Powerful Together

Posted on October 12, 2017

“Powerful Together”

As I sit for a moment and allow my thoughts to calm, focus, and reflect, I was struck when I thought about the synergy of energy that occurs when people work together. It could be two people, a handful, or even 18,000 strong, and what happens is that the pure energy that can be created by one person is multiplied many times over, when two of more connect. I see this as being #PowerfulTogether.

Several times in my life I had the opportunity to work side-by-side with my father. It might have been in the garage, the backyard, at his work-site, or even washing the cars, and each time we worked together he guided me, he taught me, he explained to me, and he listened to me. In those moments, I was learning, growing, and developing and becoming more “Powerful.” Each moment, each lesson, each caring minute was empowering to me, and I can see now that in those moments, my father was also becoming “Powerful” as a man, a role model, a teacher, a guide, and a caring compassionate individual.

At other times in my life, I have worked with groups of people focused on many shared missions. Whether it was through Site Council at our children’s school, little league, youth soccer, and even my college fraternity. Or, in professional orgnizaions such as the Association of California School Administrators, our ACSA Solano Charter, my school district’s Cabinet Leadershp Team. In each of these groups, the ideas that were Crete by the group process could never have come forward from one mind. The “Power” in these moments is palpable. For each person involved in such an endeavor there is an art form that occurs. The skills of communication, perspective building, creating, being innovative and building true actionable strategies to get the mission accomplished are all enhanced when we work with others.

This morning, I have been nominated for the Vice President position for the Association of California School Administrators, an organization of 18,000 plus school administrators and leaders, who are focused on supporting each of our 6.5 million public education students in the state. I believe that our inclusive members are truly #POWERFULTOGETHER!

I am humbled by this nomination, and excited about the opportunity to work with each of our members to build leaders, to share experiences, to become more powerful, in the way my father became powerful, by working with me hand-in-hand. I envision that each member with whom I can connect through this process I can learn from, and I hope to be able to serve them in some way. If you are an #ACSA member, that’s great, and please consider telling your Region leadership to consider my candidacy. If you are simply looking to grow and evolve, to develop and learn, to increase your personal power, then I tell you to become a part of a group, work with people, build your skills, and in turn, you will build them. It is in our hands, we simply need to act and connect. #PowerfulTogether.

Dr. Rob Martinez, AKA @ResiliencyGuy is the Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources for the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District, currently a Board of Director for Region 4 for ACSA, and is running for the Vice President position for ACSA. “Let the life we help others live be the measure of our success.”( Martinez, 2013)