Blogs

United States Marine Corps. Leadership Traits: Part 4 | Integrity and Enthusiasm

By Stephen Chassee posted 01-25-2023
The holidays are over, and everyone has finished indulging. Hopefully, this was indulging in family time and not excess sweets. Perhaps it was in the blessing of giving to others, or maybe just some much needed time off. Maybe it was just some time to recharge since 2022 was quite the year. It was returning from Covid, getting “back to work” and “back to school” and somewhat back to normal. Will we ever fully return to normal? Are there things about the workplace that are going to be a permanent change? Do you think that we learned enough in 2022 to better understand each other, and to have more compassion, or do you think people went the other direction? Did ...

Leader vs Manager, Friend vs Foe, How are you Perceived?

By Kevin Dale posted 10-19-2022
Leadership can take many different forms and is portrayed differently by each individual. If you look at Leadership from a LIFO perspective, you will look at how you interact and work in each of the four quadrants (Supporting Giving, Conserving Holding, Adapting Dealing or Controlling Taking). You may also look at your Leadership Style through the eyes of John Maxwell as how you are fitting into the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Even though I have been through many different leadership trainings and academies over the last sixteen years in my role as a School Business Official, I have found that I don’t focus on just one. I have found that even though they ...

“Ode to Joy,” A Case of Inspired Gratitude

By Suzana Peterson posted 08-09-2022
In times of peril, it is easy to forget to have a spirit of gratitude. Indeed, it may even seem inappropriate to be grateful when there are so many struggles invading the peace that should be all pervasive in our world. As I was listening to my favorite piece of music, “Ode to Joy,” I was struck by its lasting beauty and power… and I was overcome with gratitude. Adding the Human Voice But why? And am I the only one so moved by it? In 1972, the Council of Europe made Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” its official anthem. Years later, in 1985, the European Union did the same. This symphony is considered by many leading musicologists to be one of the greatest works in ...

Leadership Traits: Part 3

By Stephen Chassee posted 04-11-2022
United States Marine Corps. Leadership Traits: Part 3 Decisiveness and Tact: Two Traits That Work Well Together The world is changing rapidly as businesses, schools, government buildings and even entire countries begin to lift their travel bans, restrictions, and even mask requirements for COVID-19. So the question becomes, what have we learned from the pandemic? Thanks to the pandemic, you could no longer use the phrase "that's the way we have always done it" because, frankly, nobody had been down this road before. The pandemic was new territory for everyone. In an industry like the school business, there is barely time to handle the everyday duties, ...

The Journey to Leadership

By Jillian Scholl posted 02-25-2022
“I believe you can be born to lead, or you can learn to lead. Either way, sometimes the journey to becoming a successful leader is not always linear.” A Born Leader I can remember back to as early as pre-school when I would take charge during playdates and decide what we were going to play, who would be doing what, and how they would be doing it. I loved to play “school” but was always the teacher and never the student. I guess you could say I was a bit “strong-willed” or “bossy.” I would say I had great leadership skills! As I grew up, my leadership skills grew as well. I took it upon myself to find opportunities to volunteer, help grade papers, ...

Just a Friendly Fitness Challenge… Or is it?

By Carrie Matlock posted 02-03-2022
Call me crazy, but I love a good competition. This is one aspect of the culture that I have appreciated over my 27 years at DLA Architects. Several times per year, the firm brings the entire office together for a friendly competition of some sort. We have gathered for heated volleyball games, bag tournaments, whirly ball, indoor racing, 5k runs, golf, chili cook-offs and several versions of a health/walk competition. The common thread is fun. With many people participating, often as teams that might not work together much, the activities encourage teamwork and flexibility. And, oh yeah, do they get competitive! This culture of work hard and have fun is one ...

