TECTONIC TLC Archives - Ken Evraire | Team Lead Coach Consultant

“Oh no! I am at the wrong school!!”

A fairly benign FB message from a friend changed my entire approach to coaching.

“Hey Ken. Have you ever thought of becoming a supply teacher?”

He was a teacher on the cusp of retiring. He also had no idea I was a member of the Phi Delta Dummy frat in university! Academic probation to supply teaching is a leap and a half.

Now keep in mind, this is almost one year into the Covid and I am running out of business procurement ideas.

Nothing triggers a retrospective, consider life as you know it moment like a global pandemic that crushes your business and leads to a tsunami like shift in your bank account while raising 3 kids as a single dad. Trust me!

After much consideration, I kind of inched toward the prospect of supply teaching. I completed the necessary online courses and threw my hat in the ring by announcing my intentions via a FB post. I am glad I did. The response was overwhelming!

I had no idea the need was so great. I had no idea the experience would be even greater.

“If I didn’t play football I would have worked my butt off to become a teacher. I won’t be going to teachers college any time soon but I have completed all the requirements to be a classroom supervisor!

To all Ottawa Catholic School Board principals I am ready to leave the bench and enter the game!”

My first teaching gig felt like my first game day as a pro football player. I did not feel prepared and I spent all of my time worrying about the 101 things that could go wrong.

I arrived at 8:50 am. Everything felt rushed. I had already made a couple of rookie mistakes. I didn’t drink any coffee before hand and I forgot the mouse for my laptop. The office was an express lane of confused energy. Teachers were away with Covid, kids needed to be taught and I was a hired gun with zero experience.

“Are you the supply teacher?” hurriedly asked a receptionist. I said “Yes” when what I should have said was, “Time will tell.”.

I barely got to the “s” in yes when she said, “upstairs, grade 2 French, room 227”. That’s it. I was on my own.

Now I stand 6′ 1″ and weigh a svelte 225lbs after 4 days of only eating salads. As a former pro athlete I like to believe I am still in fairly good shape. I like to believe I have a presence but in this case, I wanted to be smaller.

Everything told me to be funny to help ease any fears or tensions.

“I am Mr. Ken but if you like you can call me by my full name. Kenneth Russell Joseph Simon Maurice Evraire the 2nd!”. The room laughed. They were hooked! I was hooked! They were open to learning. To hearing me out. What a powerful experience.

I would not be there for a long time so I would do my best to make it a great time. Now, when I say not a long time I am being literal!

The first block of teaching flew by. As we began to prep for recess I received a text from the principal. “How is it going?”. I replied, “Great. I am having a blast on the 2nd floor!”. This is where things turned. She replied, “We don’t have a 2nd floor!”. I paused the kids recess prep and asked them what the name of their school was. In unison they answered, “Half Moon Public!”.

Oh no, I am at the wrong school!

I should have been at St. Benedict Catholic 6 blocks away. The lack of prayer in the morning announcements should have been a dead giveaway.

The kids didn’t want me to leave and I didn’t want to leave but I had another class waiting for me. In that I fell in love with teaching. I fell in love with setting our future superstars up for success.

Setting others up to succeed strikes me as being a very noble gesture. A gesture worth taking great pride in. Be it as a coach, boss, mentor, parent, manager or teacher.

Now before you point it out I know as a supply teacher you get a grace period where you can be the cool adult in class. The first day teaching is a confidence builder much like a successful 5 minute open mic comedy set. It doesn’t make you a teacher nor does a couple of jokes in front of friends and families make you a comic.

That is when you really get to do some coaching. Meat and potatoes coaching. This is where intuition becomes so valuable.

First and foremost, like any good coach you want to get a feel for the room. Walk in and step back. Don’t make it about you. Create a subtle trust.

Navy seals would prefer a guy beside them they can trust over a guy who is far more talented but untrustworthy.

You realize as important as the curriculum is, the vehicle in which you present the content is just as important.

Teaching fractions?

Introduce Rush playing Spirit of the Radio live and explain as best you can their time signature changes. Have them clap their hands to the beat.

Go on to tell them about Rush arguably being the best Canadian band ever and that says something considering the competition like the Guess Who, Tragically Hip, Blue Rodeo, BTO, Triumph, Loverboy, April Wine, The Band, The Downchild Blues Band and The Shmenge Brothers (my lone SCTV reference). Now I know Gino Vanelli is not a band per say but he has to be in the top 5 music artists to represent the maple leaf. That is a discussion for another day.

