2019 Leadership: Do It Better Challenge №1

Every week in 2019 on Monday, if I’m very disciplined and it isn’t a holiday, I will throw down a leadership challenge. Some will be very simple and straightforward…hand write notes of appreciation to 3 people in your company on real thank you cards and have them delivered via USPS. Some will require a little more planning on your part…hold an impromptu listening session with your team and ask them where they imagine themselves in 5 years, or where they’d like to see the company. Some will be for you…borrow or buy a book on leadership and give yourself a deadline for finishing it. Some will be strictly for someone else…ask a colleague if there’s anything you can do for them.

CHALLENGE #1: GIVE 10 COMPLIMENTS THIS WEEK

We’ll get started with a fairly easy one. This may be easier for you than it is for me. I’m not a naturally charismatic person and I tend to think people who do a good job know they do a good job and know that I know they do and appreciate their work. Really, Donna?

The details:

• Must be given to people in your company or organization, not vendors or external peers. People who look to you for leadership in some way.
• Be thoughtful and deliberate, meaning we are shooting for more than “good job”.
• Ten is the minimum. If you get started on today, it’s only two thoughtful and deliberate compliments per day.
• Ten compliments to ten different people is the goal. But if your business or organization is small, then a smaller number of people are going to get a lot of compliments from you this week!

The hoped for outcome:

We’ll all remember that supporting people with kind and affirming words is not difficult and maybe we’ll do it more often.

If this is hard for you, here’s a cheat sheet to get started:

“Thank you for answering Ann’s question about the budget so quickly. You may not have realized how confused she was; you really made her day.”

“I’m amazed when you solve a problem like you just did. No one walked away mad. Your ability to find balance is so good.”

“You never say ‘that’s not my job’. What an example you are!”

Often the opportunities to compliment are right in front of us. The skills and abilities of the people we work with are noteworthy…we simply forget to tell them.

Let us know how it went. What was the best thing you told someone? Is this new-ish behavior for you? How did it make you feel?