Comfort vs. Growth: A Leadership Dilemma

By Seth Chapman posted 12-16-2021
Difficult Choices that Define us as Leaders What was I thinking? I spent my first several years at District 303 in St. Charles struggling to learn the district and to build trust with my team. It was a much larger role from my previous position. Far more responsibility and more demanding. Seven years plus at St. Charles and I had the privilege to hire everyone on my team of nine except for one person (and she was promoted into a new role). “The dream team” was built and they were firing on all cylinders… my job was to keep the ship moving and support their growth and productivity. We just completed a major construction renovation and paid off a large ...

Leading in Times of Change

By Jordi Camps posted 11-17-2021
There is an expression that goes something like this: “Change is the only constant.” I am sure we have all heard it. Speaking from personal experience, this expression rings very true. Before becoming a Chief School Business Official, I spent 22 years in the private sector working for a multinational corporation that competed in the telecommunications industry. The company had 150 thousand employees when I started and less than 10 thousand when I left. I experienced the purchase of other companies we wanted to buy as well as the sale of businesses we didn’t want to own any more. In my last three years alone, we were bought and sold twice, first to Google and ...

Peer to Boss Leadership

By Frank Williams posted 10-12-2021
Over my seven years as an Adjunct MBA professor, I’ve taught numerous students who chose to pursue their MBA because they want to climb the ladder and be prepared for being a Boss. One can always tell the topics that just grab their attention - motivational theory, leader vs manager, strategic analysis. But, one topic that I can always tell the students are really focused on is Peer-to-Boss. What is the topic of Peer-to-Boss? As individuals who have reached a high spot on the career ladder we made a choice to pursue becoming both a manager and a leader. Reflect back to when you made that choice. Were you ready? Out of all of the experiences and knowledge gained, ...

The Traits of a Strong Leader: Part Two

By Stephen Chassee posted 09-20-2021
If the past few months have shown us anything, it’s that there are more hills to climb, more battles to fight and more questions than answers in the world right now. You can look at the global stage to see how divided our country has become or look no further than your local school board meeting to find turmoil. Everyone is scrambling trying to find their truth, trying to find answers to questions that will define our existence for the foreseeable future, of for somebody to show them the way and guide them through the chaos. The reality is everyone is trying to find a leader . I have seen this phenomenon numerous times over the course of my career. In ...

A Place to Continue to Grow

By Michael Jacoby posted 08-25-2021
The Illinois ASBO Leadership Blog was created for our members who are growing and excelling as leaders and would like to either share their wisdom with each other or grow even more. My suggestion is that every member come back to this blog repeatedly to be encouraged and to grow. “But why do we need to talk about leadership for business officials? ” Well, when it comes to leadership, school business officials (SBOs) are in a very special place in a school district. In most cases, the SBO is the #2 leader in the district. They lead people, teams, boards, community groups and even students. So, it is critical to understand what leadership really ...

Running Music

By Wendy Flaherty posted 06-01-2020
Strong leaders tend to be driven by getting results. That drive can result in many office hours; however, to be an effective leader, learning how to maintain balance is key. As we enter into the second 30 day extension of the COVID 19 shelter in place order, I believe the best way to be a good leader is to prioritize self-care. One of the ways I do this is by running. Running allows me to pause for a moment, take care of my body, eliminate stress and think more clearly. The lyrics from music often help me think through decisions. Here is a playlist that may help you as you work through decisions in your leadership position. The first songs on my playlist ...

A Letter to My Mother: The Leader I Aspire to Be

By Ronald O'Connor posted 05-11-2020
My mother recently lost her battle with cancer. She is the leader I aspire to be. Here is my letter to her. Dear Momma, Thank you for making me into the man that I am. You are my mother, but we always relied on each other. You have always been my number one supporter and most resilient person I know. Your first language was Spanish, and you became fluent in English in grade school. While doing so, you helped raise your eight siblings when my abuelito and abuelito were in a new country. School may have been difficult because you went back and forth to Mexico with your family, but you did it. You taught me that people needed me to guide them and ...

