THE ACHIEVEMENT DIGEST "TAD" Issue No. 73
A Unique Publication for Leaders     Gene Griessman, Ph.D. Editor
404-256-5927 www.achievementdigest.com  
To receive a complimentary subscription, send an email to gene@achievementdigest.com and type "Subscribe." If you enjoy TAD, pass it along to your friends.  If you move to a different email address, please let us know. TAD is scanned with AVG Anti-Virus.
 
QUOTES YOU CAN USE IN PRESENTATIONS, REPORTS, AND CONVERSATION

***FINDING HAPPINESS
“You seldom find happiness by seeking it.  Happiness--When pursued for its own sake--flies away like a frightened bird.  But if you do what needs to be done all through the day, and you do it to the best of your ability, happiness will find you.”  --Gene Griessman

***THANK GOD FOR UNANSWERED PRAYERS
“If I’d always gotten what I wanted, I wouldn’t have gotten what I wanted.” 
--Fred Pryor; founder of Fred Pryor Seminars

***VISITS FROM GOD
“A pleasant moment is a kiss from God.”  --Anne Gaudette, professional speaker and business facilitator 

***WHO YOU KNOW
“Tuition is an important item in the term bill, while for the far more valuable education which (the student) gets by associating with the most cultivated of his contemporaries, no charge is made.” 
--Henry David Thoreau, 1817–1862) on the benefits of attending Harvard 

***HABITS
“Think where your habits will lead you before you begin to form them.” 
-–Gene Griessman, 99 Ways To Get More Out Of Every Day

***FOREWARNINGS
“If somebody borrows $20 from you and then disappears, consider the $20 a good investment.” –Traditional saying

***THE POWER OF EXPERIENCE
In the Martin Scorsese documentary No Direction Home, Bob Dylan describes the performers who influenced him as a young man: “There was something in their eyes that would say, ‘I know something you don’t’ and I wanted to be that kind of performer.”

***THE REAL WORLD
“Total liberty for wolves is death to the lambs.”  --Isaiah Berlin (social philosopher, 1909-1997)

***LOVE OF NATURE
“I am happy as a child at the thought of wandering among the clusters of bushes, in the woods, among trees, herbs, rocks…every tree said to me Holy! Holy!” –Ludwig von Beethoven, in a letter to Therese von Malfatti, 1810

***CONSISTENCY
“Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago.”  --Bernard Berenson  (art historian, 1865 –1959)

THE POWER OF WORDS   (Below is an excerpt from the performance “Lincoln Live.”  If you’d like a printable version, go to http://www.presidentlincoln.com/new_page_1.htm.)
 
Words can reveal thoughts, conceal pain, paint dreams, correct errors, and pass along dearly bought lessons to the latest generation. 

Words can transport knowledge from the past, interpret the present, and speak to the future.  Words can build walls between people, or bridges.  Words can tear down or build up, wound or heal, tarnish or cleanse.

Words can endear you to your fellows, win them to your side, and enable you to rise to heights you may now only dream of. 

Pursuing the mastery of words is worth all the time, money, and energy that you can muster.  And what you invest will be repaid with interest compounded.

Build up your knowledge so that your words are true.  Nurture your spirit so that your words are kind, strong, and wise.  

The world may little note nor long remember what you say here.

And yet it may.

For words, once they are released, take on a life of their own, and find lodging in places and hearts you may never know.  But after many days, they may return to haunt you, or bless you.

Think carefully before you let them go.

ASK THE COACH:  “My company made an investment that has turned sour.  What do you recommend?”

Answer:  You can’t wait until you are asked about the situation to come up with something to say.  Nor should you let critics interpret the situation in such a way that it undermines confidence in your leadership.  You must create a narrative.  A narrative, in its basic sense, is a story.  In political and marketing usage, a narrative interprets a situation, presents a point of view, and frames the debate by delineating what is or not relevant. 

In a previous issue of TAD, I illustrated this principle with Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, a classic example of ways to interpret and frame a situation. 

In general, your narrative must….

*Have a friendly tone.  Show that you have the organization’s best interests at heart. 

*Be reasonable  Provide a rationale for your action. Tell why you rolled the dice.  And give your reason for not making further investments.

*Anticipate objections.  Do forward thinking about the questions and objections that might be made.   However, don’t be so creative that you provide your critics with ammunition or objections that they might not think of themselves.

*Describe what you expect.  Do you expect any return on the investment at all, etc.?

*Depict expected benefits.   Will the organization be stronger; have your actions added value, etc.?

*Appeal to beliefs, values, and emotions: patience, fair-play, sacrifice, etc.    See the example below. 

Churchill famously described the outcomes of the struggle of WWII:  “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”  

In his narrative of the struggle, Churchill raised the stakes, appealing to cherished beliefs and values and emotions:  “You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory. Victory at all costs…for without victory there is no survival.  Let that be realized. No survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge, the impulse of the ages, that mankind shall move forward toward his goal.”

Churchill’s message is of the same cloth as Lincoln’s message at Gettysburg:  “That government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

HOW TO LEAD LIKE LINCOLN:  WHAT TO DO WHEN THINGS DON’T WORK OUT 
By Pat Williams, senior vice president of the NBA’s Orlando Magic
 “I’ve been in the National Basketball Association for forty years. In that time, twenty-three of my teams have gone to the playoffs, five made the finals, and our 1983 76ers squad won the NBA title. Even with all that success, I still tend to ruminate over failures. I’m still working to overcome that tendency.

In 1970, in my first college draft with the Chicago Bulls, on the first round we took a guard named Jimmy Collins from New Mexico State. It turned out he never did anything in the NBA. In that same draft, we passed on two little guards—Calvin Murphy and Nate Archibald. Do you know where those two are today? They are enshrined in Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts!

The point is, no matter how hard you scout or try to predict the future capability of human beings in any field, you’re never going to get it 100% right. But if you keep working at it—learning from your mistakes and making the best judgments you can—in the long run you’ll come out ahead.”   
(An excerpt from  LINCOLN SPEAKS TO LEADERS: 20 POWERFUL LESSONS FOR TODAY’S LEADERS FROM AMERICA’S 16^TH PRESIDENT.  By Gene Griessman, Pat Williams, and Peggy Matthews Rose, 2009, p. 81)

FEEDBACK
“A masterful performance.”   --Frank E. Evans, CEO, Triton Management Group 

“Great, great, material.  You have done the world a remarkable job by taking on the task of educating us all on Lincoln and much more.”  --Dale Boozer, President, Eastland Company, Inc.

“I came across your website while looking for the exact words to a quote by Abraham Lincoln that starts ‘I do the very best I know how…” and was thrilled.  I found myself reading for quite a long time.  I heard this quote a long time ago and had written it down, but had recently lost it.  I home school my children and wanted to make a poster of it to hang above their desk.  I am fond of many quotes by Abraham Lincoln, and now will be referring to your website often.  As a mother/teacher I am indebted to you!  I will be sure to tell others about this valuable resource.”  --Susan Fales