Embarking on a prosperous academic year necessitates meticulous planning, efficient organization, and the establishment of a conducive learning atmosphere that prioritizes the utmost respect and well-being of learners. But what about the teachers? What about the education leaders? Have you ever experienced feelings of exhaustion, a suffocating lack of breath while attempting to maintain a balance between work and personal life? Do you find yourself constantly trailing behind, struggling to keep up? Are you in need of a renewed sense of motivation and inspiration? If you find yourself answering "yes" to any or even all of these questions, then I invite you to dedicate just three minutes of your time to read the following before embarking on this year's academic journey.
You can start with your physical organization. Answering some relevant questions can help you provide yourself with a practical definition of this skill. In other words: Do you arrange your files on your computer, smartphone, desk, or office space frequently? Do you group your data into folders and file labels that you actually use? Do you declutter your bag and wardrobe often? If yes, that is a good start for stepping forward to your physical organizational skills. How well you do it will allow you to spend less time searching for things because you will already know where they are.
Text by: Stella Kopakaki
Goal/Aim setting can be another useful field of action towards a fulfilling school year. And not only this! Goal setting means having an action plan to guide and motivate you towards achieving a target. It involves breaking your goals into smaller units and setting deadlines for them. Goal-setting skills are precious as they improve performance and optimism. A SWOT analysis (SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) can be of great assistance at this point. It is a strategic planning and management tool and technique used to help a person or organization to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Prioritization skill is a good step to consider next. Evaluating a task - how urgent, important, pleasant, or useful it is - and putting all tasks in order accordingly helps deliver first the ones that are to be delivered first during a day, a week, or a year. Knowing the level of importance and commitment they demand will contribute to the accomplishment. Getting all the work done in one day is not always possible. Practicing how to prioritize effectively will add to the value of your work.
Decision-making comes next or sometimes first and above all. It is when you predict outcomes for different courses of action based on facts and then make the more beneficial choice. Mastery of this skill limits the chances of repercussions for poor choices for a teacher, a student, an organization, a team or group, a whatever!
Strategic thinking! Hello, hello! Strategic thinking is a problem-solving skill. It is how you analyze situations to come up with solutions to problems in any organization. Strategic thinking is an important transferable skill, meaning that you can use it for most tasks in any life field. It takes you from simply executing your tasks to understanding how they tie into the goal. You start realizing the connections and go straight to the next valuable skill called collaboration.
Collaboration describes how well you work with two or more people to achieve a goal, how you communicate, whether you are a dependable team member who accomplishes their tasks, and much more. Classes, Schools, Universities, and Organizations of any kind can thrive if they make excellent use of team spirit techniques to achieve a shared goal.
Effective communication is a top-of-the-top skill as it involves exchanging thoughts, ideas, and knowledge in a way that the recipient understands. Listening, speaking, or writing clearly so that the recipient gets a clear message is powerful. Poor communication skills may lead to missed opportunities, conflicts, and delays.
Bang, bang! Time management! It is how you divide your time between tasks. Time management means an awareness of how long tasks take and adjusting schedules to accommodate that. It can help work more efficiently since extra minutes are not slipping by unawares. It fosters work-life balance and satisfaction. Managing time effectively leads to creating roadmaps for other fields of life such as money, energy, and emotions to name but a few.
And here come two core skills of any result: Self-management and Self-motivation. Would you still perform even if you did not have a director overseeing your work? Self-management describes how you plan, conduct and account for your work. Self-motivation is the force that pushes you to keep going against all odds. It is that internal desire that makes you want to achieve a goal, no matter how impossible it may look at first. They are both top life skills as they promote leadership not only in work issues; they promote leadership of your own life. They foster taking responsibility of your choices, of your life itself, and then step up for them.
In a nutshell, all the above described skills can contribute to teachers’ growth literally and metaphorically not to mention the brilliant example set for students of any age. Educators of the 21st century are not around for knowledge first anymore. They are irreplaceable as human beings for the power they hold to transform the lives of younger generations for the better with the examples they set in their everyday lives recognizing needs, continually reflecting on themselves and their practices, adapting accordingly, and forging ahead to new zones.
