Winding Up For Success

Adam Grant, American Psychologist, Professor at the Wharton School of the Univeristy of Pennsylvania, and best-selling author said, “To understand success, pay less attention to the final product and more to the mundane process.” I love this quotation but know how often we have to remind ourselves and others of this piece of wisdom in our increasingly competitive and comparison-obsessed world.

Our teachers work to foster growth in our girls’ learning and promote their engagement, and our girls put time and effort into acquiring skills, resulting in continuous learning that challenges them to apply that learning to all that they do. Our non-teaching staff must work hard to ensure our School’s sustainability, infrastructure and continuity.

We labour to ensure that St. Clement’s maintains its place as a leader for educating girls and young women and that we are fulfilling our mission of developing outstanding women who are intellectually curious, courageous and compassionate. This is exciting, hard work, but, in some cases, it requires what seems to be mundane toil. That does not mean it is unimportant, but rather that we are not focused simply on the flash and fanfare of a final product.

For the School, success is- and must be- an ongoing process to ensure that St. Clement’s is providing the best education for our girls.

While Adam Grant’s quotation suggests the process to achieve success to be ‘mundane,’ I infer that it is the sometimes slow, sometimes repetitive, sometimes unexpected things during the process that bring us to ultimate success.

Often, I am asked if we are winding down at this time of year. I know that this question comes with the best of intentions- an acknowledgement that another academic year is almost finished, and that we will be celebrating our School’s Closing in a matter of weeks. I smile when responding to say that, in fact, in many ways we are winding up. Our process is ongoing, and, as one school year comes to a close, we are energetically planning for the next.

I cannot believe that the time has flown by so fast as we head to the end of the academic year. I am aware and appreciative of all of our staff for their ongoing, behind the scenes, hard work that ensures the success of our girls and our School.