Teaching Procedural Writing?

Search on YouTube for Apollo 13 astronaut Ken Mattingly start up in the simulator and follow it up with NASA engineers having to come up with a way to fit a square air filter into a round one.

How about science and bridge building?

Introduce an image of La Sagrada Familia and tell them about your running the Barcelona Marathon and stopping for 10 minutes to just stand and marvel at the beauty of such an immaculate piece of architecture. Then go on to tell them about the tragic death of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí.

Maybe you show them video of the 1940 Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse better known as the Gallopin Gertie!

Give your audience something to think about. Something that connects them to content. Create a water cooler effect. Leave them talking about what you taught them. Show them…don’t tell them.

Children are visual processors that tend to observe a parent’s or teacher’s body language and facial expressions before the content being presented. They learn through demonstrations and descriptions thanks to their having well-developed imaginations and often think in pictures. No surprise they get excited about learning when they see their teacher is excited about teaching.

Your goal is to have them share their experience.

As a teacher, give them something to share when their parents ask them how their day went.

As a coach, give your team reason to talk about their work and what they are doing. Professional pride is a powerful elixir.

When you coach, no matter the team and environment, do what you can to bring out the curious child in your team. Be excited about coaching and they will follow.

We are designed to connect, communicate and collaborate with each other. Its in our DNA! Coaching and teaching is really the art of bringing people together and figuring out how to set them up to succeed.

No matter the arena, stage or in this case, classroom!

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Ken is a quintessential team player who loves coaching, team building and talking leadership! He is grateful for the opportunity to work with a roster of fantastic clients, ranging from the government sector to not for profit agencies, high tech start ups, Fortune 500 companies and elite sports teams.

When he is not coaching, he is father to 3 precocious children, has the best ex-wife in the world, is a former professional football player that has since donated his brain to science and has run 3x marathons (Honolulu 2x + Barcelona), done stand up comedy and believes the old school coach was wrong…there is indeed an “i” in Team!

Check Ken out on the following social media pages…

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ken-evraire-leadership/

Twitter https://twitter.com/Tectonic_tlc

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/tectonictlc

“How come nobody ever says they were Joe Schmo?”

Crash Davis – Durham Bulls Catcher

I have always loved this conversation between Susan Sarandon and Kevin Costner in the movie “Bull Durham”. Sarandon plays Annie Savoy and Costner plays Crash Davis. She teaches part time literature at Alamance Junior College.

He is a minor league catcher with the Durham Bulls who exists in a bittersweet space thanks to his being a very good minor league player but not good enough to stick in the majors. They are talking about reincarnation.

I share this video as a segue to the “Fake It Til You Make It.” for two reasons.

The first being the obvious comedic moment that extends from the idea that we were all famous in a past life and not just a key cog in the wheel of life.

The second reason relates more to his being a great minor league baseball player who holds the all time minor league home run record that he considers a dubious honor. Rather than realize that he is a craftsman he feels it is all part of a greater embarrassment. He struggles to admit that he he chose to invest his life for what was the greatest love in his life until he met Annie. He tried to fake his disdain for the record but at a deeper level he knew that he gave the game all that he could give and that he could live with that.

It lends to the idea of faking it til we make it.

Fake it til you make it! For the sake of space..let’s go with the acronym FITYMI moving forward. I must preface the rest of this blog with my admission that I am on the fence as it relates to FITYMI! Sometimes it works and more often than naught, not so much.

There is a devilish nature attached to the whole idea of fooling people, adopting the pretending until you can produce approach. It can make for a great story as long as it works out. If it doesn’t work out, consider it a stark reminder that putting in the work and honing your craft isn’t a bad idea.

Sir Richard Branson (founder of the Virgin Group, which controls more than 400 companies) thinks FITYMI is a viable option. Just get in the door and figure things out as you get going! Fact is anytime a “Sir” says something, people tend to listen with a little more interest and I did!

First and foremost, far be it for me to disagree with a guy who has enjoyed the success Sir Richard has enjoyed. In fact, I kind of agree with him. Faking it til you make it makes sense when you are in an “attack the learning curve” frame of mind. I think it could work if you are faking the role of entry level sales associate, data entry assistant or a client services coordinator.

