Alignment with Others Matters
August 1, 2025
Over the last several months I have had a number of discussions with colleagues who feel disconnected and misaligned with the organization, school, or district in which they work. This disconnection to purpose or the misfit between individual and organization has caused angst, stomach upset, insomnia, tears, deep sadness, and in many, a crisis of confidence.
I know starting the ‘Right Before School’ Voice Lessons newsletter with a topic that could be viewed as such a ‘downer’ isn’t fun. Yet, at this moment of beginnings, I offer a wakeup call. I am asking you to consider, “Is this place of work a good fit for who I am, my values, and my purpose?”
All of those folks I mentioned above are good people. Good educators, good communicators, good individuals. They want to make a difference, and they would like to do their work within a culture in which they feel aligned, connected, and acknowledged. Work takes up so much of our days – we deserve to be in spaces which feel healthy and principled and aligned with who we want be.
Having just read Moral Ambition by Rutger Bregman, I was affirmed and understand yet again how important it is to live a life of purpose, meaning, and contribution. It’s a good read, a provocative call to action. He reminds us of what Leo Rosten said. “I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be honorable, to be compassionate. It is, above all, to matter: to count, to stand for something, to have it make some difference that you lived at all.”
I know what we do matters, how we behave, and with whom we do our work matters too. Humans are social creatures. We long for community that enlivens us and helps us grow (up). We can do even bigger things in a collective. At times, we discover that the collective in which we working in might not be the right fit for us. These moments of recognition can be heartbreaking. As a coach, I hear about them often.
We need to be clearer about what we are ‘on about’ and who we want to be doing it with. Others need to know what we individually and collectively stand for. If we don’t mesh with a certain team or school, it doesn’t mean we are inadequate, faulty or deficient. We all wish to contribute and do work we feel is worthy of our energy and our time.
I have been helping teams, and the individuals within those teams, learn about themselves and then communicate who they are to others. What we value, how we hope to contribute. And then we find ways to do our meaningful work within the right context.
So to start the year…
Supervisors, please share answers to these questions with those who are new to your teams. Let them get a sense of what your values are, your goals, your hopes for the year.
Teams, please share your thoughts about your team culture and yourself with others as you start the new school year. We need to see how we mesh and how you work.
New to a team folks, please share about yourself so everyone can see your strengths and skills. (Thanks, Kyle Aldous, for the prompts). You all deserve to be a part of a team that appreciates you AND one that holds you to a high standard too. Join me in my quest to be doing the right work with the right folks.
Questions, comments, or suggestions? Feel free to email me at jennifer@jenniferabrams.com.
Cool Resources
Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts by Oliver Burkeman “Addressing the fundamental questions about how to live, Meditations for Mortals offers a powerful new way to take action on what counts: a guiding philosophy of life Oliver Burkeman calls “imperfectionism.” It helps us tackle challenges as they crop up in our daily lives: our finite time, the lure of distraction, the impossibility of doing anything perfectly, the feeling that the world is spinning out of control.”
How To Fall In Love With Questions: A New Way to Thrive in Times of Uncertainty by Elizabeth Weingarten “What if our questions—the ones we ask about relationships, work, meaning, identity, and purpose—are not our tormentors, but our teachers? Inspired by 150-year-old advice from Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke and backed by contemporary science, Elizabeth Weingarten offers a fresh approach for dealing with these seemingly unsolvable questions. In her quest, Weingarten shares her own journey and the stories of many others, whose lives have transformed through a different, and better, relationship with uncertainty.”
Craig Randall is a kind, supportive, and sharp educational consultant and colleague who works with schools around the world around his work on Trust Based Observations, helping educators hone their skills around the “how’s” of building trust during observations. His book, Trust Based Observations: Maximizing Teaching and Learning Growth, describes a schema for changing to an evaluation model that understands people perform at their best when they feel safe and supported.
