The Happy Burro

It is Thanksgiving in the United States and Canada today (and probably a few other countries that I am unaware of).

This typically means a turkey dinner with family and friends if you’re lucky.  And living in the USA, many of us are lucky, by comparison to others.

What are you Thankful for?

Think this one through.  Are you thankful you have a job?  Are you thankful you received a decent severance when you were laid off so you could re-group and find something better? What about the neighbor who shoveled your walk during the last ice storm? Or the colleague who always has a kind word and a ‘hello’ for you - not knowing how that moment energized your entire day. Are you thankful your dog doesn’t bite you when you feed it?  Thanks doesn’t need to be big, small, poignant or touching to anyone but you.  What are you thankful for?

Tell It Loud and Proud

Thanksgiving is an opportunity to be thankful we’re here today.  Maybe yesterday wasn’t great, and tomorrow could be looking bleak, but we have a chance to sit still for a moment and count our blessings, many or few.

The key is to tell about what we’re thankful for.  If you’re thankful for your job, tell your boss.  If you’re thankful for reconnecting with a friend, tell them!  Thankful for the coffee your spouse leaves for you in the morning?  Try telling him/her with a ‘thanks’!  Even the family dog - tell him/her that you appreciate the tail wags at all hours of the day or night.

I am thankful for the beautiful daughter my wife carried for nine months and delivered this past July.  I am off right now to tell them both how thankful I am!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Joe Raasch :: Nov.27.2008 :: Life, Personal :: No Comments »

Motivation is sometimes where you find it.  Could be a book, an article in a journal, a conversation, a random blog post that you stumbled across in an errant Google search.

Formalizing motivation is a bit harder.  Are there motivational ideas that you regularly tap and employ at work?  We all have shelves of books that motivated us at some time, but what about now? Do you have a poem or quote that always gets you fired up about your work?  Or do you rely on Starbucks for that.

Click HERE for a video of Dalton Sherman, a 10-year-old student in the Dallas public schools, addressing  teachers and staff at the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year.

All organizations, all of us, need to have an inspirational, motivational resource that never fails to bring us to the core of what we’re employed to do and gets at the essence of our organization’s mission.  One may say it is easy in public service to connect to the mission.  After all, who could not be inspired by Dalton’s speech?  That sense of mission and purpose may not easily translate into selling widgets.  But it should.  If you truly WANT to be motivated at work, how are you going to connect your daily grind to the mission of your organization?  If you do not have a Dalton Sherman to help you, and you are going to stay at your company (see more here on that), try believing.  In yourself, your team, your CEO.

Ask These Questions

I have these questions on a wall in my office:

Do you believe in ALL students?

Do you believe in your colleagues?

Do you believe in the Superintendent?

Do you believe in the school staff?

Do you believe in me?

With a few key word changes, these questions can be on your wall too.

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What do people at your company believe?  What do YOU believe?

Joe Raasch :: Oct.31.2008 :: Employee Engagement, Leadership, Life, Personal :: 3 Comments »

“In times of crisis, give help first, then advice.”

Seems like a simple, easy to follow quote.  Ever catch yourself giving advice first?

Here is an example:

Your friend routinely skips breakfast.  By 1pm each day, he is ravenously hungry.  You stop by his office to ask a question and there he is, eating pretzels by the handful.  He starts to choke, and is visibly scared.

You could:

A - start lecturing him…”See what happens when you skip breakfast?…you always eat so fast at lunch it is no small wonder this hasn’t happened before!”

B - help him stop choking right away.

Think about this when a colleague has trouble at work finishing an assignment.  Assisting in finishing a PowerPoint presentation may not be a life-threatening situation - but it can feel like it to the person that is “choking.”

Help first, then advice.

Joe Raasch :: Oct.03.2008 :: Employee Engagement, Leadership, Personal :: No Comments »