节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2014-03-04
难易度:High
关键字:spotlight, flawless, authenticity, trench
Hello, everyone.
My name is Gabe.
And my name is Carolyn.
Welcome to Studio Classroom.
We are beginning the second part of a lesson discussing leadership called A New
View of Leaders.
This is an important subject as it's important to think about the assumptions
you have about what a good leader is.
And we believe many of you will become leaders if you are not already.
So what view do you have of good leadership?
Let's get right into another false assumption about leaders: Leaders deserve the
credit for their team's success.
Let's read it now.
(Music).
A New View of Leaders.
Leaders deserve the credit for their team's success.
When a company achieves great success, its CEO is usually the person who
receives media attention.
But without the hard work of teammates behind the scenes, that success wouldn't
have happened.
The best leaders recognize people that deserve praise and share the spotlight
with them.
Leaders should maintain a flawless public image.
Leaders can be good at giving the impression that they're perfect.
In today's business environment, however, there's pressure for authenticity
among leaders.
They need to be genuine and admit their mistakes.
This allows them to build trust more easily with staff members.
While leaders should avoid disclosing overly personal details, they should also
set an example in terms of being real.
(Chinese).
Thanks, Michelle.
We just read about two false assumptions about leaders.
The first one is leaders deserve the credit for their team's success.
Of course when you do something great, you deserve to be recognized.
You deserve credit for what you did.
Credit is when others recognize you or give you approval for something that you
did.
You might have noticed a similar word later in the same section: praise.
Often we use these words in the same way.
Right. You deserve the credit for writing that song, or you deserve the praise
for writing that song.
Well, there's a phrase people sometimes use to talk about giving someone credit:
give credit where credit is due.
That's right. You recognize someone's contribution or ability.
If someone wrote a song for your company, don't just say the company wrote it.
Give credit where credit is due.
Put the song writer's name down.
Or maybe a person is not the best in every way, but you still want to recognize
something good they did.
How could you use this phrase?
Let's say we are talking about our friend Herbie.
Herbie, seriously?
Yes... you know, he was very helpful in our project.
Yeah, but he gets angry easily, and he talks too much.
Well, give credit where credit is due.
He organized our project and did a lot of the work.
OK. So as you can see, you can recognize someone for doing something or you can
recognize someone's strength.
But back to the lesson, we read that when a company achieves great success, its
CEO is usually the person who receives media attention.
That makes sense because the CEO is the one in charge making all the decisions.
Yes. But without the hard work of teammates behind the scenes, that success
wouldn't have happened.
We have a lot to look at from this sentence.
First, let's take a look at the phrase: behind the scenes.
If you are a part of working behind the scenes, then the public does not see
what you do.
We use this phrase a lot in the theater or in film-making.
You can see the actors on stage or in a movie, so you know who is in the scene.
But you don't necessarily know who else is working so hard to create that drama
or movie.
Right. And while there are some people who the public knows, most people work
behind the scenes.
For example, on the program Studio Classroom, you may see five to six people
daily,
but there are many people working behind the scenes who you never see, from our
director to the cameramen to the editors.
Not to mention all of the people in other departments you don't see.
They are working behind the scenes to keep Studio Classroom running, and so of
course it's important to recognize everyone who contributes to a project.
Well, someone you do see every day is Liz.
She works a lot behind the scenes, but she's also on our show every day.
Let's join her in the Grammar Gym right now.
Welcome to the Grammar Gym, friends.
My name is Liz.
Here's today's Grammar Tip sentence:
But without the hard work of teammates behind the scenes, that success wouldn't
have happened.
Our focus today is on the sentence pattern: But without [something] ..., ... [a
situation] wouldn't have happened.
This is an easy yet useful sentence pattern to use when someone wants to show
appreciation,
like for example, when you want to tell people that a certain situation happened
all because of something.
So today's sentence just means there wouldn't be success if there weren't these
teammates behind the scenes with all their hard work.
OK, let's have a look at some example sentences.
But without the watchful care of the hospital staff, Sarah's recovery wouldn't
have happened so quickly.
Or: But without the diligence and dedication of everyone on our team, winning
first place wouldn't have happened.
So give this sentence pattern a try.
Think of something that is the reason why a good situation happened, and
practice using this sentence pattern.
And if you'd like to see some more example sentences, they're available in
today's Grammar Tip section in your magazine.
That's it for today.
This is Liz from the Grammar Gym.
See you next time.
Thanks, Liz.
Well, we see a phrase here in this next section that good leaders share the
spotlight with those who worked behind the scenes.
What does that mean?
Well, a spotlight is something you use in a stage show to put the light only on
one spot or place.
Often this puts the focus on one person or thing.
If you are "in the spotlight," that means everyone is focusing on you.
So can you share your spotlight?
If you share the spotlight with someone or a group of other people, that means
you want everyone to focus on them as well.
All right. Now it's time to move on to the next assumption that many people have
of leaders.
And I like that our article mentions this one: Leaders should maintain a
flawless public image.
Hmm, we learned about someone's public image last month, remember?
Kyuhyun from Super Junior had the public image of being a good student.
Well, some people think all leaders' public images should be flawless.
If something is flawless, it has no flaws.
It's perfect.
And of course we all know nobody is perfect.
So if you are a leader, why pretend like you are perfect?
It's much better to know how to say "I am sorry" if you made a mistake than to
pretend like you never make mistakes.
But let's go back to that first sentence where we read leaders can be good at
giving the impression that they're perfect.
When you give the impression of something, that means you do something so that
others will think of you in a certain way.
OK. For example, I went scuba diving in Australia last year.
And the tour guide gave us the impression that he loved to connect with people
and talk with us.
But when I went to talk with him one-on-one, the feeling was very different.
I didn't feel like he respected me that much.
Well, sometimes an impression can be false.
Other times people give impressions that are authentic or true.
And it's important for leaders to admit their mistakes and set examples of being
real.
Being real is another way of saying having authenticity.
Hmm. Well, I just want to be real with you, I think we should take a sneak peek
at something we'll read after the break.
It's another view of leaders to look at.
Right.
We see our last assumption there, which is that leaders should be confident and
never express doubt.
What do you think about that, Gabe?
Well, I think it's true, leaders should be confident most of the time,
and they should have a supportive team, especially for those times that they are
not confident about something.
But what about doubt?
Should they be able to express doubt?
Yeah, I think so.
And our article suggests how - by asking questions.
For example, the question we see here is: Can we do this?
Now why does this question express doubt?
Because the opposite approach is to say we can do it.
When you ask "Can we do this?" then a possible answer is no.
Sometimes this is better for your team because when there is a question, it
allows them to be creative with answers.
Right you are.
So, your whole team can work together to come up with solutions.
OK. Well, that's all for now.
But come back for more afterthis.