By Sara Ballenger

“Saying thank you is important,” Barry Posner told the audience at the annual Los Altos Mountain View Parent-Teachers Association Council luncheon, May 22.

Posner, the first ever guest speaker at the event, is the Dean of the Leavey School of Business and professor of leadership at Santa Clara University.

“We need recognition and encouragement to do our best,” Posner said. “We work better, longer and harder for people we like. The same is true for teachers. We like people because of how they make us feel.”

Posner said the reason people stay in jobs, even if they have to take a cut in pay or may not have the best of benefits, is because of the relationships they have with other people in the workplace.

“What could be more rewarding than being in education? What we do makes a difference,” he said. “To learn, grow and develop on the job enables us to be all that we can be. We should try to do that with every student we educate.”

Posner said it’s the little things people can do for one another in the workplace or in the classroom that can make a difference.

“We can’t do it alone. We need to appreciate who we are and what we do,” he said. “Find someone to give a genuine thank-you to. Doing that will bring a smile to their face and what goes around comes around.”

After Posner spoke, the MV-LA PTA Council presented its Continuing Service Award to Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District board member Judy Hannemann. The council also presented its spring 2002 Egan Scholarships to teachers in the Mountain View and Los Altos schools, recognized retiring teachers, installed the council’s new officers for the 2002-03 school year and gave special recognition to retiring Assistant Superintendent Dick Liewer.