Leadership in Public Schools- Garbage in - Garbage Stays

Be careful what you watch, listen to and read. It will definitely alter your attitude towards life and

work. I encourage you to be very selective in what you allow to enter your brain. As Nido Qubein says, the old saying “Garbage in – garbage out, is not true. Rather, garbage in, garbage stays.”

If you allow negatives to enter you mind, they have a tendency to limit your thinking. The wrong kind of thinking limits your actions. The wrong kind of actions will limit your potential in life and work. It is difficult to keep a PSL with a constant negative flow of information into your brain.

It has been reported that the Coca Cola Corporation spends over one billion dollars per year on advertising. Over the years they have used catchy slogans like, “Coke is the Real Thing,” or “Things Go Better with Coke.” More recent slogans include “Life Begins Here” and “Enjoy Coca Cola.”  The Coca Cola Corporation is not unusual. Most large companies spend enormous amounts of money to advertise their products or services. They do it because it works.

It has been proven that with enough exposure to an advertisement, a certain percentage of people will be influenced enough that they will try a product or service. If they like it, they will continue to buy and use it.

Why not take a lesson from big business and do something to influence the minds of your staff or fellow employees. Create your own advertisements. What I am suggesting is to create your own positive communications, to promote the optimistic and results oriented thinking that is needed in your school district.

In the school districts where we have conducted our workshops and training programs, we have had them participate in an exercise where we divide the participants into small groups. Then they brainstorm slogans or sayings that espouse a positive alternative to negative thinking.

Some examples of the slogans they have created are:
“We care.”
“Do it now.”
“Expect the best”
“The best is yet to come.”
“Big enough to deliver, small enough to care.”
“We are the best, but were getting better.”

Often, the teams create posters or banners that contain the slogans  they have created. Then they post them around their building on walls and bulletin boards. It serves as a constant reminder of their commitment to create a more positive and productive school environment.

For more information on the services of Tom borg Consulting, LLC and how we can help your public school district attract and retain students call 734-404-5909 or visit our website www.tomborgconsulting.comwww.tomborgconsulting.com

Why are Public Schools Privatizing?

An interesting article by Lori Higgins of the Detroit Free Press and why public schools are privatizing things like food service and other departments.
http://www.freep.com/article/20120814/NEWS06/120814053/Report-Growing-number-schools-privatizing-food-custodial-services

For more information on the services of Tom Borg Consulting, LLC please call our office at 734-404-5909 or visit our website at www.tomborgconsulting.com

Learn to Disagree - Agreeably

Anytime you are working with one or more people there is room for disagreement. Since everyone is unique and has had different personal and professional experiences in their life, it is normal and natural to expect differences of opinion when working together on a project or assignment.

The key here is not to take it personally, but to take it professionally. In other words, the goal is to look at the situation where there is disagreement, and see how both perspectives can possibly be combined to create an even better solution. In other words learn to disagree - agreeably.

What this means is getting your ego out of the way and being able to be more objective when working towards a solution. It might mean that your approach is not a good fit for this particular project or your co-worker’s approach may not be acceptable. It might even mean that neither approach is correct, and you will have to go back to a discussion and come up with a new solution. Regardless of the final approach, it is going to work out much better if everyone keeps their ego in check.

It has been said “when two people in that work together in a public school district always agree, one of them isn’t necessary”. To think that a certain way of doing something is the only way is not only myopic but foolish. Like I mentioned earlier, the main thing to remember when working with others is that it is ok to disagree, just do it agreeably. A true professional is one who sees the big picture and works toward creating the best solution using the proper amount of input from others.

So in summary, keep your cool and don’t take differences of opinion personally. The result will be a more productive and harmonious work environment.

For more information on our services for your public school district please contact our office at:
734-404-5909 or email us at tomborgconsulting.com or visit our website at:
www.tomborgconsulting.com

School of Choice-The Power of a Positive Service Attitude in Your School District

 Like all journeys of life, it starts from within. It begins with an attitude of realistic optimism. This means not dwelling on the past, but, looking ahead to the future and focusing on positive action in the present moment, that individually be taken by every member of your team. We refer to this as a Positive Service Attitude (PSA).

What is a good definition of a PSA? In the consulting and training programs we conduct, this is the first question we ask when we cover this topic. The answers we have received include:
“Looking for the best in every situation.”
“Having a ‘Can Do’ Attitude”
“Being a problem solver.”
“Looking at what could be, not what can’t be.”

Whichever way you slice it a PSA is going to position your school district to take advantage of the opportunities that come with change and transition. While everyone else is focusing on what they are losing, smart leaders help their team to focus on which opportunities are becoming available.

There are several benefits to having you and your team possess a PSA. Here are just a few.
    It is a more pleasant place to work.
    Students and parents like to be around people who have a “Can Do” attitude.
    Things get done more smoothly and effortlessly.
    Students and parents are attracted to and want to be part of this kind of school environment.

Between the optimist and pessimist
the difference is quite droll.
The optimist, the do nut she sees,
the pessimist, only the hole.

