School’s Out For Summer. That was going to be the original title for my article this week. But then I got the song “Seasons of Love” from the musical Rent stuck in my head, and I wrote down: How do you measure a year?
If you're a Broadway geek like me, you’re probably now singing: "Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes..."
Rent is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Want to know why I know this, well… you’d have to dive into my Instagram algorithm on why a post about this shows up with every doom scroll.
You know what else is showing up on the gram… and if you are a parent, you’ll probably relate… end of year school photos.
My social feeds are full of first day and last day of school photos showing the physical growth of students over the past year. The pictures are accompanied by heartfelt messages from parents celebrating their children's emotional, educational, and personal growth as well.
Hand raised. I made two of those posts this week as my sons graduated from Pre-K and elementary school, respectively.
I was talking to a friend while we each proudly gushed over our kids when I thought, hrm... why is it that we only celebrate the growth students accomplish in a year? What about us as adults?
While I’m scrolling and then singing “seasons of love” in my head, my theme for this week’s POV was clear as day. How do you measure a year?
By minutes? By moments? By love?
While 12 year old Julie might not have questioned this (or clearly the other way too old and inappropriate songs and messages for me at the time) I get it now, but in a different way.
As parents, we're quick to measure our kids' years by growth charts, report cards, milestones, and school photos. But what about us?
How do we measure a year as adults? Not in inches. Not in grades.
But in lessons learned, fears overcome, relationships built, skills developed, perspectives changed, and the moments that we don’t even realize shape who we become.
While growth may look different for us, we're still constantly learning, growing, and evolving.
I'm not going to touch the physical part. Well... because that's personal. And also GLP-1s. But that's another POV for another day.
What about the emotional and educational growth? Why aren't we doing annual self-reflections and sharing what we've learned…especially at a time when new tools seem to arrive daily.
AI is changing how we work. Social algorithms seem to change weekly. The way we communicate with younger colleagues continues to evolve. And every day presents lessons that help us become better leaders, teammates, parents, and people.
Are we celebrating those? If not, can we?
Virtual show of hands, especially for my fellow road warriors. Do we not learn from some of the most incredible people on the conference circuit? Are we taking those learnings and applying them? Turning them into wins? Turning them into teachable moments?
What about the lessons from work that carry into our personal lives? Or the parenting lessons that unexpectedly make us better managers, communicators, and leaders?
And for those of us in restaurant leadership, growth may actually be more visible than we realize. Restaurant leaders spend their careers adapting. Seems like every week there is new technology… new labor challenges… new guest expectations… new economic realities... I can go on. The operators I admire and follow are not the ones who have all the answers, but the ones who keep learning and share their growth.
I’m talking about the CEO who becomes a better listener. The CMO who learns how to tell stories across new platforms. The COO who embraces technology they once resisted. A founder who realizes that scaling culture is just as important as scaling revenue.
Those are growth milestones too. And unlike school, there isn't a report card. There isn't a graduation ceremony. There isn't a proud parent posting your accomplishments on social media. (Cue me finally getting around to teach my mom how to use instagram, because I’m sure she’d be the one posting.)
So what’s my point? Leadership shouldn’t just be measured by business results. It should be measured by how much we've learned, how we've adapted, and who we've become along the way.
So while a first day and last day photo may not work for us adults, how can we better share and visualize our emotional and educational growth?
Because if Rent taught us anything, maybe a year isn't measured in minutes after all but what we learned during them.
So I'll leave you with this:
If your social media feed can celebrate how much your kids have grown this year, what would your own "last day of school" reflection say?
