Category Archives: Character

A Tribute to Coach Stan Jones… Leadership Beyond the Game

16 Friday Oct 2026

Posted by in Accountability, Appreciation, Attitude, Character, Educational Leadership, Encouragement, Expectations, Importance, Influence, Inspiration, Know Your Why, Leader, Leadership, Loyalty, Motivation, Passion, Relationships, Respect, Responsibility, Thankful, Transformational, Tribute, Value

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My first true encounter with Coach Stan Jones was in 1994, when I interviewed at Shoney’s with him to be his assistant basketball coach. We talked about basketball, life, and just about everything in between. Near the end of our conversation, he asked me one last question: “If you heard someone talking bad about us at a nearby booth, would you get up and say something to them?”

I told him I would.

When Coach Jones got into town this past Wednesday, we had supper together, and I reminded him of that interview. I told him I still did not know whether my answer to his question was what got me the job. He replied, “You got the job, didn’t you?”

Yes, Coach, I did, and all these years later, I am still grateful.

I have thought about that question many times since 1994, and I have used it in every interview I have been part of since. At first, I just wanted to see what people would say. Believe it or not, the way someone answers tells you quite a bit about them. I believe Coach Jones wanted to know whether I would stand up for the people I worked with and be loyal to the team. I went to Shoney’s hoping to get a coaching job, with no idea that I was also meeting someone who would influence me as a basketball coach, husband, dad, educator, and leader for the rest of my life.

The next evening, hundreds of people gathered at the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame to honor Coach Jones and raise money for the Sherard Shaw Foundation for Pediatric Cancer Research and the McLean Fletcher Center. His basketball coaching career gave everyone plenty to celebrate, and seeing so many people there showed how far his influence has reached.

Coach Jones’s coaching résumé is impressive. He led Jackson Academy to back-to-back overall state championships before coaching at the University of Miami, with the Washington Wizards in the NBA, at Mississippi State, and then for more than two decades at Florida State. In 2019, he was inducted into the inaugural class of the College Basketball Assistant Coach Hall of Fame. He has coached at levels most of us only watch from a distance. I admire those accomplishments, and I value what he taught the people who worked and played for him even more.

I can say without a doubt that Coach Jones is one of the best coaches I have ever seen. His playbook was about as thick as a Sears catalog and probably could have been used as a boat anchor. I studied it all the time because he expected every player to know not only what they were supposed to do, but what the other four players were supposed to do as well. He wanted us to understand how the whole team worked together.

Then there were his motivational talks. Listening to Coach Jones could give you chill bumps. His players would have run through a wall for him because they knew how much he believed in them and how much he expected of them. Even while challenging us to give our best, he showed us what servant leadership should look like, and was the model of what transformational leadership is.

Coach Jones knew far more than plays. Inside and outside the gym, he held people to high expectations and treated them with respect. He valued execution, and he valued the people doing the work. You never had to guess where you stood with him. He could be brutally honest, but he was fair, and he was willing to listen when you saw something differently. As a young assistant, I was learning how to coach basketball, and I was learning just as much about how to work with people.

Coach Jones would often say, “Be the best,” “Don’t stop believing,” and “Never forget where you came from.” I have carried those words with me long after my coaching days. They have encouraged me through challenges in education and leadership, and they have mattered at home as well. He pushed people to reach for more while reminding them to stay grounded and remember those who helped them along the way.

He also showed me how much a person can accomplish without holding the head coach’s title. Coach Jones had already been a successful head coach when he became a college assistant. For nearly three decades, he helped build programs, prepare teams, and develop players from that role. His example taught me to give my best to the work in front of me and to invest in the people beside me.

As a lifelong mentor, Stan has helped shape the future through the many people he has influenced. We need to remember the value of that kind of leadership and offer it to others. Leadership needs more people like Coach Stan Jones.

