Inspiring Words of Wisdom from the Real Joyce Abbott of Abbott Elementary
Photo credit: iStockphoto.com (Svetlana Larshina)
Joyce Abbott is the longtime Philadelphia teacher after whom the hit show Abbott Elementary was named.
She has been recognized three times as a “Who’s Who Among America’s Finest Teachers.” She is also a former United States Army Staff Sergeant.
In other words, she knows something about setting high expectations, inspiring confidence, and offering encouragement and support–or, in a word, leadership.
She joined us recently for a delightful conversation about all of these things. You can watch the conversation here.
A few highlights appear below.
Building Confidence
The first important thing in keeping your confidence is encouraging yourself – believing in yourself, even if that means having conversations in the mirror.
Then, when you enter spaces where you feel you may not belong or wonder “Can I do this again?”, talk to yourself, encourage yourself, and don’t sit in the back.
Staying away from negativity or people who are very critical of you is also important because sometimes that can diminish your confidence and make you not believe as much in yourself.
Building confidence takes some time, but it starts with you. It starts with you. And while it’s not easy, you have to be consistent with everything you do and continue to encourage yourself.
Also, journal and look at what may have caused you to lack confidence in a particular situation.
When you have confidence, you’ve won even before you started. It can be difficult, but you can do it. Know that you can do it. And be consistent.
Balancing High Expectations With Encouragement
When you place high expectations on people, they need support. People under you need support in reaching them. You can’t say, “Okay, this needs to be accomplished, that needs to be accomplished,” but not offer support.
Sometimes, that support will take time out of your normal eight-hour or nine-hour day. But that support piece is so important, especially if you want to set the bar high, and we all should set it high in any field.
That’s how I was able to be successful with the high expectations I had in place – because it was balanced with constant encouragement and support, even if I had to give up my lunchtime, come in early, or stay late.
Leading by Example–With Empathy and Compassion
Being a leader in the classroom, in the community, or a big corporation is all about leading by example and with compassion and empathy. You can place high expectations—you should always have high expectations in any realm of work—but you can’t do that without effective support, empathy, caring, compassion, and great communication.
People who leave the business world to teach sometimes go into the classroom and find more support in the school than they did in a corporate environment. So, our corporate leaders also must be aware of the importance of leading with compassion and empathy and then by example.
