^ Rebecca Danielle Shew, of Wilkesboro, is
ia student in the Human Services Technol-
m ogy program. She is a 2003 graduate of
i^r Wilkes Central High School. Rebecca is
' the daughter of Doug Eugene Shew of
Wilkesboro.
Quotes On Leadership
Leaders aren’t bom, they are made. And they are made
just like anything else, through hard work. And that’s
the price we’ll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any
goal.
—Vince Lombardi
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn
more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
—John Quincy Adams
Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the
vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly
drive it to completion.
—Jack Welch
Bringing Out tlie Best
in Others—Naturally
If you’ve ever had anyone appreciate you for your natural
abilities, you’ll appreciate the story of the flower-seed
principle.
Try to think of every person as a flower seed: He or she
already has the disposition to become something amazing
and beautiful. But each seed will become only a certain
kind of flower.
In the workplace, you overhear a manager say—“I think
that sunflower over there has some potential, and I think
with a little training he could become a really great long
stemmed rose.”
The truth is that a sunflower seed is only going to pro
duce a sunflower—and how beautiful the flower becomes
often depends on how it is nurtured.
But in the workplace what often happens is someone in
charge brings in some information to try and teach the
sunflower how to try and become a long-stemmed rose.
The sunflower is encouraged to have lunch with and net
work with the roses, in the hope that one day, he too can
become one of them. Before the sunflower goes to bed
each night, his boss tells him to say over and over to him
self, “I am a beautiful long-stemmed rose.”
And so do you know what the sunflower becomes. He
does not become a rose—certainly not. No. He becomes
the world’s most insecure sunflower. Because no one has
ever noticed his own innate beauty and the gifts he has
for the world. Because for a long time everyone has been
telling him it’s not OK for him to be who he is.
The best thing anyone can do for someone else is to try
and find out what that person’s nature is. And then once
you find out what that person’s nature is you ask yourself,
“What can I do to cultivate the person’s natural talents
and abilities?”
A true leader would say: “Here’s a seminar on how a
bunch of beautiful sunflowers got together and did some
thing wonderful. Here’s a place where you can go and
network with other sunflowers.”
That is how you help someone tap their true potential,
which is what good leaders do. First you find out what
kind of seed the people already have inside and then you
help them grow into what they were naturally meant to
be.
—adapted from Heart at Work, by Jack Canfield and
Jacqueline Miller