[The Leader] How Do You Replace a Legend?

Happy kids 2

Leaders come and go, some without notice, and some that leave a void like that special friend who has moved away.

Leslie Roffman will retire next June from The Little School at the end of the 2016 school year.

I will miss her. So will a community of thousands of parents and kids.

In 50 years as a faculty and staff member,  a student and a parent, the number of administrators I’ve known that are both really liked AND respected I can count on three fingers.… Read the rest

“I’m Not There Anymore”

It can be surprising – even unsettling – when you bump into someone who has been a pillar of an organization for decades and they mention that “I’m not there anymore.

Pre-School Graduation!!!

That was the case when I bumped into Todd Wanerman at La Rondalla.

Todd was one of my son Traylor’s teachers at The Little School, a person so good and gifted at his craft that he was a benchmark for others in his profession.… Read the rest

25+ Tricks of the Trade to Greater Effectiveness and Efficiency

I’ll be working with the staff of my favorite preschool (also the school my son attended, and on whose Board of Trustees I sat for four years), the Little School in San Francisco this evening as part of their ongoing staff development program.

While my work is mostly helping senior execs and start-up and leadership teams raise the level of their performance, the same ingredients which imbed that work – efficiency and effectiveness – inform the work of teachers in a preschool.… Read the rest

[Life Back West] Leadership & Boards of Directors: Proof of the Pudding is in the Performance

The best adage I know for good cooking is captured in the phrase “Proof of the pudding is in the eating.”

For teams, the perfect saying might as well be “Proof of the team is in the performance.” And while we’ll hear a lot about good and bad teams over the next couple of months – from the Super Bowl, to the Winter Olympics, to the US men’s and women’s collegiate basketball tournament known as “March Madness” – the fact of the matter is that the best teams are teams that perform well when called on.… Read the rest

[New Rules] The Vibe in My (Dolores Park) Neighborhood

In Pareto’s world , big things count a lot, but small things count as well. The trick as it were to is make sure you nail the big things very well, and make sure to do the smalls things well too.

It sounds easy to do but my experience is that it’s hard to execute. Many companies – and their functional departments –  try to do it all at once – sort of the spaghetti testing method en masse– throwing it against the wall hoping that most of it sticks.Read the rest

[Life Back West] March 2009 – The Value of Experience

A little experience goes a ways, and a lot of experience goes even further. It may not mean you know the answers to the future, but it provides a data set that is significantly greater than those who are newly initiated.

I remember Todd Wanerman from the preschool our son Traylor attended (and on whose board I still sit) assuring us that despite my son Traylor’s fierce declaration – “I’m going to wear pull-ups until I’m five!”Read the rest