                 - unknown

Pessimists seem to enjoy it when things go wrong. They seem to have a rain cloud that follows them around. They seem to find glee in problems that overwhelm other people. As far as they are concerned, they are happily discontented with being negative about life.

On the other hand, the realistic optimist, despite what seems negative, looks for what is positive and then persistently takes action to get the kind of results that benefit all involved.

When one stops to think about what it takes to get and maintain a PSA, it is like using the analogy of an old fashioned balance beam scale to weigh beans. The more beans you place on one side the more it will tip it in that direction. So it is with a PSA. The more positives you put into your mind, the more it will cause your mental balance beam scale will tip in the direction of being positive. If you put more negatives into your mind, it will tip your mental scale in the direction of being negative.


Tom Borg Consulting, LLC works with public schools to help them increase student retention and minimize student attrition. They do this through their consulting and training programs that  create better internal and external communication and a  more dynamic service culture. For more information on our services please contact our office at 734-404-5909 or visit our website at www.TomBorgConsulting.com
 www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/lori/higgins

How Public School Districts Can Thrive in Today’s Economy - Part I.

A Special White Paper by
Tom Borg, MS; Keith B. Elliott, RA, CSI; and Katherine Pinard - Copyright 2011


In this and future sections of this white paper, Tom Borg, Keith Elliott, and Kate Pinard of Tom Borg Consulting, LLC., will share concepts, processes, and strategies they use with their public school system clients that are designed to bring about the necessary changes to help them survive and thrive in the 21st century.

All of our American public school districts continue to be hit hard by cutbacks from state funding. Most districts immediately look for areas where funding and staffing may be cut to reduce overall expenditures. This is a logical first step with any budget, but when the team gets to the point of cutting so deeply that curriculum and quality will suffer, it may be time to create a different kind of strategy for future funding opportunities to offset the reduction strategies. The key is to remember the statement, “People don’t argue with their own data.” We will talk further about this approach in getting “naysayers” to become part of the solution as opposed to being part of the problem.

The first factor that must change is how you think. All of the school staff: educators, administrators, and school board members, need to shift the entire realm of past paradigms by beginning to think the way successful businesses do. The well-worn, but not well-applied phrase, “Think outside the box,” becomes the part of a vital strategy to identify and capitalize on new and successful funding opportunities. Albert Einstein is often quoted: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

Invariably, as you explore new approaches to solving your current funding dilemma you will have administrators, board members, teachers, union representatives, parents, and those whom you have never heard from before, question and condemn (not necessarily in that order), the suggestions made. It is true that when one door shuts another one opens. What many struggling teams simply don’t realize is they have to knock on that next door of opportunity to make it open for them. It does not necessarily seek them out.

The next step to take is to work with a training and facilitation consultant to initiate a planning session for all staff and stakeholders in order to ask some specific and possibly difficult questions that would include but are not limited to:
• What are your district’s areas of limitation?
• What are your district’s areas of unlimited opportunities?
• What makes your school district different or better than competing school districts? And at what?
• What are some of the strengths of your competing school districts?
• What are some of their weaknesses?
• Who are some of the key people in your community, and on your payroll, that can serve as resources to implement growth and retention strategies?
• What are some the initiatives you can take to become, not only another school of choice, but the school that is Chosen?


This will most likely play out as a multi-session effort and careful attention should be paid to capturing every fact and comment brought forward. Once those questions have been answered, and distilled into brief action oriented statements, you are ready to enlist the assistance of school staff and volunteers from the community. With our school district clients, we call these teams “Action Groups”, as we do so for a reason. Where a quick and loosely formed “committee” would spend most of its’ time pondering and pontificating, action groups get results through their specific and focused actions. Each action group selects a leader and an alternate leader and begins the pursuit of a specific and coordinated problem area or initiative on which to work with.

The action group leaders are part of the “Action Group Leader Council” which meets monthly to discuss their specific action group’s progress, stuck points, and solutions. It is at this time the members of these team’s will share resources, ideas, and action concepts that coordinate with each group leader as an aid to reaching conclusions on proposed action steps.

A “Central Team,” composed of: Administrators, School board members, Technology department heads, among many others meet periodically. It is at this time, when the Action Group Council Leader and the outside consultants report to the central team. Updates are given, requests for assistance are made, and action is authorized to implement the ideas generated by Action Group teams.

What is critical to this process is that the Action Groups develop a critical solution and experience successes early in the process; we call this reaching a milestone. We always recommend a celebration event for each milestone that has been obtained. Once action groups can see the positive results of their efforts, they can then begin to realize the power they have to make things happen, thus adding to the motivation in taking on bigger, more advanced projects.

In part two, we will discuss the opportunities that exist when the action group process is applied to marketing, alumni groups, and in developing your web marketing strategy.

Tom Borg Consulting, LLC., is a consulting group that specializes in outside the box strategic planning, leadership training, team building, and customer culture transformation for public school systems in Michigan and the United States. For a free 30 minute consulting session or for more information please call 734-812-0526 or visit our website at www.TomBorgConsulting.com