begin every morning with a ten-minute meeting with my secretary, Elsa. We preview the day and discuss any tasks that need to get done. I end each workday with a fifteen-minute meeting with my codirector, Liz. We support each other by staying focused on the big rocks and holding ourselves accountable to our To-Do Lists for the next day or week.

What is a challenge you still face with Togetherness?

I'm addicted to e-mail and ESPN.com. I'm working on allocating specific time frames each day for checking e-mail and focusing on one task at a time without self-interruptions.

How do you remain focused when the work is swirling around you?

I often take a five-minute break and go interact with our students at recess or gym. This instantly puts me in a better mood. Our students have the ability to motivate me without even knowing it. After time with them, l head back to my desk to write everything down and reprioritize as needed.

What happens when you get interrupted or ambushed?

In the moment, I tend to deal with the problem at hand. Afterwards, I like to take a step back and identify the organizational breakdown that led to the interruption and strategize about how I can prevent it from occurring in the future.

It's 10 am on a Saturday morning. What keeps you rejuvenated and renewed?

Saturdays involve taking a spin class with my wife or playing Battleship with my nieces and nephew.

What have you learned to let go?

I've let go of organizing e-mails into specific file folders and ironing my school embroidered polo.