Monday Motivation: Saying Thank You
When I first started working in the US, my boss Nicole always said thank you. It didn’t matter whether I handed her the work I just completed or if she was leaving for the day. She always said thank you. I thought it was weird. I didn’t work for free. Since I was going to work voluntarily at an agreed rate, I was doing my job. Back then I had the perception you only say thank you that often if you were getting volunteer work. It wasn’t until much later until I realized the power of saying thank you. Even though I was getting paid to do a job, by Nicole saying thank you, she was acknowledging what I was doing. She was letting me know that she appreciated my efforts even though I was getting paid.
Dan Ariely put it perfectly when he describes acknowledging other people as kind of human magic. When days are so busy and so many fires need to be put out, sometimes finding and much less creating human magic seems impossible. It is until we stop for a second and say thank you.
It’s Monday!…Again! So February is way behind us now. Here we are on the first Monday of March. Most of us are right in the middle of accomplishing our goals. All the planning is done in January and February was all about getting set up.
Now it’s March and you and your team are getting things done. In the middle of all the planning, kanban boards, to-do lists, calls, meetings someone is getting things out the door delivered to a client and an item crossed off some list. Sometimes when things get very hectic (sometimes even heated) to get deliverables or deliveries out we forget to acknowledge the people we work closely with to get these things done.
