These People Are Way Better At Doing My Job Than Me

I attended a Nebraska Educational Technology workshop a few weeks ago and had an opportunity to hear Dr. Robert Dillon (http://www.drrobertdillon.com) give the keynote address. During that talk, he asked the audience to write down the names of three people who do your job better than you do. After a couple of seconds, he said that if this wasn't an easy task, then you are missing out on a wonderful opportunity to learn.

The rest of the keynote was really good, but I kept on coming back to this exercise. You see, we live in a culture where we are always striving to be the best. A culture where second place is viewed as the first loser. Why is that? Each and everyone of us has a specific set of skills that make us really good at what we do. Unfortunately, we sometimes get blinded by the fact that we desire to be the best that we don't connect with others who might be better at our jobs than we are.

I will admit that I am a highly competitive person who strives to be the best. I have been taught my parents and teachers that if I work hard and have a laser like focus on what I want to accomplish, I will achieve my goals. With that being said, I will always have others that I can learn from. There will always be others who are better at my job than I can ever hope to be. Out of respect to these folks, I would like to name a few and I would challenge you to make your own list. Additionally, I have included the Twitter handles of these folks so you can follow them and learn from them. They are truly exceptional people and I owe a lot of my successes to them, whether they realize it or not.

Mark Johnson (@mc_bossy)
Sam Stecher (@samuelstecher)
Dr. Brian Maher (@BrianMaher2)
Dr. Steve Joel (@sjoel59)
Jimmy Casas (@casas_jimmy)
Kipp Petersen (@kpetersen678)
Dr. Keith Lutz (@keithlutz2)
Dr. Jim Sutfin (@jsutfin)
Clint Edwards (@Clint77Edwards)
William D. Parker (@williamdp)
George Couros (@gcouros)
Patrick Malley (@ptrkmkl)
Rick Kolowski (@ RickKolowski)

I think it is important for educators to acknowledge those that have had a lasting impact on them, especially when it comes to school leadership. In my pursuit of learning more, I would love to hear who has had an impact on you in your leadership.