SamTastic Weekly Tip - 7/18/22: Disconnect

Today’s Tip: Disconnect

Most SAM teams are on vacation in July. Some SAM teams have already started their new school year.

Taking a break, disconnecting from your work, is a smart idea based on extensive research. It is hard for dedicated leaders to believe that doing less can mean accomplishing more. The truth is that you are better in your work when you are all three of the following:

1. Rested

2. Centered

3. Present

You can accomplish this with a vacation. You can also accomplish this by working a slightly shorter workday and taking a meditation break mid-day.

Some SAM teams schedule a 15-minute personal/centering event every day. Talk as a team to determine the best time for you to take a break. Many find it rejuvenating. As one California SAM principal says, “My 15-minute meditation gives be two mornings instead of one. After working until lunch, I am starting to tire. Taking the 15-minute break refreshes me and keeps be from being thoughtless or too quick to judge.”

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SamTastic Weekly Tip - 7/11/22: What Not to Say

Today’s Tip: What Not to Say (Borrowed from The Marshall Memo)

Therapist Anthony Smith suggests avoiding three phrases when working with people:

• I understand This may confirm you are listening but the other person might take it to mean that you’ve had a similar experience and know how to solve the problem. When that turns out not to be true, the person can feel disappointed, even irritated. Better to say, “I recognize…” or “I can see…”

• There’s not much we can do about that. Again, this statement is an attempt to ground the other person in reality and accept that some things just can’t be changed. But these words can increase anxiety, hopelessness, and despair. Better to help the person develop strategies for managing the situation in the best way possible.

• You just have to… This implies that the solution is obvious – but if solving the problem were easy, the person would have done that already. The word just is the trigger here (as in Just calm down when a person is really upset or Just suck it up when they’re at their wits’ end). All these minimize the seriousness of the problem and can come across as patronizing. The key is to help the person figure out a better way to address or cope with the problem.

“Three Things Therapists Shouldn’t Say” by Anthony Smith in Psychology Today, July/August 2022 (Vol. 55, #4, p. 8)

SamTastic Weekly Tip - 7/5/22: Advice from Ted Lasso

Today’s Tip: Advice from Ted Lasso:

“I was driving my little boy to school, and I saw this quote by Walt Whitman, and it was painted on the wall there. It said, 'Be curious, not judgmental.' I like that."

Excellent advice from television’s favorite soccer coach.