Our Leader in Me Journey
In 2009, my assistant principal, Tracie Tolbert and I attended a Leader in Me
(LIM) session in Birmingham. It was one of the many to choose from at the
conference. Little did we know the tremendous impact it would have on our
school. It was only moments after the facilitator began, that we knew the LIM
process was exactly what we needed. To move an already good school to an
excellent school was our goal and so our journey began.
Back at school, we shared the LIM process with our faculty and staff. A new
excitement filled the air! To ensure we had the “big picture” of implementing the
7 Habits into our daily lives; faculty and staff visited other LIM schools. We tied
our LIM plans to our Continuous Improvement Plan to ensure funding for The 7
Habits of Highly Effective Signature Training and the purchase of the 7 Habits
student activity books. In May of 2010, Stephen Covey Foundation facilitators,
Chad Smith and Jane Knight, gave an overview of the LIM process to the faculty
and staff. After the overview, teachers and staff were ready to commit to the
process. In June, the faculty and staff attended the four days of the7 Habits of
Highly Effective People Signature Training. A Dream Team was formed to lead us
along our way. Our newly formed team attended an additional two days training.
During the 2010 – 2011 school year, we began implementation of the LIM
process. We took baby steps by using the 7 Habits language, adding quotes to our
hallways, and using the 7 Habits in our displays. Each year, we added more and
more to strengthen the LIM process. We incorporated the 7 Habits into the
curriculum. We formed Leadership Clubs, trained parents, bus drivers and
lunchroom staff, added Leadership behavior charts to our classrooms, formed
Parent Lighthouse Teams from our community, and Student Lighthouse Team
were also added. For two years, our students have been setting goals and
tracking their progress in their Leadership notebooks and even leading parent
conferences. As goals are reached, we celebrate. In return, our students set new
goals. It is a continuous leadership process. School-wide goals are set and tracked
as well. We, the students and teachers and staff, all have an accountability
partner who supports us in working toward our goals. We visited other LIM
schools and attended the LIM symposium each year. In addition, we have hosted
three Leadership Day events in which hundreds of community leaders, parents,
administration, faculty from other schools, and states have visited our school.
Several schools have sent representatives to visit throughout the year and on
Leadership Club Day. We love sharing our LIM journey and success with others.
As our journey continues, we have our eyes and hearts set on becoming a
Lighthouse School. At present there are 1,516 LIM schools and only 63
Lighthouse schools in the world.
Lighthouse status is a result of an evaluation of our performance against nine criteria:
1. A Lighthouse team is in place at the school, meets regularly and oversees school-wide
implementation of the leadership model with students, staff, parents, and community
members.
2. The school campus environment reinforces the model by adding leadership language
displays and bulletins to hallways and classrooms that emphasize individual worth and
leadership principles.
3. Teachers integrate leadership language into school curriculum and instruction daily.
4. The staff collaborates and works together to effectively build a culture of leadership in
classrooms and throughout the school.
5. The students are provided with meaningful student leadership roles and responsibilities.
6. The parents of students understand “The Leader in Me” model and the 7 Habits and are
involved in activities that support the leadership model.
7. A system is in place for setting and tracking school-wide, classroom, academic, and
personal goals.
8. The school sees improvements resulting from implements “The Leader in Me” process,
which includes measuring, collecting baseline data and tracking results to determine
how the leadership model is bringing improvements.
9. The school holds events to share their leadership model with the community and other
schools and hosts a mini or full Leadership Day or a similar event that includes parents,
business partners and educators.
We are very proud to be a Leader in Me School and look forward to
becoming a Lighthouse School. The impact of the Leader in Me process on our
school, families, and community has been amazing! We are taking the one
chance we have with our children to truly make a difference in their lives!