As those employed in the field of
education, know that you have tremendous
power to affect the lives of those around you. Encouragement
should be a difference-maker in someone’s day, week, or life. To this, John C. Maxwell writes in his book, Encouragement
Changes Everything, that there are “5 things every encourager needs to know
about people."
1. Everybody
Wants to Be Somebody
 |
| Believe in Our Students |
Everyone needs affirmation. All want to be loved and considered. Everybody wants to be somebody. Every student is and will become somebody.
How can we help others feel like
they are somebody? By seeing them as a
10 on a scale of 10. You often get exactly
what you expect from people. In the eyes
of every parent, their child is the “cream of the crop,” retorted my
father-in-law. “Parents are not
withholding, they are sending us their very best.” Treat someone as a 2 and they will act like a
2. The greatest help that we can give
others is to believe in them.
2. Nobody
Cares How Much You Know Until They Know How Much You Care
People do not want to know how
smart we are. They do not want to know
what you or I have accomplished. The
only thing that they really want from us is to know whether we really care
about them.
***Sidebar Leaders: A wise person from within my office once said: “Rules
without relationships equal rebellion.”
This is a difficult lesson for
some to learn. Often we want to
impress. We want to be admired. We want others to follow. Most followers do not care anything about resumes
and pedigrees. Most of all, followers want to know that leaders care about them
and have their interests at heart.
3. Everybody Needs Somebody
 |
| Coach Boone and Louie |
In one of my favorite movies, Remember the Titans, Coach Boone asks bighearted
offensive lineman Louie Lastik if he was planning to go to college. Louie says, “Oh not me, Coach. I ain’t a brainiac.” Coach Boone replies, “If
you don’t go to college, it’s not going to be because you’re not qualified, so
I want you to bring me your test scores at the end of every week, and we’ll go
over them together.” Towards the end of
the movie, Louie tearfully approaches Coach Boon. “I got a C-plus average, Coach. I’m going to
college.” Because someone took interest, Louie achieved more than he ever
thought himself capable.
Look in the buses, the hallways
and classrooms. You will find endless
number of people like that. They are
looking for someone to invest in them, to encourage them, to be the person that
they were created to be.
4. Anybody
Who Helps Somebody Influences a Lot of Somebodies
 |
| Moon Lake - Phenix City, AL |
It is contagious! Pour effort into someone else, and watch how
the encouragement is multiplied. Influence influences! The greater the positive impact you make on
another person or group, the more likely that person or group of people is to turn
around and influence others positively. Encouragement
has a ripple effect, like a stone cast into Moon Lake.
5. Love
Everybody
Often we choose those who we
encourage. We may look for others who
are like us or we may only help those who believe or think as we do. This is not how it should be.
A man fell into a pit and could
not get out - here is how others treated that person:
A subjective
person came along and said “I feel for you down there.”
An objective
person came along and said, “Well, it’s logical that someone would fall down
there.”
A self-righteous
person said, “Only bad people fall into pits.”
A mathematician
calculated how the individual fell into the pit.
A news reporter
wanted and exclusive story on the person in the pit.
A fundamentalist
said, “You deserve your pit.”
A realist came
along and said, “Now that’s a pit”
A geologist told
him to appreciate the rock strata in the pit.
An IRS worker
asked if he was paying taxes on the pit.
The inspector
asked if he had a permit to dig the pit.
The self-pitying
person said, “You haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen my pit.”
An optimist
said, “Things could be worse.”
A pessimist
said, “Things will get worse.”
Then Someone,
seeing the man, reached down and took him by the hand and lifted him out of the
pit.
We should love everybody, just as
we are loved. We should treat others as
we would like to be treated. Do that and
others will feel encouraged.
Let's have a GREAT school year!
