Demanding Not Demeaning

GOOD MORNING AND HAPPY FIRST FRIDAY OF SPRING!

The GHS One Act Play Advances to the Area Contest! Bravo to the Cast, Crew and Directors!!!  The Best Actress Award went to Jessica Burgess and Honorable Mention All Star Cast honors was awarded to Kristin Spring and Hank Graham.  Great job by ALL!

Best of Luck to Graham Steer Joel Jones who is competing at the State Powerlifting this Saturday in Abilene!

Congrats to the Lady Blues Tennis Double Team of Grace Miller and Adrianna Arredondo!  The won the Girls Double Consolation Bracket of the Iowa Park JV Tournament with a 6-4 win over Wichita Falls HS.

Graham Steer and Lady Blues Golf News- Our golfers are tuning up for district this week. (District starts next Monday at Graham CC). The boys played in Denton at Robson Ranch on Monday. Kolton Carmichael lead the team with an 83.

Success for the Graham FFA at the Houston Livestock Show! Congrats to Jack Lowery who placed 12th and made the sale; Nicolas Wankowicz (3rd grade) top 12, Joseph Wendel-top 14, Riley Wyatt top 20, File Werner- top 20 and Ashley Swider- top 20.

Lady Blues Softball Wins District Opener 10 - 3 over Iowa Park. Great job ladies!

Graham High School Students Performed Well at the UIL Academic Meet! Congrats to all on a job well done! See results below:

Accounting- 1st place - Marcus Montfort; 2nd Place - Joshua McBride; 4th place Nathan King; 5th place Kristen Duncan; 1st place team!

Computer Applications- 4th place - Hayden Husen

Computer Science- 4th Place- Elijah Crowley; 3rd place team

Informative- 2nd - Jack Mercer

Math- 5th place- Jorge Ramirez; 2nd place team

Number Sense- 6th Place - Alfonso Duran; 2nd place team

Persuasive- 1st place - Smith Graham; 3rd place- Hayden Husen

Poetry- 6th place - Jeff Hazlett

Prose- 2nd place - Brooklyn Pruitt

Ready Writing- 4th place- Aimee McShan; 5th place- Janahi Guevara; 6th Place- Hank Graham

Social Studies- 1st Place - Smith Graham; 3rd Place- Chris Guinn; 5th place- Luke Norman; 1st Place Team

Spelling and Vocab- 6th place - Krystal Edwards

The 70th Running of the Graham PK Relays this past weekend was a success! Thanks a ton for our partners from the Graham Lion’s Club for sponsoring the meet! Select this link for a listing of the PK Relay Results.

Graham Steers Baseball and Lady Blues Softball will be in action tonight at Burkburnett. Best of luck!

Demanding Not Demeaning

(Excerpt from 24/7: The First Person You Must Lead is YOU. by retired Brig. Gen. Rebecca “Becky” Halstead)

While commanding in Germany, I experienced one of the lowest moments in my military career. After 24 years of experience, and one as a one-star general, I found myself questioning my leadership capacity -- until I realized that attitude was self-destructive. I needed to trust my ability to lead myself through the situation.

Just a month before we deployed, my boss, a three-star general, made an unannounced field visit to one of my units to observe their training and readiness for deployment. When he arrived they were packing up their gear. Their exercise had ended.

Furious with what he witnessed, he immediately ordered me to his office in Heidelberg. When I reported, he pulled an envelope out of his bottom desk drawer, threw the contents on the table, pounded his fist on the packet, and said, “This is what is going to happen to your units in Iraq. I have no confidence in your ability to lead in combat.”

I couldn’t breathe. Did he really just say that?

“If you think that unit is trained and certified, you are wrong. You will retrain and recertify all your battalion headquarters and come back to me with a plan to do so.”

My head spun as I tried to grasp the gravity of the situation. Thoughts raced through my head. “We are within months of deploying. Is there enough time? How will I resource this?”

Time spent defending the fairness of his review would have been wasted. I needed to focus on resolving his perceived training gap, making certain my units were fully prepared.

This situation taught me not to lead others the way this leader led me, and to avoid being intimidating or threatening to those I led. I was reminded that leaders should be demanding, not demeaning.

CORNY JOKE OF THE DAY:

What do you call a blind dinosaur?

Do-you-think-he-saurus