4-8-2016

Mary’s Minute

“A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit.”

                                                                                                 ~ Arnold Glasow

I like to use “I” when accepting responsibility, and ‘we” when taking credit or showing ownership.  Everything that occurs at Perry Central is a team effort – when things go well, it only makes sense that we talk in terms of “we” and “our” because our success belongs to our entire team.  Perry Central students are not “my students” but “our students.”  Our beautiful facility is not “my building” but “ours” because it belongs to the taxpayers and is operated by a group of dedicated staff members.  If things go wrong I want to accept the responsibility, and will gladly use the pronoun "I," but I work to catch myself from using the word "I" for credit or possession.  Maybe it is just semantics and is not that important, but I truly believe that the words we use reflect our beliefs and help guide our practices.  When we start saying “we” instead of “I” it subtlety changes the way we are viewed by others, and more importantly it helps instill a powerful attitude of collaboration and connectedness.  Words matter – even the one and two letter ones! 

                                                                                      Have a great week!

                                                                                              Mary