How do you measure your success?

Recently through Education Day with Leadership Palm Beach County, I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Tammy Ferguson, principal of Village Academy. Dr. Ferguson shared with us what criteria that she uses to measure her success. As excerpted from First, Break all the Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, we can measure the strength of a workplace or organization from the following:

• Do I know what is expected of me?

• Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do a good job?

• Do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?

• In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?

• Does someone at your organization seem to care about me as a person?

• Is there someone at your organization who encourages my development?

• Do my opinions seem to count?

• Does the mission/purpose of my organization make me feel my job is important?

• Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?

• Do I have a best friend at my organization?

• In the last six months, at my organization has someone talked to me about my progress?

• This last year, have I had the opportunity at my organization to learn and grow?

Four activities that I must do very well at my organization:

1. Select the right person
2. Set expectations
3. Motivate the person
4. Develop the person

Originally founded in 2000, Village Academy is the only Palm Beach County District K-10 School. Village Academy will graduate its first senior class in 2011. Dr. Ferguson knows the names of every student and provides the students with the necessary tools for them to go to college. Student enrollment is set at a maximum of 75 students per grade level so that they can preserve a small, nurturing learning environment for the students. Students at Village Academy do not think about whether they are going to college, it is about which one they will attend. Village Academy’s goal is that 100 percent of its students attend college and obtain Bright Futures Scholarships.