Happy New Year! As we bid adieux to the old and enter into the new we are required to make predictions and goal setting part of the New Year’s process. I love predictions. I love, even more, goal setting and dreaming. One of the happiest times I spend in the coaching of new drivers is watching their goals turn into milestones and helping them create even bigger goals which turn into achieved dreams.
There is an important distinction between goals, dreams and predictions. All of them have intertwined principles but each must be considered individually on individual merits. A dream without goal creation is a pipe-dream. A prediction without purpose is a useless want or fear. All that being said, here are two predictions I have made about 2015 and the training of entry-level drivers. It is our ability to rethink the role of the trainer and our ability to think outside the box which will make these things transform the landscape of training in a way that will facilitate the long term success of the entry-level OTR trucker:
- There can be no greater endeavor than to improve the process of training entry level drivers in order to better address the driver shortage crisis. Most training systems are built on the premise that: Time = Results… Period. I believe that an alignment in the way we look at the training of athletes and the way that we train entry level drivers will develop into a new system that proposes process system management in training and development. The driver will be able to partner in the formation of the process of their training built on progress measured by accomplishment rather than by seat-time.
- In CTE education, I see that a development of partnerships in education between students and educators will bring a greater sense of ownership to the learning that will transform the way we look at conventional learning tracts in CTE and Transport Training. The ownership of the learning by the student will demand more from our trainers as mentors and coaches.
I wish for everyone a prosperous and successful 2015. Our mission at Crowder College is to continually look into new and better ways to promote ownership, professionalism, safety and longevity in training new drivers. We align ourselves with the model of Servant Leadership which enables people to perform at their best with complete ownership and feed-forward principles of servitude. May your dreams be developed as goals and may your strength to achieve those goals be truly powerful to serve those who depend on you for what matters most to them.
“The servant-leader is servant first. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant - first to make sure that other people's needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer is: Do those served grow as persons; do they, while being served, become healthier, wise, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And what effect on the least privileged in society; will they benefit, or at least not be further deprived?” –Robert Greenleaf
