NETWORK 4 IMPACT
  • Home
  • Polite Argument
  • Gratitude Bump
  • Network for Impact
  • Speaking/Workshops
    • Polite Argument Keynote
    • Gratitude Bump Keynote
    • Network for Impact Keynote
  • On Demand Training
    • Step I: Introductions
    • Step 2. Introducing Others
    • Launch Your Teams
  • Personal Consulting
  • Books & Articles
  • Blog
  • Youth/Parents
    • Restaurant Tips for Parents
  • Resources
    • Accent Coaches
    • Books for You
    • Consultants & Specialists
  • Contact

Blog Posts

See One. Do One. Teach One.

11/30/2024

0 Comments

 
This motto is what drives physician and other healthcare clinical training, though the method can unnerve patients - “This is the first time you are doing this?!”

But the concept of learning, doing, and then teaching makes sense. You never really know something until you articulate it to others. Teaching someone else helps you realize your full understanding.

As I promote using gratitude to improve your mental health and professional success, I also promote teaching youth these skills for their own success. What better win-win for working parents than to teach their children how to express gratitude! While improving their children's futures, parents will maximize their own Gratitude Bump™.

SEE how to express gratitude to maximize your Gratitude Bump. Learn the 4 steps to include in your expressions.

DO express it often.

TEACH your children how to do it - this helps you catch any important steps you skip. When you teach others how to follow the 4 steps, you cement the method for yourself.

Click below for your free Gratitude Bump™ card. This favorite tool of my clients who are parents gives the four essential steps that maximize your Gratitude Bump* to create your success today. Use it to teach your children while making this life-building skill a habit for yourself.

Free Gratitude Bump Card Here
Put this card on your refrigerator or mirror to help you teach your children how to maximize their Gratitude Bump* - especially during birthday or holiday seasons!

Teaching your children not only benefits them, it benefits you! You will stay focused on maximizing your own Gratitude Bump* for professional success. 
Picture
0 Comments

How to Celebrate Accomplishments

10/10/2022

0 Comments

 
How to Celebrate Accomplishments
Using Gary Chapman’s 5 love languages to celebrate your teams.


You want to thank your team for their hard work on a special project. Should you throw a party? Give gift cards? A day off? Different people receive acts of appreciation differently. The way to maximize the impact of your recognition is to know your team and know what they like. Gary Chapman’s The 5 Love Languages spells out 5 simple ways people feel appreciated and can help reveal how to reward and motivate your team. His context is family relationships, but his lessons translate well to the work environment. Chapman identifies the love languages as
  • Acts of Service
  • Receiving Gifts
  • Words of Affirmation
  • Quality Time
  • Physical Touch

​The latter two, of course, require careful consideration when adapting to the work environment. Some of these create the best impact when combined, as you will see.

THE FIVE LOVE LANGUAGES AT WORK

1. Acts of Service

Acts of service include doing tasks for someone that alleviates their burden, even if lightly. For these people, bringing them a cup of coffee, or bringing their mail to them warms their heart. They might provide acts of service to others to show their gratitude (unless they are just savvy at identifying Acts of Service as another’s love language), and will show genuine pleasure when you or others perform acts of service for them.
If your team worked hard providing financial data needed to close a merger but their regular month-end data is outstanding, steps you personally take to facilitate that effort is helpful and meaningful to the Acts of Service crowd.  

Note: simply hiring someone else to relieve them of their work is nice, and a gift on its own, but lacks the same meaning to this group of people as if you did it yourself. It is the personal extension of your own time and effort that has meaning for them.

Say your juicing store held an event that kept your team outside serving customers. Starting on what would normally be their inside cleanup shows your gratitude for their effort, and means the world to Acts of Service types. As they wrap up their big project outside, you can share a thank you and say you cleaned up inside so they are free to go. Be sure to communicate that you did that as a thank you to them to get the full impact (otherwise they might think that your cleaning up inside is the new normal for big events).

Other acts of service include:
  • cleaning up a break room
  • returning books or files to the library or storage room
  • washing cars (this one always seems to get a big response)
  • putting a room back in order after a meeting
  • bringing food/coffee for others without being asked
  • hosting a meal you prepare (anyone for BBQ?)

Basically, doing any work you might think is beneath you will bolster the morale of your team and is considered an act of service.

