Are You An Unstoppable Teacher?

Where do you fall on your school’s performance spectrum?

According to Dave Anderson’s book Unstoppable, there are four performance mindsets:

1. Undertakers

Undertakers bring a negative value to an organisation. The longer people perform at this level the more damage they do to they do to their own self-esteem, future, the culture, team morale and results overall.

2. Caretakers

Caretakers are baseliners. More often than not they do what is required of them and nothing more. They pledge allegiance to the status quo and to their job description. They do not initiate, bring new ideas, or offer solutions.

They often have skills, talent and experience to perform far above what they deliver, but they are not motivated to work that hard. Their strength is dotting “i’s” and crossing “t’s,” not creating the script or writing the story.

Dave says, “Caretakers are people who believe that others get all the breaks, success, and money for the work they will never do. They do the minimum baseline work and think it’s heroic.”

3. Playmakers

Playmakers normally have more energy and drive than caretakers. Their mindset enables them to employ their talents. They occasionally do great things but they are not consistent enough to elevate their performance or results to reach game changer status. They are prone to let the pat on the back become a massage.

Playmakers are prone to promote themselves, and love getting the credit and attention. They have a tendency to worry more about themselves looking good, than impacting others for the collective good.

4. Game changers

Game changers are unstoppable. They are relentless and constantly bring effort, energy, attitude, excellence and passion to what they do. They are intrinsically motivated, they do ordinary extraordinary well, and are committed to self-improvement. They don’t see themselves as victims but products of their daily choices.

Game changers measure themselves less against others, and more on whether they are better than they once were. They have built daily habits and thinking patterns that enable them to perform at this level.

As Dave says, “Game changers are the “go-to” leaders. When everyone else panics and pukes, they are who others look for, look to, and look up to. They are the go-to person and everyone knows it.”

Unstoppable is a handy guidebook for self-assessment, self-reflection, and self-improvement and for realising that everyone has star quality and can achieve great things. At the hear of all this is having A.P.E – Attitude, Passion, and Enthusiasm and the more A.P.E you have, the more dedicated you will be.