Skip to main content

Thank You! Challenge

By
How many times a day do you say "thank you?"  How many times a day do you hear "thank you?"  As I started teaching my toddler son to say "please" and "thank you" I realized that I began saying it more even when he was not around.  Then it occurred to me that I hadn't been saying it enough.  So I started saying it even more around others.

And then I had an experience where a simple thank you changed a person's attitude (for the good).  And I realized the power of a simple thank you in a work environment (as a federal employee) where morale seems to be at an all-time low (at least in the fifteen years I've been around) and people seem quick to snap at one another and "say" things (either in person or via e-mail) that you never would have heard in the workplace twenty years ago.  (And no, this is not a generational issue as it is all generations I am hearing it from.)

After last Friday, just another day of serving as everyone's verbal whipping post, (the joy of being at the bottom of the hill things roll down) I decided that I wanted to try something new this week.  And I'm hoping you will join me and invite others to join.

Think for a minute, what would a day be like if you thanked every person with whom you came in contact.  Not just the ones who give you what you want or are nice to you.  Could you do it?  And not the sarcastic sneer of "thank you" that really means you should be nicer.  A sincere thank you.  Are you up for the challenge?

Here are the rules:


  1. For twenty-four hours you must thank every person with whom you come in contact at least once.  (You can thank them more but no need to get carried away with those you see all day.)
  2. Each thank you must be spontaneous, sincere, and specific.  "Thank you" doesn't count.  "Wow, thank you for such friendly service!" and "Thank you so much for inviting me to lunch with you." do count.  
  3. You can Facebook or Tweet your "thank you's" using the hashtag #thankyouchallenge and they will show on the right side of this blog.  
I'll let you know how tomorrow goes, please share your experiences with me as well!




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What an Extraverted Intuitive Needs to be Productive

By
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is based on the work of Swiss psychiatrist Carl G. Jung. Jung observed that people have inborn preferences for gathering information and making decisions and that these preferences guide an individual’s behavior. The mother/daughter team of Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers expanded on Jung’s theories and created an assessment to make the combined work accessible to all individuals. Today, the assessment is used by most Fortune 100 companies and over two million people worldwide, annually. The assessment identifies an individual’s inborn preferences on four dichotomous scales: where you focus your energy, how you prefer to take in information, how you make decisions, and how you deal with the outer world. Type is best used to understand other people, improve communication, and develop individual skills. The first dichotomy is Extraversion (gets energy from other people) and Introversion (gets energy from reflection).  The second...
1 comment
Read more

What is True Self Awareness and Why is Important for Personal/Professional Development?

By
You know my opinion that when it comes to professional development , you get out of a program what you put into it.  So now you get my opinion on the single most important element of personal/professional development. 
SELF AWARENESS 
 What is it?  Self awareness is knowing your strengths and how to maximize them, knowing your weaknesses and how to buffer them, knowing that you have blind spots and being open to feedback about them, and being willing to do the necessary reflection and work to constantly improve yourself. I have observed so many people in leadership development programs (1 hour to 18 month) listen to an amazing instructor describe an action, reaction, or career derailer and immediately speak up and identify someone else who has that quality.  You would not believe how often, that person has the same quality.  However, they often even follow up with because of my experience working with that person I make a point to not do this.  Awkward....
Post a Comment
Read more

Your Personal Plan - Part 1

By
Every January 1 there is a rush to make New Year's Resolutions.  I don't know about you, but a list of resolutions never seems to stick for me.  In the training and development area we are constantly talking about Executive and Individual Development Plans.  I will be honest, I can really get into these with a client.  But, I don't have one in the form I recommend.  Is this part of do what I say, not what I do?  Maybe.  Maybe not. I've been thinking that one plan for what you want to accomplish at work and one for home and one for your volunteer work can be as aggravating (and ultimately useless) as trying to maintain a paper calendar at work, an outlook calendar, a hanging calendar on the fridge at home, and a google calendar for your extracurriculars. I think what we really need is a one-stop shopping personal plan that merges everything you do now and everything you want to achieve in the next five years (or whatever time period you are using). ...
Post a Comment
Read more