2. Determine your circle of influence
In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey discusses the need to be proactive. Proactive people focus their efforts on their ‘circle of influence’. I have to stay proactive and address the challenges I can do something about, like securing additional financial resources for classroom teachers. In the early months of this position, I focused on the part of my job that felt most comfortable – helping staff members write grants. As a seasoned grant funder, reviewer and writer, I felt confident from the beginning about guiding teachers through the proposal-writing process and I was able to build my  leadership authority, initially on a small scale, with individual teachers, which felt comfortable to me. The result of that work has been increasingly positive energy that continues to enlarge and magnify my circle of influence.