Invest a minute and show your appreciation.
Posts
Take Two Minutes Twoday!
Today is Tuesday, 2/22/22. Can anyone think of a better day to carve out two minutes of your day, and say "Thank you" to a partner, peer, coworker or friend who went out of their way to help you? If you've been paying attention, you already know that showing gratitude at work can measurable improve a team’s performance. Did you also know that "Overdoing Thank-Yous" is also shown to help improve a team's (and an organization's) psychological safety, which (wait for it) is necessary for a high performing culture? Daniel Coyle, in his book The Culture Code , states that one of the key components of the cultures of highly successful organizations is a sense of belonging. Take a few minutes and think about a really great team you've been a part of. (It could be a work team, a sports team, a school project, a community/volunteer effort, it doesn't really matter what kind of team, just a great team.) What were some of the things that made that team...
Grateful for Gratitude
I know it's an assumption, but I would still make a bet - everyone likes to receive gratitude for a job well done. That moment of clarity where another person lets you know just how much you're appreciated. It's a great feeling! It can take a cruddy day and turn it around. It can help a good day get to a great day. It's really an easy thing to do... saying "thank you" to someone who did a great job, or helped you out, or challenged you to be better at what you do. Showing genuine gratitude is a really simple but powerful tool that costs a team very little in energy or effort, but can pay off big-time in helping teams to achieve their goals. Consider research done at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania . A research team randomly divided university fund-raisers into two groups. One group made phone calls to solicit alumni donations in the same way they always had. The second group — working different days than the first grou...
Thankful - not just today - but every day!
As we approach this holiday season (and despite the fact that my personal backlog keeps getting longer instead of shorter) I feel compelled to take a moment and share a list of things for which I'm most thankful. (Cliché', I know - but deal with it... when it comes to Coach Dan, you take the corny with the good!) So without farther preamble, I present to you - Coach Dan's Top Five (agile-related) Things I'm Thankful For (in no particular order!) Shared Values, Principles and Customer Focus - I'm thankful to be able to partner with a group of people who share the same values and principles . Working with people who are equally focused on our customer and share our agile values and principles means that even when we disagree, we know where each other is coming from, and that our intent is to get to the same place. Seeing people live those shared values and principles every day makes me feel like I'm part of a...