Intention & Attention - The Pathway to Making a Lasting Difference

In education, I am surrounded by incredibly caring people who want to make a difference. For years, as an ice breaker in a meeting, an introduction in a presentation, or in an interview question, I have asked the question, ‘Why do you want to be a teacher, a counselor, a principal, a superintendent, or an educator?’

For years, the universal answer has been and is, “I want to make a difference!”

As I think about it, with few exceptions, I can say that my colleagues have each made or are making a profound difference. I can cite countless examples of former students who recount with love and wonder the difference an educator made in their life. I think of my own teachers and even the mentors I have had within the profession who made a difference in my life.

Mahatma Gandhi, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, Sir Winston Churchill, the Reverend Billy Graham, and in our own state of North Carolina, Dr. Dudley Flood and Dr. Gene Causby who were charged with helping schools and communities with the task of bringing civility and goodwill to the school boards, teachers, administrators, parents and most of all the students in the early days of desegregation. They traveled the state bringing fragmented groups to the discussion table for solutions for the schools. It was their wit and courage that defused problems of great magnitude. They like the well-known names I mentioned a moment ago, made a difference.

I wonder though, if any of those I mentioned, have found themselves in moments like I have, in periods of self-doubt, periods where you really wonder if you are making more than a difference in the moment, that you are actually making a lasting difference.

Casting doubt aside and refusing to fall prey to negative self-talk, I search for examples of lasting differences among the tapestry of lives that have been woven together in my career that now spans decades and thousands of lives across dozens of communities. In that reflection, I pause in my rumination to consider the heroes among my mentors and the students I taught early in my career who are now accomplishing their dreams. Among them are doctors, attorneys, teachers, bankers, investors, real estate agents, landscape artists, etc. Beyond career success, I witness them succeeding as friends, spouses, and parents.

My own life bears witness to the lasting difference made by the public school teachers who taught and loved me as a child. My career, now in its latter stages, demonstrates the lasting difference made by the teachers and administrators who took me under their wings and nurtured me as a young teacher and later as a beginning administrator. Perhaps the success of my former students shows the “paying it forward” desire I have always had as an educator. Perhaps it is found in the Instructional Assistants I worked with who are now teachers, or teachers who are now principals, or principals who are now superintendents. Certainly, I can find positive examples of making a difference. What then, can I find in these exemplars of differences made that might just be the keys to making a lasting difference?

From my reflections, I believe that there are two key requirements to making a difference that lasts: intention and attention.

At the start of a new adventure, a new career, a new school year, a new position, a new opportunity, or a new journey, it is important to be able to state in a clear manner the intention of the work.

I know that without the intention at the outset and the attention throughout, I would still be simply talking about what I would like to accomplish instead of actually making a lasting difference.

Intention and attention, powerful tools for any leader, most especially for EdLeaders on the cusp of a brand-new school year.

In the end, only time will tell if we have each made a lasting difference, but I just cannot imagine that we have