Motivational Slideshow

Thanks to Phil Gerbyshak for this collection of motivational quotes.

Great Management Quotes

View more presentations from Phil Gerbyshak.

Why "That's the Way We've Always Done It is a Myth"

When you or I question a practice that seems to defy logic, the answer is likely to be, "That's the way we've always done it." The response shifts whatever blame there may be to some unnamed person at some unnamed time in the past. The response also indicates no thinking is going to go into whether or not what has been done in the past is the best course for the future.

At best, "That's the way we've always done it" is only partially true. Consider the story of the young girl helping her mother prepare Easter dinner.

Before placing the ham in the oven for baking, the mother cut off both ends. “Why did you cut off the ends of the ham?” asked the daughter.

“That’s the way my mother always did it,” was the reply.

The daughter quickly vanished. In moments, she was on the telephone to the grandmother verifying whether or not what she had been told was true. The grandmother replied that she did, indeed, always cut the ends off the ham. When asked why, the grandmother replied, “That’s the way my mother always did it.”

As fate would have it, the next week brought about a visit from great-grandmother. Overcome with curiosity, as young children often are, nothing would do but to pose this same question.

“Great Grandmother, Mommy always cuts the ends off her ham before she puts it in the oven. Mommy says she does it because that’s the way Grandmother always did it. Grandmother says she did it because that’s the way you always did it. Is it true, Great Grandmother? Did you always cut the ends off of the ham?”

“Yes, indeed, my child, I always cut the end off the ham” replied the elderly woman.

“But why?” asked the young girl.

Holding her hands about 12 inches apart, she replied, “Because my pan was only this big.”

Decades ago, Great Grandmother was confronted with a set of circumstances. Her pan was not large enough to accommodate the ham. She came up with procedures to handle those circumstances. She did the best she could with what she had.

What if we were to confront today's challenges the way Great Grandmother in the story confronted hers? What is we did the best we could with what we have? What we have keeps getting better, meaning what was "best" back then is far from "best" by today's standards.

What if we re-framed "that's the way we've always done it" to embody a standard of quality rather than a particular act? I imagine we would spend more time challenging outdated practices, more time learning the tools at our disposal, and less time carrying on with practices which worked in a bygone era.

If we look to the past for examples of doing the best they could with what they had, we also throw down the gauntlet to generations to come. We issue the challenge not to mindlessly carry on as we did, but to build on our accomplishments.

Our circumstances change. Our procedures must change with them. Our ancestors understood that. Do we?


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Famous Failures

Gene Hackman Talking About Basketball...and Life

Tonight, the NCAA will crown a new men's basketball champion. It seems particularly appropriate to feature this clip at this time.

From my favorite movie of all time. Listen to what Gene Hackman is saying. While he’s talking about basketball, his message is just as applicable regardless of the task at hand.

Mr. Holland's Opus: A Cautionary Tale

One of the great "school" movies of all times is Mr. Holland's Opus. Those who have seen it cannot  cannot forget the finale. Budget cuts were scheduled to eliminate the program this man had worked his whole career to build. A defeated Glenn Holland walked into an auditorium filled with supporters and a stage teaming with students from days gone by. All had come to pay tribute to a man and a program who had meant much to them.

Earlier in the movie, we see Mr. Holland as he provides hope to a struggling young clarinet player.



Fast forward years later to Mr. Holland's surprise retirement celebration. At one dramatic moment, the doors to the auditorium fling wide and in walks that same clarinet player. Only now, she is the governor. She takes the podium and begins a stirring tribute to her teacher:




I kept waiting for the moment the governor would announce that under no circumstances would funding for a program which had done so much for so many be cut. I waited...and waited...but that proclamation never came. After all was said and done, Glenn Holland began his retirement, and the music program became history.

What a poor ending! What were the writers thinking? What kind of message does it send when the governor praises the teacher and the program, yet does nothing to save it?

I was expecting the governor to make everything right. I was expecting the "good guys" to win. And I was expecting it all to happen while I sat comfortably in my chair and watched. Surely I would be walking out of the theater affirmed that as long as music programs offer quality and help children grow up whole, those music programs have nothing to fear. Someone will look out for them. 

Little by little, I began to realize that this movie ended correctly. The message was clear. As long as good people sit back and do nothing, quality programs will perish with little thought given as to the void which will be left. The challenge clearly issued to every one of us in that movie theater was the challenge to make sure that what happened on that screen would not repeat itself in our communities.

Richard Dreyfuss played the starring role of Glenn Holland. An Academy Award nominee for his performance, these are the remarks that he made at the 38th Anuual Grammy Awards:

This evening is a celebration of music, the artists who create it, and the phenomenon of creativity itself. Now, there are two realities in this movie (Mr. Holland's Opus). One is the life of a teacher, a reality of defeats and victories, like all of our lives, --but one that ends as a celebration. The other reality is the loss of music in the schools in the same America and that is hardly a celebration.

