Page 1 of 6 ALL-ROUND EXCELLENCE SPEECH 2015 Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen, Dr Tiplady, and particularly to the young men who have been invited to our All-Round Excellence Awards tonight. This year, our 60 th anniversary as a high school, and our 50 th as a boys high school has generally been another successful year in most aspects of school life. This could not have happened without the contributions of so many people teachers, coaches, the Governing Body, its subcommittees, the Foundation, Trust, support staff, and sponsors. My thanks and a summary of achievements is provided for you with your programmes. Please read that at your leisure. Tonight I would like to make special mention of three people who have made massive contributions to WBHS over many years Margot Leathern-Smith for 36 years, Grant Bell for 29 years and Richard Potgieter for 42 years. We will honour them at our final assembly on Wednesday as their enter new phases of their lives, But on behalf of everyone here tonight I would like to express my sincere gratitude to them for their combined total of 107 years of exceptional dedication to the School. We are expecting very good Matric results this year, but we cannot always guarantee that we will achieve our 100% pass rate or our 90% university entrance pass. The South African public Matric exams are now bench-marked against other countries, so no paper is a push-over any longer. Ultimately it is the hard work of the individual student that is the determining factor for success. We will look to the Grade 8-11 academic achievers here tonight to maintain our academic tradition in the years ahead. We regard all the boys here tonight as our achievers. It is important for you to know that. I congratulate each and every one of you for the effort that you have made in working towards excellence. No doubt, it is a wonderful feeling to be at the top of your game, but there are a few things that I hope you will always remember if you want this to continue.
Page 2 of 6 Firstly, many people say it is easier getting to the top than staying there. Success can be here today and gone tomorrow, so please don t take it for granted. Many people, including a Wimbledon Tennis star of the past, Arthur Ashe, have also said: Success is a journey not a destination the doing is often more important than the outcome. This concept of not giving up ties in with our motto Incepto Ne Desistam May I not shrink from my purpose. It also ties in with our mission of Nurturing Excellence. The word nurturing can mean different things to different people, but I think we all agree that nurturing is a process. Sustained success does not come easy. It requires consistent care and hard work. The second point is that to keep doing well, you have to be a person of Integrity. Again, Integrity can mean different things, for example: honesty or reliability. It also has something in common with the origin of the word Integer. You all do Maths, so I hope that you know that an Integer is a whole number. It is complete, without fractions. So, in this sense, you are a person of integrity if you are the complete, all-round, balanced person we like to see graduating from WBHS. To be this type of person, you cannot send out mixed messages. If you do so, people will always question your credentials. If you want to remain respected as an achiever, you will have to protect your personal brand and your integrity. These days, this can be very difficult, given the pitfalls of social media. What you put on social media will be there forever, it will multiply. Whether you like it not, people will judge you on what is there in black and white, or in full colour. People will probably not say anything to you about this, but don t be surprised if you find the doors closing on your opportunities. For example, as soon as a CV for a job vacancy arrives, many employers, including us here at WBHS, will look at a person s Facebook page before going any further. If you have made any immature
Page 3 of 6 posting, you will probably not be invited to the interview for the job that you so desperately want to get. This year, in South Africa, we had the case of Dianne Kohler-Barnard, who lost her job as a hard-working Member of Parliament. She re-posted a Facebook message from a journalist who praised a disgraced apartheid-era president. She said that she did this without reading the full article. There are many other similar cases. Let these be a lesson to you not to be careless about your personal brand. You need to protect your own brand DNA. Take inspiration from two of our WBHS sporting heroes Chad le Clos and Chad Ho, after whom our two pools are named. They have continued to achieve success in their chosen fields over many years. Despite being top stars, they are people of integrity and they both reflect admirable personal brands. We don t question their credentials. They earn our respect, and as a result, good stuff continues to happen to them. This brings me to my third point: From time to time, you need to look carefully at yourself in the mirror. It takes a person of strong Emotional Intelligence to do this. Ask yourself: has your success come by chance, like winning R10m in the lottery in which case it is not likely to happen again? Or do you continue to work at it in achieving your personal goals? Daniel Goleman is a famous psychologist who is the expert on this topic. He says: In a very real sense we have two minds, one that thinks and one that feels.
