Friday I’m in love

Heart And Hustle
Jul 21, 2017 · 3 min read

In the stand-up conference room, I had four more employees waiting for me. This time it would be smoother and easier. I had made the decision that I would share different responses to the same questions I had posed to the previous group. I didn’t want things to be stale as I was aware that employees were already talking about last week’s gathering.

We started and then I realized one employee didn’t know the names of two others in the group. It was awkward, but considering I had already been maxed out in that area by the gym incident repeating itself previously in the morning, I pushed forward. At this point, it was far more interesting for me to deal with another person’s awkwardness and a group’s response to it. The questions get answered and the group appears to be nervous but responding well.

One employee, in particular that I picked, was the first hired at the company. I was not part of that process. When the company was smaller and we all worked together much more closely, the employee and I had more interaction. As the company has grown, the employee does the work but certainly doesn’t appear engaged. Noted in numerous ways by their co-workers, the employee is nice but not necessarily part of the team.

I have encouraged everyone to look at my calendar. No one ever does… with one exception… this employee. This signals to me that they are paying attention. I specifically floated some personal information in answering the questions that I knew I had shared pieces of with this employee early on. I wanted to see how they responded. They made it clear to the group that they were in the know. They also shared with everyone how they met the co-founder which easily lead the discussion into how they were the first person hired in the company. Their value-set was showing up loud and clear. I don’t know what all this means yet but the data points exist.

The group finished with smiles and I began processing as I walked back to my office. I hear my name and I turn around. It was the employee that didn’t know the other’s names. They were asking me follow up questions about a topic that I shared. We stood in the middle of the development department talking and I was aware that others were listening. I made the choice to continue. This employee highly values when others show respect to them. I knew I was making a statement. Plus, I happen to genuinely enjoy the topic.

My day continued until a Slack message appears from the same employee I had spoken with in the development department. They went further to research the topic and sent me some information. They were connecting with me and I found it endearing. Then in the sprint review the first employee hired smiled when we made eye contact. I live in the world of interpersonal details and little things matter. Where all this is going, I have no idea because right now my brain is working on overdrive. However, I am very certain that I love my Friday group initiate!

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Heart And Hustle

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Documenting my HR journey within a startup…

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