You Can't Send a Duck to Eagle School Movie

So much of our lives gets spent trying to live up
to the images and ideas of who we think we should be.
We get these ideas from all around us:
parents, siblings, friends, neighbors, colleagues, peers, our media.
Everywhere we are bombarded with other people telling us,
who to be and how to be that person.
The thing is, that isn't who you REALLY are,
no matter how hard you may try to live up to those ideas or images.
Here's a short story video that will help make this a bit clearer..
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You Can't Send a Duck to Eagle School Movie
The first rule, when you want to employ people is this:
don’t send your ducks to eagle school.
Why? Because it won’t work.
Good people are found, not changed.
They can change themselves, but you can’t change them.
If you want good people, you have to find them.
If you want motivated people, you have to find them,
not motivate them.
1. If You Send Ducks to Eagle School, You Will Frustrate the Ducks
Let’s face it. Ducks are not supposed to be eagles,
nor do they want to become eagles.
Who they are is who they should be.
Ducks have their strengths and should be appreciated for them.

They’re excellent swimmers. They are capable of working together

in an amazing display of teamwork and travel long distances together.
Ask an eagle to swim or to migrate thousands of miles,
and it’s going to be in trouble.
Leadership is all about placing people,
in the right place so they can be successful.
As a leader, you need to know and value your people
for who they are and let them work according to their strengths.
There’s nothing wrong with ducks.
Just don’t ask them to soar or hunt from a high altitude.
It’s not what they do.
All people have strengths they can use to contribute.
All players have a place where they add the most value.
Successful people have discovered their niche.
Successful leaders help their people discover theirs.
As a leader, you should always challenge people,
to move out of their comfort zone,
but never out of their strength zone.
If people are moved out of their strength zone,
they soon won’t be in any kind of zone-comfort, strength, or effectiveness.
2. If You Send Ducks to Eagle School, You Will Frustrate the Eagles
Eagles don’t want to hang around with ducks.

They don’t want to live in a barnyard or swim in a pond.
Their potential makes them impatient with those who cannot soar.
People who are used to moving fast and flying high ,
are easily frustrated by people who want to hold them back.

3. If You Send Ducks to Eagle School, You Will Frustrate Yourself
Have you ever led people who never did rise up and fulfill your expec­tations?
No matter how much you motivated them, trained them, provided them with resources,
or gave them opportunities, they just didn’t perform
according to your expectations?
Maybe they weren’t the problem .
Maybe you were!
Ducks do what ducks do, and eagles do what eagles do.
If you take a duck and ask it to do an eagle’s job, shame on you.
As a leader, your job is to help your ducks to become better ducks
and your eagles better eagles—to put individuals in the right places
and help them reach their potential.
You shouldn’t ask someone to grow in areas where they have no natural talent.
Why? Because our ability to grow and change is very different depend­ing
on whether or not we can make choice.
In areas where we have choices, our growth potential is unlimited.
Attitude is a choice. Character is a choice. Responsibility is a choice.
So, for example, if I have a terrible attitude (—a 1 on a scale of 1 to 10—),
I can improve it all the way up to a 10 by making the right choices.
I can choose to have a great attitude.
In contrast, natural ability is not a choice.
It’s a gift you have whatever you have.
The only real choice you have is whether or not you will try to develop it.
And if you do, the growth in that area will not be as dramatic.
People can improve only about two points out often in any given talent.
Therefore, if a person is born a 3 in a given area, he may be able to become a 5,
but he’ll never go from a 3 to a 10.
So if you have someone who is a great swimmer and loves to fly in V formation,
send him to duck school.
No matter how motivated or intelligent he is, he’ll never become an eagle.
You cannot put in something that God has left out.
Know What You’re Looking For
About the question: “How do you develop good leaders?”
My answer was, “Find people who are potentially good leaders.”
As a leader, it is your responsibility to know what you’re looking for.
You need to know what qualities and characteristics are present in leaders
who are successful in your industry. Study successful leaders.
Interview people you admire.
Ask them about their development process.
Find out what they were like when they were just getting started.
The more you know about leadership, the easier it will be
to recognize a leader when you see one.
Its very important for a leader to get the right people
in the organization and put them in the right positions.
There are few things that a leader does that are more important than this.
If you need eagles in your organization,

make it your mission to search for people who possess some of the qualities
you’ve seen in other eagles.
Look high and low.
If you can’t find any potential eagles within your organization,
search for them outside of it.
In other words, if you need a great eagle, go find a potential eagle.
Only then do you have the possibility
of developing that person into a great eagle.
Don’t get a duck. No matter how much you train that person,
all you’ll receive is a “quack.”