Page 4 of 6 Your academic intelligence, your IQ, is a reflection of what you know. If you put IQ to good use, it will help you get a qualification, or even a job. But he says, IQ is not the sole measure of a person s abilities, and as much as 80% of adult success comes from EQ. In other words, IQ might get you a job, but EQ gets you promotion because, as he puts it: out-of-control emotions can make smart people stupid. We have often seen sportsmen make stupid decisions which cost them dearly when they are under pressure or complacent not only in terms of points scored by the opposition, but also in terms of their personal interaction within their team. Mistakes are part of life s learning experiences, but if you keep on repeating them, that is just plain stupid. The same applies to people in any career. Rugby has never been a strong point for me, but with all the hype around the Rugby World Cup, I was interested to read about Sir Clive Woodward, the coach of the English team that won the 2003 World Cup. In his book Winning! he explained the basis of their success and how this can be applied to any human endeavour in any career. It was just a pity that, apparently, the 2015 English team did not have time to read the book. Sir Clive focused on an idea he got when his team trained with the Royal Marines. He asked them if they could identify the players in his team that would be prepared to go to war with. To his surprise, they said very few. They could tell this by the body language of many of the team members, and the way in which they spoke to and interacted with their team mates. The Royal Marines identified two types of team members: the Energisers and the Sappers. I have heard our Rugby coaches talk of these too. Both energisers and sappers might be great players, but it is their EQ and their effect on the team that differs. In any team, some members create energy while others sap or destroy
Page 5 of 6 energy. High-energy performers test their limits and spur themselves and others on to even greater results. It s great to watch them perform, and they spark others to do well. At the other end of the scale, you have the sappers. Most people know who they are, but the sapper himself often does not have the EQ to recognise this in himself. Sappers are often known as mood-hoovers. They complain and whine, and think of every reason possible why plans and strategies will not work. They pull others down, blame others and don t accept responsibility. Their negativity effectively sucks the energy right out of the team. Recently I attended a presentation where, cricket star Shaun Pollock added a third category, which he calls the Terrorists. These are the people of great expertise who can bring down the opposition very quickly, but in their wake they can destroy their own team too. He mentioned some high profile names I am sure you can think of some too. They normally get axed long before their sell-by date. Sir Clive said to his 2003 team: If I ever have to talk to you about anything other than your ability to play Rugby, then you are potentially sapping my and everyone else s energy. We cannot afford any weak links. If I think of any of you becoming energy sappers, first I will meet with you in private and we ll discuss things openly. However, if that fails, you will not be selected in future. Liz Wiseman, an authority on Business Leadership, focused on the question of leaders: Why is it that some leaders seem to amplify intelligence whilst others diminish it? She has identified two types of leaders: Multipliers and Diminishers. As is the case with Energisers and Sappers, Multipliers and Diminishers are probably extremely good at what they do, but it is how they interact with others that either increases or decreases group productivity. In short, the Diminisher sees himself as the expert and consequently over-controls and stifles others. On the other hand, the Mutiplier knows that many people are intelligent and will figure things out, given the opportunity. Although this requires energy, hard work and valuable time, this ultimately strengthens the organisation and adds value to the team in the long run. Depending on circumstances, both styles might well be necessary in any leader. But it is the style that predominates that will determine your brand. You have a choice.
Page 6 of 6 In conclusion, to our prize winners here tonight, I appreciate the value you have added to WBHS over your time here so far. Those of you who display the Multiplier or Energiser effect will develop a positive brand image for yourselves. We expect every boy to make consistent contributions both inside and outside the classroom, and you have generally done that in a constructive way. Many of you are in the process of nurturing a high level of emotional intelligence as well. Some still need to work on it. The challenge is now to perfect this as much as you can. I promise you that the rewards will then ultimately follow. I thank you.