Coach’s Challenge for October 17, 2004

Good beginning of the week, everyone-

The coach’s challenge of the day is to “celebrate what you want to see more
of”. Throughout the week we often witness each other making an effort that
goes above and beyond the usual standard of a “job description”. It may be
a small gesture (over in a heart beat) or it may be one of those bigger,
more heroic gestures that makes that person’s day much tougher. Regardless
of the size of the effort, we see someone take an extra step (or 500 extra
steps)on behalf of the whole. Part of great leadership is noticing, and
acknowledging. We all have a thousand good reasons we don’t give that most
rare reward, acknowledgement- We have a meeting to go to, we don’t want a
compliment to go to someone’s head, they don’t like being the center of
attention, they’re busy right now, we just praised them last week, we don’t
want them sitting on their laurels. The bottom line is we miss an
opportunity to celebrate great work.

Aim for giving more mini doses of positive feedback right when you notice
things, in the moment. Monthly one-on-ones, annual reviews, scorecards or
periodic evaluations are all valuable formats for giving organized feedback,
but they’re not going to put the spring in our step that makes a work day
fly by. What gives us that extra boost is knowing that the people we work
with pay attention to what we do well. Acknowledging great work, however
small, inspires ownership, quality, and endurance.

“Correction does much, but encouragement does more.” Johann Goethe

“Celebrate what you want to see more of.” Thomas J Peters

Have a good week-

Kathleen