I have shared this quote from the movie The Emperor’s Club before, and I believe it speaks to Coach Jones’s influence too:

“A great teacher has little external history to record. His life goes over into other lives. These men are pillars in the intimate structure of our schools. They are more essential than its stones or beams, and they will continue to be a kindling force and a revealing power in our lives.”

I hope you have a mentor in your life like the ones I have had and still have. We need people who will invest in us, regardless of our age, so that we can invest in others. That is true in coaching, education, and every other part of life.

When I think back to that table at Shoney’s, I smile. I was in awe of Coach Jones then, and I was just beginning to learn who he was. His last interview question was about standing up for a team. His example over the years has taught me much more: to be dependable, to give my best, to keep believing, and to care for people beyond the role they play.

Coach Jones, thank you for giving me the job. Thank you even more for the conversations, the lessons, your example, and a friendship I will always value. I am a better person because our paths crossed. Seeing hundreds of people gather to honor him reminded me that many others could say the same. I hope I can pass along even a smidgen of the influence he has given me.

As you step into your role today, remember that you are not just an educator and leader but a shaper of the future. Your actions and decisions profoundly impact the lives of those you guide. Go, be the great educator and leader that our future needs.

Remember… Think Leadership and Be For Others…

©2026 J Clay Norton

Want more Leadership Thoughts? Follow me on… X @thebookchamber or on FaceBook at J Clay Norton or follow the blog directly.

Educational Leadership and the Responsibility of an Audience Face

30 Friday Jan 2026

Posted by in Audience Face, Authentic, Balance, Character, Choice, Decisions, Educational Leadership, Emotion, Emotional Temperature, Essence, Illusions, Image, Know Your Why, Leader, Leadership, Preparation, Purpose, Relationships, Respect, Responsibility, Trust, Truth

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One day last week, while driving to school and listening to the radio, I heard a broadcaster joke that he had a “face for radio.” It is a familiar phrase, but it caught my attention in a different way this time. As I listened, I started thinking about how often we talk about “face” in leadership, the face we put on, the face we show in difficult moments, or the face others come to expect from us.

The more I reflected on it, the more I realized that educational leaders are constantly showing their face, and often their facial reactions, whether they intend to or not. Leadership, especially in schools, is always happening in public.

So, here is what I think about educational leaders and the idea of having an audience face.

Educational leaders are rarely out of view. Classrooms, hallways, meetings, community forums, and informal interactions all function as public spaces. Leadership in schools is not only about decisions made behind closed doors, but about how those decisions are embodied in front of others. This is where the concept of an audience face becomes central to effective educational leadership.

An audience face is the consistent public presence a leader brings into shared spaces. It is shaped less by isolated moments and more by patterns, including how a leader responds under pressure, communicates priorities, and navigates uncertainty. In schools, where trust and morale are fragile and hard won, this presence matters deeply.

Why an audience face is necessary in educational leadership

From a leadership perspective, having an audience face is not optional. Schools are complex organizations, and ambiguity from leadership often creates instability. A well-formed audience face helps reduce that uncertainty.

A constructive audience face provides:

  • Clarity: Leaders signal what matters through what they emphasize, tolerate, and address publicly.

  • Consistency: Predictable leadership behavior builds trust and reduces organizational anxiety.

  • Psychological safety: When leaders are steady and transparent, educators feel safer taking professional risks.

  • Cultural direction: How leaders show up teaches others how to behave, respond, and lead themselves.

In this sense, the audience face is not about image management. It is about sense making. People look to leaders to interpret the environment, especially during moments of tension or change.

The role of discernment, not performance

A common misconception is that an audience face requires emotional distance or artificial positivity. In reality, effective leaders practice discernment. They understand that not every reaction belongs in public space and not every concern should be processed collectively.

An intentional audience face helps leaders:

  • Decide what should be addressed publicly versus privately

  • Regulate emotional responses without denying them

  • Hold steady when others are uncertain or overwhelmed

This is not suppression. It is professional judgment. Educational leaders carry positional power, and how they express emotion, frustration, or doubt has ripple effects throughout the system.

