#12 A Journey into Educational Excellence with Dr Lyn Bishop

IntroductionWelcome to Episode 12 of the enterprise excellence podcast. Today we'll be exploring excellence in education. I'm so pleased to have with me today Dr. Lyn Bishop. Lyn has held many positions in education, working in public schools, the Department of Education, and also forming her own school, Sheldon College in 1997. Lyn has received an order of Australia for her work in education. She has won the Queensland and Australian Entrepreneur of the Year and is a much recognized leader and expert in the field of education. She's also a respected and much loved principal of Sheldon College, located in the Bayside area of Brisbane, Australia. Summary In this episode Lyn shares her life story and the things that created who she has become. Lyn’s early life was tough but loving, growing up in outback Australia in a single room shack. Lyn learned early to appreciate the small things in life. Her mother lay the blueprint for emotional resilience in Lyn and her brother. They were always taught to think about what they had, not what they didn’t have. Moving up through the ranks in the teaching profession was not an easy thing, particularly being a young female at the time, in a male dominated profession. Becoming a DP and Principal was not an easy route. The glass ceiling at that time was a real barrier for women in education, but only if you saw it that way. Lyn came to view it as a self-imposed limitation; no one has control over your mental attitude. It’s not what you are in this life that holds you back. It’s what you think you are not.. Lyn believes that the only way to stay at the top of your game is to innovate. What makes us successful in the past will not necessarily make us successful in the future. We can’t simply be good at what we do; we have to be great at what we do. Quotes 1:59 min We were always taught to think about what we had, not what we didn't have. And we were taught that in hardship, you develop a capacity to appreciate the beauty that exists in the simplest elements of life. But I think the most fundamental lesson we were taught is that there's a difference in life between fate and destiny. Fate is what happens to you, destiny is what you create.11:33 min And I think in the first instance, you have to be able to offer a quality product and or service. And in doing so you must be able to clearly define your differential advantages. So we need to spend time thinking about what what are the benefits that we sell in our business? And what is the nature of the service we provide?14:39 min Creativity and innovation must be built into the lifeblood of the organization. And I think far too often, too, we tend to forget that it's people who are at the heart of the educational enterprise. And organizations aren't going to work unless the people in them do.17:14 min We've got to once again have them believe fundamentally, that they can be anything they set their hearts upon in this world. 19:32 min I found here at Sheldon that we've had to undergo, I guess, a reboot of our culture in light of the COVID-19 experience. We've had to go back and examine our fundamental purpose.23:29 And, you know, in my mind, core values and core purpose become the anchors, particularly in a world of constant change.24:28 min A positive culture is what's going to sustain us I believe, through whatever challenges lie ahead.LinksWesite: www.sheldoncollege.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-lyn-bishop-ab3ab734/To learn more about what we do, visit https://enterpriseexcellencegroup.com.au/Thanks for your time, and thanks for helping to create a better future.