There is so much talk of our skills shortage, accelerated development requirements, multiple intelligences, continuous learning, special needs – and the list goes on.

The responsibility faced by those in education in South Africa is huge. This essential foundation offered to all South Africans led me to explore magic that is being performed by dedicated and passionate leaders in education.

Joan Griebenow
Joan Griebenow is such a person - A woman, wife, mother, grandmother, primary school principal, and visionary explorer in thought and action.

Joan brings a passion to impart knowledge to children in a way that they as unique individuals understand it. With a strong belief that you get out of life what you put in, and her core knowing that this is the contribution she wants to make, Joan pursued her teaching career with a focused dedication to be the best teacher she could be – always with the following questions paramount in her mind.

• How can I make a difference?
• How can I help?
• How can I add value?

Early schooling in Pretoria brought the experience of incredible teachers that encouraged children to develop their individuality and uniqueness, and this created an influential benchmark for later reference, followed by the Teachers Training College at Johannesburg College of Education.

The support, love and faith of her parents, followed by colleagues, personal mentors in education, inspiring role models, and the team of incredible educators and wonderfully supportive parent bodies have inspired and enabled Joan to follow another of her key motivations – seeing solutions to everything. With all of this, Joan was able to perform beyond her expectations.

Some personal ingredients that Joan has added to her magic mix are:

• The knowledge that you can only change yourself
• That growth happens through your own decisions
• The best leadership is to lead by example
• Allowing yourself to let go of what you can’t change frees you up to focus on what you can change!

So is it the acknowledgement of the uniqueness of each child, or the ear that is provided, or the challenge to continually do things better that has made the difference? Could it be the subtle mix of all these ingredients that make the magic by embracing all areas of ‘being competent’? Competence looks at the knowledge, skills and attitude of effectiveness.

What can each of us take away from this Magic Model of performance?

• Courage – could we have enough courage to follow our passion, making us feel that we have never worked a day in our lives?
• Attitude - Is it the attitude of possibility and solution based thinking?
• People - Is it the acknowledgement of people who are making a difference and bringing some of their ‘best practices’ into our environment?
• Knowledge - Is it the knowledge of our own strengths so that we can surround ourselves with people and place ourselves in an environment where we can make a difference?
• Others - Is it the role models we choose to inspire our lives?

About the author: Cindy Bell, the owner of DIRECTIONS, has a passion for talent management, celebrating an individual’s uniqueness and inspiring this into a satisfying direction. This focus empowers people in whatever they do - for the benefit of all. Cindy’s studies and business experience culminate into an interesting collaboration of outlooks for coaching individuals and teams towards effective performance strategies. Cindy is an international accredited Meta CoachTM and Trainer, a Neuro-Semantics and NLP Master Practitioner, all recognized by the International Society of Neuro-Semantics (ISNS). ‘This accreditation provides a solid coaching framework to benchmark intangible skills and qualities and facilitate the transformation in people, thereby unleashing their fullest potential.’ Co-Founder – Dr Michael Hall. DIRECTIONS has a firm commitment in empowering people to transform their individual ownership and purpose to affect performance in their roles and responsibilities. Contact Cindy Bell for a free Meta Coaching intro session or a free needs analysis for team/group requirements. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it / 011 462 5079

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