When an audience face becomes a liability

An audience face becomes harmful when it shifts from alignment to performance. Educators are highly sensitive to inconsistency, and trust erodes quickly when public messaging does not match lived experience.

Warning signs include:

  • Saying what sounds right instead of what is accurate

  • Projecting confidence without follow through

  • Avoiding difficult truths to preserve approval

  • Becoming overly attached to maintaining a leader image

In these cases, the audience face functions as a mask rather than a stabilizing presence.

A reflective leadership practice

Strong educational leaders treat their audience face as an ethical responsibility. They regularly ask:

  • What do my public actions communicate about our priorities?

  • What patterns am I reinforcing through my responses?

  • How does my presence affect trust, morale, and decision making?

Ultimately, leadership in schools is not defined by visibility but by impact. The audience face is one of the most powerful tools leaders have to shape culture, signal values, and guide organizations through complexity. Used intentionally, it strengthens trust and coherence. Neglected, it allows confusion and misalignment to grow. In educational leadership, how one shows up in front of others is not secondary work. It is central to the work itself.

As you step into your role today, remember that you are not just an educator and leader but a shaper of the future. Your actions and decisions profoundly impact the lives of those you guide. Go, be the great educator and leader that our future needs.

Remember… Think Leadership and Be For Others…

©2026 J Clay Norton

Want more Leadership Thoughts? Follow me on… X @thebookchamber or follow the blog directly.

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Narcissism: From Decay to Destruction in Leadership.. Born of Selfish Pride

19 Friday Sep 2025

Posted by in Actions, Attitude, Character, Christian Worldview, Culture, Decay, Decisions, Decline, Disaster, Educational Leadership, Empathy, Facade, Humility, Influence, Narcissism

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C. S. Lewis, in some of his sermons and in Mere Christianity1, described pride as “the great sin.” Unlike other vices, pride stands in direct opposition to God because it refuses to acknowledge anything greater than itself. Yet it is important to distinguish between two forms of pride. A healthy sense of self-pride, rooted in the acknowledgment of God-given worth and responsibility, is not wrong. In fact, it equips leaders to carry their responsibilities with courage and stewardship. But… when pride distorts into selfish pride, it eclipses truth, humility, and service. Lewis noted that pride thrives in comparison; it is never content with being good or accomplished, but only in being better than others. Such pride blinds a person to truth and breeds contempt for those they are meant to serve. What Lewis made clear is that selfish pride is not just a character flaw; it is the root of spiritual decay.

Lewis’ warning about spiritual decay finds a striking parallel in leadership. I’m sure we all have our own definition of what narcissism is, but in my own summation, narcissism is an excessive preoccupation with self, marked by entitlement, a hunger for admiration, and a lack of empathy. I’ll go ahead and ask the question now, “Do you know anyone like this?”

In practice, this reveals itself not as guidance but as domination. A narcissistic leader seeks followers, not partners. They crave admiration rather than accountability. Instead of building others up, they drain their teams through manipulation and the constant need for validation. Over time, this dismantles trust. Where vision and service should flourish, control and fear take their place, creating a toxic environment. As Lewis warned, pride always leads to enmity… enmity between man and man, and between man and God. Ultimately, narcissistic leadership destroys the very community it was entrusted to grow. What often goes unseen is that narcissism is not born of strength but of insecurity… the louder the ego demands admiration, the weaker the foundation it is hiding.

This kind of destruction rarely begins with open arrogance; it begins quietly. We often hear that there is a fine line between ideas, ideals, and ideology, and just as the line between healthy self-pride and destructive selfish pride grows ever thinner, it is along that fragile divide that narcissism quietly takes root. True self-pride affirms God-given identity and responsibility, but selfish pride inflates the ego until it eclipses everything else, even the heart. That distortion gives birth to narcissism, and when it goes unchecked, it erodes the very foundations of leadership.