For some strange reason, when it comes to music and the arts, our world view has led us to believe they are easily expendable. Well, I believe that a nation that allows music to be expendable is in danger of becoming expendable itself.

Perhaps we've all misunderstood the reason we learn music, and all the arts, in the first place. It is not only so a student can learn the clarinet, or another student can take an acting lesson. It is that for hundreds of years it has been known that teaching the arts, along with history and math and biology, helps to create The Well Rounded Mind that western civilization, and America, have been grounded on. America's greatest achievements -- in science, in business, in popular culture, would simply not be attainable without an education that encourages achievement in all fields. It is from that creativity and imagination that the solutions to our political and social problems will come. We need that Well Rounded Mind, now. Without it, we simply make more difficult the problems we face.

There's a general feeling growing in this country lately that we simply spend too much money ... that we can't afford to give our children the education we grew up with. This is an insane anxiety that allows us to forget that we are, after all, the richest country on Earth, and that the real question is not what we can't pay for, but rather how can we efficiently pay for the kind of public education we all want and need.

Cutting these programs, then, is like tying our children's hands behind their backs, and I don't think anyone really wants to do that ... we hope for too much for our kids, and for our country. We are parents, most of us, and we are citizens, all of us. Don't let this happen, I urge you."

As "Music in Our Schools Month" draws to a close, the challenge before us is not only to sustain, but expand the kinds of programs which will allow our country and its citizens to thrive in the decades ahead. All around us are people who owe much of what they have accomplished to the creativity, discipline, imagination, appreciation of quality, and preference for quality they learned in a music program somewhere along the way. Whether or not those opportunities will be there in the years to come will be up to us.

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Following Your Dreams

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Ordinary People...Extraordinary Things

What can you and I do that is a little extraordinary? What are we waiting for?

Confidence

Sometimes you just have to believe in your ability when nobody else does.


This video is of Paul Potts. His performance of "Nessun Dorma" stunned the judges of "Britain's Got Talent" and brought the crowd to its feet. While I had seen this video before, it doesn't hurt to bring back reminders that ordinary people can do extraordinary things, and that the old saying about not being able to judge a book its cover is alive and well.

Leading With Lollipops and the Art of Leadership

Have you had a "lollipop moment" because of something someone else said or did? Have you told them about it?

Take the next six minutes and twenty-one seconds to learn what a "lollipop moment" is all about and how each of us demonstrate leadership and may never know it.


In this TEDx Toronto Talk, Drew Dudley uses a simple story to illustrate the lasting impact we have on each other and why it's important to let each other know.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. 

―Marianne Williamson

"If I Had a Daughter"

This TED Talk, filmed in March 2011, seems particularly timely for Mother's Day.



The speaker is Sarah Kay. She is the founder and co-director of Project V.O.I.C.E., a group dedicated to using spoken word as an inspirational tool. Her website is located at http://www.kaysarahsera.com.

Why Was "So God Made a Farmer" So Powerful?

Earlier this week, we looked at a Super Bowl commercial that probably missed the mark. Today's subject is one that tugged at our heartstrings, and turned out to be the most talked-about commercial of the day. The voice is unmistakeable...Paul Harvey. The message is unforgettable.

So God made a farmer...




On Nancy Duarte's blog, Paula Tesch authors a post arguing this ad was really a "presentation in disguise." The commercial includes no special effects. Instead, we hear a strong voice telling a great story, backed with great pictures.

I invite you to read the post entitled "The Most Talked About Super Bowl Commercial Was a Presentation in Disguise."

What makes a presentation powerful? One of my favorite TED Talks was given by Nancy Duarte. She outlines what makes a presentation compelling. She goes on to use Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech as an example. Here is that TED Talk:



Now that you have heard "So God make a farmer," what made it powerful for you?

It Couldn't Be Done...It's Done

When most people say, "It can't be done," what they really mean is, "I don't know how to do it." In today's world of limitless possibilities, proclaiming, "It can't be done" generally puts one behind the eight-ball. Worse yet, when we settle for "It can't be done," we stop looking for answers.

This poem is for all of those out there who have survived the naysayers and made things happen:

Somebody said that it couldn’t be done,
But, he with a chuckle replied
That "maybe it couldn’t," but he would be one
Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.


Somebody scoffed: "Oh, you’ll never do that;
At least no one has done it";
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,
And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.


There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle it in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
That "couldn’t be done," and you’ll do it.
—Edgar Albert Guest, 1917

What was true in 1917 is even truer today!

While they were saying among themselves it cannot be done, it was done.
                                            —Helen Keller

When have you been told, "It couldn't be done" but you did it?

