The Beauty of Encouragement
During my long career in communications, I’ve had the opportunity to make hiring decisions. Being a people manager has not always been my favorite thing, but there have been a few times when I have been able to bring someone onto my team, and it truly changed the group for the better.
One such hire was a young man I had worked with while he was in an entry-level position. Even before I was tasked with interviewing people for a position on our team, this young man reached out to let me know he was interested in advancing and ready to learn and take on leadership responsibilities. In my interactions with him, I had seen kindness, camaraderie with his colleagues, and a willingness to roll up his sleeves and do the work using creative problem-solving skills that are difficult to teach. During the group interview, though, he bombed. I mean, he simply fell flat. I hated it for him and even lobbied my fellow interviewers to give him another opportunity. When the interview scores were tallied, the position was offered to someone else, but a remarkable thing happened: that person turned down the job to work elsewhere. My boss asked me who I felt would be the best person for the job, and I again championed this young man. She then went to her boss and made our case. Everyone was skeptical until he had been on the job for about a month and finally saw what I had seen.
As someone who has worked in my field for more than 30 years, I’ve had opportunities to lift others along the way, to offer encouragement and help them on the path to their “what’s next.” One of my favorite things to do when I worked in an open-air office was to drop a Post-It note on my colleagues' computers at the end of the day so they would see it first thing the next morning. The notes might be something silly, like a funny face, or something happy, like “Have a happy day!” or praise for a job well done: “Your social post got so many likes — way to go!”
While I was setting an example of kindness with my team, I was also receiving kindness from leaders above me. One day, I arrived at my desk with a formal, typed note congratulating me for something I hadn’t even realized anyone had noticed.
Look around your home or office. How can you leave encouragement for others? A note on your child’s mirror, a kind word to a neighbor, a candy bar on the desk of a coworker, or a coffee gift card for your child’s teacher, encouraging them to take a moment for themselves?
Share your ways of encouraging others on social media and tag us.
