In celebration of the Kentucky Derby,  our quote of the week is about horses.  And about losers, lost causes and leadership tests.  Here’s an abbreviated version:

Do you remember that scene in Seabiscuit?  In case you haven’t seen it,  the movie takes place in the 1930’s and is based on a true story about a horse that seemed best at sleeping and eating.

Passed from owner to owner,  Seabiscuit was judged as “plain lazy”, obstinate and a real loser.  He was ridden and beaten to the point of collapse and was about to be put down when horse trainer,Tom Smith, came to Seabiscuit’s  rescue.

When asked why he liked working with horses who are pretty much useless, why he took on such lost causes, Mr. Smith’s reply was:

With the right trainers, the right treatment plus lots of belief – Seabiscuit beat the unbeatable War Admiral. It was an underdog-to-champion story on many levels. And it was invigorating for the Depression-ridden United States.

A lovely reminder of our jobs as leaders.

When in pursuit of important growth objectives,we need every team member to be galloping to goal. If a few are just limping along – or even worse laying around on the job – we can get and deserve to be frustrated!   In some cases, it might be appropriate to  withhold their oats, put them out to pasture or  put them out of their misery.

But first, it’s best, and a real leadership test, to dig to discover  what’s causing the limp; do what’s needed to repair it;  or reassign the person to a job in which they can thrive.

The mending and recuperation process is a big investment – but not as big as the firing, hiring and training process.

We need to do our best to hire people with the skills needed to perform well.  And then when they get banged up – and they will – we need to do our best to help them heal and get strong again.

As a reminder, post the above quote (or a shorter variation) on your computer and/or bulletin boards.  See instructions and variations below.

Before you go, you might also want to:

• grab some popcorn and watch the first minute and a half of the clip below. Or feel free to watch the entire thing.
• and if you haven’t already done so, sign up for a Monday morning BOOST for you and your team – the Leadership Quote of the Week delivered to your email box each Monday morning.

A bite sized bit to boost morale, productivity and performance.

Use one of the above quotes (or the modified version below) as background or wallpaper for your computer with just three clicks.

1. Click on the image above.

2. Right click on the image that appears.

3. On the pull down menu that appears, click on “set as background”.

Voila! There’s still plenty of room on the left side of the screen for all your shortcut icons.

Note: If you don’t like your new wallpaper, don’t want to replace it with a quote from the Business Class Quote Library and don’t know how to get rid of it……

Go to your control panel. Select “Display”. Select “Desktop”. And then choose from the designs offered.”

Or print the PDF version below.   Just click on the printer icon in lower right corner of the image.
Problems? Try this link.

There are 153 additional quotes in our Quote Library.

Valuable business tools, ready to post, print and share – available for free right here in our Quote Library.

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