Why Don't You Know?

I enjoy Seth Godin's blog, somewhat because of the Twitter-like brevity of the posts, but more because of the power in the message. One recent post almost echoed the words of a former professor. In a post entitled The Curious Imperative, Godin opens with the following statement:

"Now that information is ubiquitous, the obligation changes. It's no longer okay to not know."

Sixteen years ago, I was working on my dissertation. Dr. Gene Golanda was one of two chairs on my dissertation committee, and he was a master of asking the question that would cause one to examine even a routine problem in a unique way. During one conversation related to my dissertation topic, he asked me a question for which I had no answer, and frankly one I had never contemplated.

All of my training to that point had said to me that when you don't know the answer, you simply say you don't know. Then. you get busy finding out. I confidently followed that plan, admitting I did not know the answer, feeling proud of myself for not trying to bluff my way through. The response was one I will never forget:

"Why don't you know?" he said.

He had a point. This teacher had also just ratcheted up the standards. Finding an answer was no longer good enough. Solving the problem once it presented itself was no longer good enough. At this level, the expectation became to find answers to questions yet to be asked and solve problems before they occur.

I learn something new every single day, and hopefully you do too. Much of what I learn comes through professional reading, followed by thinking, followed by Google searches to gather the bits of information needed to complete the puzzle.

For each of us, there is that niche in which we long to become expert. The information we need to get there has never been easier to find. Not knowing is not good enough. Not adding our own contributions to that body of knowledge is not good enough. A creative mind that goes beyond the obvious, the skills to search the body of literature available on the Internet, and the discipline to push the envelope every day...now that's not only good enough, but could be enough to change the world.

Yes, I get still get those questions to which I have to say, "I don't know." And when I do, I hear that little voice from 16 years ago saying, "Why don't you know?"

Discovery exists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what nobody else has thought. —Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

"The Process" and the Book Which Explains It

Tomorrow, the defending national champion and #1 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide lines up against the LSU. The two have much in common. They are both from the SEC. They played for the BCS National Championship game in January. They have both won national championships in recent years. Finally, they both won national championships under Nick Saban (with LSU winning another under Les Miles).

Two and a half years ago, I posted about Saban's book, How Good Do You Want to Be?  The book was interesting for two reasons. First, Alabama just won a national championship, and therefore the team and its coach were news.

Secondly, even though the cover pictured Saban dressed in Alabama crimson, the book was clearly written just after his LSU team won the 2003 BCS National Championship. How does what Coach Saban wrote eight years and two coaching stints ago relate to the present Alabama team? How does the book relate to a blog about organization and time management?

Chapter 2, entitled "The Competitive Spirit," opens with the subheading "Don't look at the scoreboard." Saban argues that the focus should be on the process not the product. If the process is solid, the product takes care of itself. That thinking is very much in line with what the coach has been saying each season since arriving at Alabama. In the book, Saban goes on to say, "It is natural to be affected by where you are in life, but looking at the score and results can only take you away from your competitive spirit. Not only should you not concern yourself with the score, you should also avoid setting the bar or establishing benchmarks for success" (p. 58).

Much talk centers around a possible repeat national title for Alabama, a third on four years. In the book, Saban says, "One of the hardest things to do in sports is to repeat as a champion. It is exceedingly rare in college or pro sports these days. Part of the reason is parity, but part of it is champions lose focus because of the distractions that success brings. The championship becomes the focus--not what it takes to be a champion" (pp. 68-69). Furthermore, he says, "We don't talk about repeating as national champions and we don't spend time thinking about the targets that are on our backs" (pp.71-72).

Writing a blog whose focus is time management and organization, I am particularly interested in the three-page subheading in the "Being a Great Leader" chapter entitled "Organization." Saban says, "And to be the most effective leader, you have to be organized." Saban offers these examples of what he does to stay organized (pp.129-130):

• Every practice plan and set of game notes, going back as far as I can remember, I organize into huge binders that I can refer to when I need to.
• I keep a pen and paper with me at all times during practice to quickly write down items we need to correct.
• Our pregame routine is organized down to the minute, and areas of the field are assigned for position groups. For example, no matter where we are playing, the running backs are always warming up at the 20-yard line opposite our bench.
• I prepare an agenda and a list of items to cover the day before all daily staff meetings so nothing is left out.

Saban goes on to say, "Organization is critical to efficiency. If I have a pet peeve (and I have a few), it's wasted time..." (p. 130)

This year, talk about the Saban "Process" has gained momentum. Money Magazine has written about it. Sports Illustrated has written about it. Forbes has written about it. The Huffington Post has written about it. The Wall Street Journal has written about it. It was all in the book way back then.

