Hi Reader,

I didn't plan on sending this.

Election Day is tough--as it very clear from the results that are coming in, we live in a very divided country.

The way the returns came in were giving me 2016 vibes---and one of the many things I remember thinking about during that long night of tossing and turning was "How are we going to handle this at school tomorrow? How will we help the kids process?"

As someone who led a middle and high school at the time, the time leading up to the election had led to tough questions ("So if the candidate for president can say that about a woman, why am I getting this big consequence for saying something not as bad?" was one I got in October 2016...).

I knew my students would be devastated at the results--they were understandably personally offended when the places their parents came from were called "sh*thole countries". There had been a lot of hope about the first woman president.

Last night was deja vu all over again.

I don't have big picture answers--what will happen or what this means for our future or what this means in the ever evolving story of what it means to be an American.

What I do have is an outline--linked here--that you may find useful.

This is a 45 minute outline for an advisory, homeroom, staff meeting, etc. that can be easily adapted by adults to help students process.

It can be easily used for a team meeting (I already sent it to a client this morning to use at a team meeting they had scheduled specifically to hold space for processing.)

One of the hardest parts of leading is when things happen in the big world, we are processing in it in real time at the same time as everyone else.

Leaders don't get a special pause button they can use to digest what's happening before they lead others (I wish! Wouldn't that be so great?)

The tool linked here gives space to processing together, as a community, the big global events that are happening in real time.

Save it--if you don't need it today, there will be a time when you likely will. It comes with the leadership territory.

I realize waking up this morning that not everyone is devastated--tens of millions of people are thrilled. People reading this may be some of them. I understand that people are experiencing this moment differently.

However, I would not be modeling authentic leadership if I pretended to be anything but gutted--for many reasons, not the least among them is that I took my children for the second time in their short lives to vote for the first woman president and once again it came up short.

Another reason?Early data I am seeing suggests white woman--a group to which I belong and identify--are a big part of the reason yet again. There's a lot to contemplate there.

We're all processing in real time, and I hope the tool here helps if you're looking for a way to process this with the people you lead.

Now, to go figure out what to tell my kids when they wake up...

Take care,

Beth

ps. Please forward this to a friend who might need it for a school or team they lead.

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