Being an efficient Principal is not a job. It’s a way of life! You must always keep the teacher alive within the leader and vice versa as each fires the other. These stories are not new nor have been written by me. They have been assorted from various books and sources on the Internet. They have, over the years, inspired me and have been used at various training platforms. The takeaways are simple but important. We know we must do certain things in a certain way, but we tend to forget. They have been put together here for your easy reading.
#1 ANECDOTE
Once a mother decided to take her young boy, who had become addicted to eating sugar, to Gandhiji for help. After a scorching tiring journey, she finally reached Gandhiji’s ashram and asked him to tell her son to stop eating sugar as it wasn’t good for his health. Gandhiji refused to help at that time and asked the mother to bring the child back to him after two weeks. The mother was confused and upset and took the boy home. Two weeks later, she came back. This time Gandhiji looked directly at the boy and said, “You should stop eating sugar. It is not good for your health.” The boy nodded his head and promised he wouldn’t. The boy’s mother was puzzled. She asked, “Why didn’t you tell him that two weeks ago when I brought him here?” Gandhiji smiled and said, “Two weeks ago, I was eating a lot of sugar myself.”
Takeaway: Leaders must model the behaviour they ask of their subordinates.
#2 ANECDOTE
A gentleman was once walking through an elephant camp when he noticed that the elephants weren’t being held by chains. All that was holding them back from escaping the camp was a small piece of rope tied to one of their legs. The man stood there, completely confused. The elephants could easily escape from captivity using their strength to break the rope. But instead, they weren’t even trying at all. Curious and wanting to know the answer, he asked a trainer nearby why the elephants were just standing there and never tried to escape. The trainer’s answer was an eye-opener. He said, “When they are very young and much smaller, we use the same size rope to tie them. At that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.” The only reason that the elephants weren’t breaking free was that over time they believed that it just wasn’t possible.
Takeaway: Believing you can become successful is the most important step in actually achieving it.
#3 ANECDOTE
Many years ago, in a small Italian town, a small business owner owed a large sum of money to a loan-shark. The loanshark was a very old, unattractive man who liked the businessman’s daughter. He decided to offer the businessman a deal that he would wipe out the debt if he could marry the businessman’s daughter. Needless to say, this proposal was met with a look of disgust. The loan-shark then thinking smart said that he would place two pebbles into a bag, one white and one black. The daughter would then have to reach into the bag and pick out a pebble. If it was black, he would marry the girl, and the debt would be wiped. But if it was white, the debt would be wiped, and the daughter wouldn’t have to marry him. Standing on a pebble-strewn path in the businessman’s garden, the loan-shark bent over and picked up two pebbles. While he was picking them up, the daughter noticed that he’d picked up two black pebbles and placed them both into the bag. He then asked the daughter to reach into the bag and pick one. The daughter naturally had three choices; refuse to pick a pebble from the bag, take both pebbles out of the bag and expose the loan-shark for cheating or pick a pebble from the bag fully aware it was black and sacrifice herself for her father’s freedom. She drew out a pebble from the bag, and before looking at it, ‘accidentally’ dropped it into the midst of the other pebbles on the path. She then said to the loan-shark, “Oh, how clumsy of me. Never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked.” The pebble left in the bag was obviously black. As the loan-shark didn’t want to be exposed, he had to play along with the trick and pretend as if the pebble that the daughter had dropped was white. He lost the marriage proposal and had to clear the debt as well.
Takeaway: Smart, out-of-the-box thinking can sail you through tough situations.
#4 ANECDOTE
Four frog friends were travelling through the woods. Two of them accidentally fell into a deep pit. When the other two frogs crowded around the pit and saw how deep it was, they told the two frogs that there was no hope left for them. However, the two frogs decided to ignore what the others said, and they attempted to jump out. This time they fell back harder and also bruised themselves. The two frogs on the top shouted harder and told them to stay safe inside, as jumping out was not possible. Eventually, one of the frogs, believing what the others had to say, gave up. However, the other frog continued to jump as hard as he could. The three frogs now yelled at him to stop and accept his destiny to die in that pit. But he jumped even harder this time and made it out, leaving one behind in the pit. When he got out, the other frogs said, “Did you not hear us?” The frog explained to them that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him the entire time.
Takeaway: Your thoughts are very powerful. They will make anything happen, no matter what people say.
#5 ANECDOTE
There was once a farmer who sold a pound of butter to a baker. One day the baker decided to weigh the butter to see if he was getting the right amount. When he weighed it, he found the butter of less than the ordered quantity. Angry about this, he took the farmer to court. The judge asked the farmer if he was using any measure to weigh the butter. The farmer replied, “Sir, I am primitive. I don’t have a proper measure, but I do have a scale.” The judge asked, “Then how do you weigh the butter?” The farmer replied, “Sir, long before the baker started buying butter from me, I have been buying a pound of bread from him. Every day when the baker brings the bread, I put it on the scale and give him the same weight in butter. If anyone is to be blamed, it is the baker.”
Takeaway: In life, you get what you give. Don’t try and cheat others.
#6 ANECDOTE
In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. He then hid and watched to see if anyone would move the boulder out of the way. Some of the King’s wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many people loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none of them did anything about getting the stone out of the way. A peasant then came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to push the stone out of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant went back to pick up his vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King explaining that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway.
Takeaway: Every obstacle we come across in life gives us an opportunity to improve our circumstances.
#7 ANECDOTE
One day a man found a cocoon of a butterfly. He noticed a small opening on one side. He sat down to watch the butterfly as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Suddenly it stopped making any progress and looked as if it was stuck. The man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and cut off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly emerged easily, although it had a swollen body and small, shrivelled wings. The man sat there waiting for the wings to enlarge to support the butterfly to fly. But that didn’t happen. The butterfly struggled there, unable to fly, crawling around with tiny wings and a swollen body to ultimately die. The kind-hearted man didn’t understand that the restricting cocoon and the struggle needed by the butterfly to get itself through the small opening were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings, thus preparing itself to fly to life.
Takeaway: Our struggles develop our strengths. Without them, we never grow or get stronger.
#8 ANECDOTE
There once was a little boy who had a very bad temper. His father decided to hand him a bag of nails and said that every time the boy lost his temper, he had to hammer a nail into the fence. Conscious of the situation, the boy was shocked to see that he had hammered 37 nails into the fence on the first day. The boy gradually began to control his temper over the next few weeks, and the number of nails he was hammering into the fence slowly decreased. He discovered it was easier to control his temper than to hammer those nails into the fence. Finally, one day when the boy didn’t have to hammer a single nail, he rushed to his father. The father then told the boy to pull out a nail every day he kept his temper under control. The days passed, and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, “You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one.”
Takeaway: Control your anger. Don’t say things to people that you may later regret.
The writer is director principal, Sarvottam International School, Greater Noida West. The article is an edited extract from her new book, ‘104 Traits of Highly Successful School Principals’ (Notion Press).