How Good Do You Want to Be? is a good read whether you are pulling for the team Saban coaches now or for the team he coached when he wrote the book. You have time to pick up or copy and read it before the game. It might not only give you a better insight into the game, but also how you can come closer to achieving your own goals.

What Leads to Succeed? It's These 8 Things

What are the traits that lead to success? This TED Talk by analyst Richard St. John condenses years of interviews into an 3-minute presentation on the real secrets of success.

Is there a 9th one you would like to add? Please comment.

Motivational Quotes

Great quotes say alot in a few words. Enjoy this video featuring a collection of some of the best motivational quotes.

To give credit to the creators of the video, read more great quotes at http://www.allgreatquotes.com/motivational_quotes.shtml. The video was produced by http://www.themediapro.com.

The Chicken and the Eagle Story

Dr. Eldon Taylor tells this story, a parable about the great potential locked hidden behind low self-expectations.

How many eagles do you know who are living in the chicken coup?

"Wear Suncreen" (and Other Advice for Graduates)

Advice to the graduating class..."Wear Sunscreen." The lyrics are taken from a famous essay — written in 1997 by Mary Schmich, a columnist with the Chicago Tribune.

How Will You Say Goodbye to Graduates?

This month, schools everywhere are planning activities which will send its graduates to the next stages in their lives. I this post, I share one such tradition we started in the elementary school where I was principal. It was designed to add a keepsake for each of our students as they left us for junior high.

On Awards Day, each 6th grade student walked across the auditorium stage to receive his or her diploma. With it was another piece of paper. Except for the name, the wording was the same:

Dear {Name of student}, 

Your completion of elementary school is a big step in your education. At Graham, we congratulate you on the interest and dedication which have brought you to this important milestone in your life. 

Your learning experiences, however, have only begun. It is our hope that you will approach the next grades with eagerness equal to your abilities and take advantage of the many wonderful opportunities open to you. 

 It has been our pleasure to have been associated with you through your elementary school years. We are convinced that this school will always be proud of you as you progress along education’s path. 

We shall continue to watch your achievements with interest and pride. 

Best wishes, 



What made the letters unique were the signatures at the bottom. Each letter was signed by the adults in the building who had formed a relationship with that student. No two students had the same set of signatures.

The process was simple. I had created the text of the letter and mail merged it to a spreadsheet. The names of our 6th grade students were pasted into that spreadsheet. We then were able to print a set of letters, each with the same text except for the student's first being inserted.

In a faculty meeting, I explained the process. I had signed all of the letters and passed the folder to the 6th grade teachers. Since we did some changing of classes, the 6th grade teachers signed all of the letters. The folder would then be passed to the 5th grade teachers. They would sign letters for any of the student they had taught or any student who whom they had established any sort of relationship. Over the next couple of weeks, the folder would work its way to each grade level, to the music teacher, librarian, counselor, lunchroom staff, and custodians.

Any staff member could sign any letter they wished. When the folder was returned to me, it contained letters rich with signatures of the people who had worked with each student though the years.

On Awards Day, each 6th grade student received a letter with good wishes for the future and the signatures of the people who had helped shape elementary school memories.

Several other principals with whom I have shared this idea also use it successfully. As you are planning the close of this school year, perhaps this idea is one you can use.

What end-of-school traditions do you have at your school that might benefit others?

A Pretty Good Student

I first heard this poem quite a few years ago. It's been a favorite of mime, and serves as a cautionary tale for those who set the bar for themselves increasingly low.

There once was a pretty good student,
Who sat in a pretty good class
And was taught by a pretty good teacher,
Who always let pretty good pass.

He wasn’t terrific at reading.
He wasn’t a whiz-bang at math.
But for him education was leading
Straight down a pretty good path.

He didn’t find school too exciting,
But he wanted to do pretty well,
And he did have some trouble with writing,
And nobody had taught him to spell.

When doing arithmetic problems,
Pretty good was regarded as fine.
Five plus five needn’t always add up to be ten,
A pretty good answer was nine.

The pretty good class he sat in
Was part of a pretty good school.
And the student was not an exception.
On the contrary, he was the rule.

The pretty good school that he went to
Was there in a pretty good town.
And nobody seemed to notice
He could not tell a verb from a noun.

The pretty good student in fact was
Part of a pretty good mob.
And the first time he knew that he lacked was
When he looked for a pretty good job.

In was then, when he sought a position,
He discovered that life could be tough.
And he soon had a sneaky suspicion
Pretty good might not be good enough.

The pretty good town in our story
Was part of a pretty good state,
Which had pretty good aspirations,
And prayed for a pretty good fate.

There once was a pretty good nation,
Pretty proud of the greatness it had,
Which learned much too late
If you want to be great,
Pretty good is, in fact, pretty bad.

—Charles Osgood

How do we guard against the words in the last paragraph becoming reality?