Yet having a Christian worldview foundation points us in a better way. Christlike, servant-based leadership offers a stark contrast: humility, service, and sacrifice. True leaders draw strength not from self-exaltation but from self-forgetfulness. As Lewis observed, “the truly humble man will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.” Such leaders recognize their worth in God and extend that recognition to others. In this light, self-pride does not become arrogance but stewardship, the courage to carry responsibility without turning it into a throne, worshiped only by selfish pride, that only a narcissist can sit on.

When self-pride morphs into selfish pride, narcissism becomes the master. Leadership ceases to serve a higher purpose and instead serves only the leader’s ego. In that shift, both the leader and the community lose their way. Lewis captured it perfectly: “A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.” Leadership dies in the gaze of narcissism, but it flourishes in humility.

1Lewis, C. S. (1952). Mere Christianity. Geoffrey Bles.

As you step into your role today, remember that you are not just an educator and leader but a shaper of the future. Your actions and decisions profoundly impact the lives of those you guide. Go, be the great educator and leader that our future needs.

Remember… Think Leadership and Be For Others…

©2025 J Clay Norton

Want more Leadership Thoughts? Follow me on… X @thebookchamber or follow the blog directly.

Stop Leading to Survive – Start Leading with Purpose

25 Friday Apr 2025

Posted by in Actions, Anchored, Character, Circumstances, Clarity, Classroom Leadership, Compassion, Conviction, Education, Educational Leadership, Emotion, Emotional Temperature, Empathy, Empower, Know Your Why, Leader, Leadership, Mixed Signals, Purpose, Teachers, Transformational, Trust

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Have you noticed lately how society wants to make leadership complex and move at a speed that is too fast? All you have to do is just look around. Also, you may notice that many leaders are not leading from a deep sense of purpose; they’re leading from a place of longing. Longing for meaning, for validation, and for results, often defaulting to a “whatever works” philosophy. However, when they start chasing effectiveness without direction, they sacrifice the very essence of leadership – clarity, conviction, and character.

Leadership is meant to be anchored in purpose – with a strong, stable, and consistent foundation. Without it, even the most charismatic or skilled leaders drift, and depending on the strength and speed of the current, they can be taken anywhere. When purpose is missing, decisions become reactive rather than proactive, and strategies become short-sighted rather than transformative. A leader may gain temporary success, but the tell-tale signs of losing something far more valuable will be seen, which are trust, direction, and emotional resilience.

The tragedy is that the longing for meaning, validation, and results, when left unmet, often leads to purposeless leadership. It becomes a cycle; the more leaders seek to find purpose in external wins, the more disconnected they become from internal values. Without emotional alignment, leadership becomes mechanical and goes through the motions. The spark is gone, passion is replaced by pressure, and vision gives way to vagueness.

True leadership flows from inner conviction, not circumstantial or situational convenience. It requires doing the hard work of defining your “why” before driving the “what.” Purpose brings focus and fuels positive emotions of hope, empathy, and courage, all of which are essential for inspiration and creating a lasting impact.

Time-trusted leadership does not settle for what merely works – that’s survival. Instead, it pursues what matters – that’s significance. The world doesn’t need more successful leaders. It needs and requires more purposeful ones! Those who lead with clarity, conviction, and character.

It doesn’t matter where or at what level your leadership takes place, when leaders are clear about their purpose, they can offer others a reason to follow. At the heart of all great leadership is not just action but meaning, purposeful meaning.

As you step into your role today, remember that you are not just an educator and leader but a shaper of the future. Your actions and decisions profoundly impact the lives of those you guide. Go, be the great educator and leader that our future needs.

Remember… Think Leadership and Be For Others…

©2025 J Clay Norton

Want more Leadership Thoughts? Follow me on… X @thebookchamber or follow the blog directly.