Do not go with the FITYMI model if you are auditioning for the role of trauma surgeon, pilot, astronaut, explosives specialist and any other gig that you can think of that places human life at risk.

The FITYMI strategy has its flaws. Beyond the obvious flaw I just shared, the other fly in the ointment is that those who choose to FITYMI, are often not what one would call a go-getter. Maybe a go-getter in getting a job but not a go-getter in the sense of learning the job. If a candidate is willing to fake their resume, chances are they will fake their effort.

Human beings are creatures of habit. We have the tendency to get excited and race out of the barn like a Kentucky Derby Champion but soon become the workhorse out in the pasture that we actually are. I am reminded of my 13 year old self when I opened my first bank account. I walked out of the bank with $10 in the account with a steely eyed focus on saving my next $1,000,000. Plans changed when I walked into the corner store. My goal of becoming a good little saver did not stand a chance up against my 12 years of habitual candy purchasing. Wanting to be or do something usually requires work.

All successful people work. The clouds did not open up when they were born with trumpets resounding and a higher power declaring them great. They have talent and they worked. They worked really hard and were decisive. Somewhere along the way, they changed their approach to how they pursued success. They had to get beyond the definition of success and focus on the pathway to success. Successful people fall in love with the journey. They turn their gaze away from the trophy and turn their focus on the trials and tribulations that one must endure to get to the trophy.

Like an athlete building muscle memory, when you consistently opt for the “fake it til ya make it” approach, you will soon get used to faking it!

Before you know it…the faking becomes the norm and not the exception. Your original destination was the express lane but somehow you got stuck in the collector lane and you are comfortable there.

So, faking it is an option but it only bears value when it is a transitory step toward a greater destination. A step that requires work and an effort that extends beyond adequate.

FITYMI only works if you are intent on getting out of the faking it lane as fast as you can. It works only if it is a layover between where you were and your next destination. No one wants to spend time at Newark International Airport, Kennedy or LaGuardia! They are hubs that lead to greater adventures.

So, how do we avoid the fake it til you make it trap?

What does it mean to you? We are all going to spend our time doing something. Choose to do something that is valuable to you. Then hone your craft. The art of developing your expertise and the energy that surrounds that effort transcends any need to fake it. If you are invested you are a sponge. If you are a fence sitter you are watching life go by.

Game plan. Have a clear and concise exit strategy. Have a game plan that features hard and fast deadlines that will force you to get to the next level. Put some pressure on yourself to compete. Don’t get comfortable.

Be realistic. Set goals that you can reach. Expertise does not come in one fell swoop, it’s incremental and modular in nature. I remember back in grade 3 when I convinced my parents to buy me a geometry set. I vowed I would use every item in the case. I would use both of the set squares, I would protract with the 180° protractor, I would rule the class with the 15 cm ruler, I would never get lost thanks to the metal compass, and so on with the 9 cm pencil, pencil sharpener, eraser and the 10 mm stencil. As expected, I did not use all of them…in fact I barely used any of them. (of note, I had to Google all the items found in a protractor set!)

Change the Acronym: Rather than go with FITYMI…maybe go with another acronym? IIDFIDS – If it doesn’t fit, I don’t sit!

If the suit doesn’t fit then don’t wear the suit. Find something that fits.

There is nothing wrong with moving from one challenge that may not fit you to another that may. Sometimes, you will wear a suit that doesn’t fit. Do not get comfortable. Work hard until it fits or visit a career tailor the get fitted right.

Life offers very few absolutes. There are no guarantees. The most valuable commodity we have is our time. What we do with it will determine our path. Spend it wisely!

Know who you are and who you can become.

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Ken Evraire is the owner | principal of TECTONIC TLC Team Lead Coach.

He is a quintessential team player who loves coaching, team building and talking leadership! He is grateful for the opportunity to work with a roster of fantastic clients ranging from the government sector, not for profit agencies, start ups, Fortune 500 companies and elite sports teams.

He is father to 3 precocious children, has the best ex-wife in the world, is a former professional football player that has since donated his brain. He has run 3x marathons (Honolulu 2x + Barcelona), done stand up comedy and believes the old school coach was wrong…there is indeed an “i” in Team!

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Want to be a better coach? Become a supply teacher!