The Traits of a Strong Leader: Part One

By Stephen Chassee posted 04-22-2020
I have witnessed a lot of examples of leadership between my time working for Fortune 500 Companies, small businesses, being a partner in a small business and my time in the Marine Corps. Some of it was good and some bad, but I believe that you can learn just as much about your leadership style watching bad leaders as you can watching good ones. Often when watching bad leaders, it is about learning what not to do, instead of just what is working well. “So, what makes some of them better leaders than others? What made some more successful at leading their Marines? The answer is simple, all of them were given the tools to lead, but not everyone had the skills. ...

Lead Like a Lion

By Ed Wright posted 04-14-2020
As an early teen my average, middle-class, family moved us into the “rich” neighborhood of Grosse Pointe. This Detroit suburb promised better schools for me and my sister. If you are thinking of the movie Grosse Pointe Blank , that is the place. Though with fewer spies... oh, and it was shot in a completely different town. Looking back, it was a struggle. I found it hard to fit in. Soon, I was falling in with the wrong crowd, that is, until I learned some valuable lessons. I was fortunate to have two mentors I rely on to this day: my high school wrestling coach and my grandfather who was a restaurateur. They each taught me lessons that allowed me to become a ...

My Clarity Experience

By Dean Romano posted 03-09-2020
As I began preparing to step into the role of Illinois ASBO President, I reflected a great deal on what would serve our membership as my presidential theme for the year. I wanted the theme to be relatable, personal (especially for myself as I truly wanted to model it throughout the year) and meaningful for all who connected with it. During that same season I was delving into research within a work by Charles Duhigg called The Power of Habit and performance-based concepts found within High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard. I found it very interesting to see the data on how habits, good or bad, had such a large impact on outcomes. Burchard has identified ...

Leadership Lessons from a Super Bowl Coach

By Jeff Feyerer posted 02-17-2020
Now that the Super Bowl is over, most Americans, including myself, are set to reallocate their Sunday time in front of the television to more productive pursuits. I know my wife has a list of household to-dos that have been accumulating since August that I’ll be tackling (pun intended). No longer will, “I’m sorry, the Packers play at noon” be an excuse for not taking my kids to swimming. What I wasn’t expecting was to still be thinking about this particular game now weeks later, and I’m not talking about the commercials or halftime show. As a former football coach, I often find myself analyzing the strategy of the game, but it’s not that either. I’m not even ...

Leadership from the Outfield

By Terence Fielden posted 02-03-2020
I grew in up Hammond, Indiana during the 1970’s. With an economy of largely based in the steel industry, I unfortunately witnessed the demise of that robust industry during my college years. The steel industry refused to re-tool and modernize to the current times, thus resulting in its demise of steel and the resulting crushing economic impact is a life lesson on the importance of continued learning and growth. I now live in Naperville and our kids have the fortunate advantage of only knowing the stress of the line at Starbucks or getting to school on time. Little League baseball was the prime sport of my childhood and many of the coaches worked in the steel ...

The Leadership Institute: The Investment that Keeps Giving

By Susan Harkin posted 01-09-2020
Nearly ten years ago, I made the best personal investment in my professional career that continues to benefit me to this day. Before this yearlong leadership journey, I did not feel I was connecting with my team. I entered the Leadership Institute, knowing that I could be a better leader and wanting to obtain the tools to do so. Three essential tools were given to me that I frequently use. The first tool is LIFO , which allows me to understand how our life orientations impact our interactions with others. The second tool was taking inventory of my leadership practices through LPI . The last tool was learning how to use SBI , Situation-Behavior-Impact, to ...

Are You a Kick-Ass Boss?

By Angela Crotty posted 12-17-2019
Are YOU a kick-ass boss? Can you be a better leader and co-worker? There is always room for improvement! Discover how Kim Scott intersects caring personally and challenging directly to create Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity . Care Personally What do you know about your employees outside of their work lives? If your answer resembles something such as nothing, not much, very little...you are missing a critical piece of the Radical Candor puzzle. Caring personally is crucial to being a kick-ass boss. You might be thinking, “I try to stay out of my employees’ personal matters,” or “It’s not my business,” or “I’m not my employees’ ...