Make sure your act of service is an act of service rather than an act of self-indulgence. The point of your focus should be not on your ego but on your team’s sense of feeling appreciated and celebrated.

2. Receiving Gifts

Token gifts of gratitude demonstrate thoughtfulness and are often stored like trophies. The Receiving Gifts lover is easy to identify as their desk or office is likely full of proudly displayed memorabilia with associated stories eagerly shared when asked; they might wear necklaces, lapel pins, or cufflinks that are mementos from special events or people. Things carry the importance of the giver and the story behind them. The more personal the gift, the more meaning it carries.

If your team is small, or you are thanking just one person for their effort, an individual gift will easily suit that person. Keeping consistency among team members though, helps to reinforce the team identity, so be sure to balance this focus.

Gifts can be delivered in a way to give them greater meaning. A public speech when granting a gift, or a personal note accompanying it will deepen the meaning for the recipient. When coupled with another Love Language (Words of Affirmation or Quality Time), the impact of the gift can be quite powerful. 

3. Words of Affirmation

Affirmation or praise can powerfully impact this group. If you see someone smile, blush, or express deep gratitude in response to praise, this might be someone whose love language is Words of Affirmation. Words of affirmation take two forms: private and public.

Public affirmations make the person you are recognizing feel appreciated, and shows the team how you value that person. This helps the team learn to value each other. The award of most valuable player is a public recognition at the close of a game or season. The award helps other players identify what it takes to become the most valuable player. Granting the award comes with a description of why the person won it, with concrete examples of their behavior that made them valuable. For people who cherish Words of Affirmation, creating their moment in the sun gives them a boost for years to come. Combining words of affirmation with a physical gift of a plaque or other memento helps to memorialize the valued words.

Private affirmations are helpful to reinforce what you have shared in public, and not all words of praise need or should be shared publicly. A quick one-on-one chat in passing can include a brief expression of appreciation that will motivate this worker for time to come. A reply to any report or communication that includes appreciate for the effort your team member contributed goes a long way to their feeling appreciated.

4. Quality Time (use with caution)

We have all seen it. The favorite associate being taken to lunch by the V.P.; casual conversations in the boss’s office where there is laughter and storytelling – clear bonding. These interactions can smack of favoritism for reasons other than performance, but also create opportunities for the boss to learn from the team. Yet Quality Time folks see such time as proof that they are important and are valued and can benefit you when used wisely.

Thus, such time is helpful when shared equally. At an event, take time to interact with each team member (when possible). Visit each table, making eye contact and interacting with each person present at the table. If the event is too big, add smaller team events where you can interact more closely. In a public space, you can still create one-on-one conversations with good eye contact and respectful posture to build connection. If shared over a meal, all the better. Including different team members in your golf round at the annual retreat works, too. Ensure that your behavior and circumstances are strictly professional and not misinterpreted.

Know your team before launching expensive celebrations. Company-wide parties are sometimes perceived as wasteful, being so broadly shared that they lack personal gratitude. Ensure any large group gathering serves the purpose of celebrating those team members you want to feel appreciated, and does not appear to be your personal party for your own friend circle.

If you want to treat team members to special outings, follow these tips to keep Quality Time effective and professional:
  • Arrange small group rather than individual outings to reduce the risk of sexual harassment claims
  • Use professional environments and activities only
  • Interact equally – and professionally – with all team members
  • Maintain high visibility for these events, both in their calendaring and execution

If you only take individual team members of your own gender on one-on-one events, you risk creating resentment or subjecting yourself to hostile environment claims. Ensure the access you create for some is appropriate for all, and then provide it to all.

5. Physical touch (use with extreme caution)

People who respond to physical touch find a sense of connection and bonding, which makes them feel a sense of belonging and appreciation. This love language is most often addressed in romantic relationships, making it a sensitive topic for the professional environment.
​
Professionally, handshakes are the safest and most effective method of communicating gratitude through touch. A hearty handshake with good eye contact and words of appreciation will carry great weight with those who value physical touch. At the close of a big project, handshakes all around are a great idea. Be sure to make the most of that moment by making eye contact, smiling, and expressing your gratitude and congratulations. With people we see daily in the office, we rarely use gestures in our greetings, which can give them greater significance at the close of a project.

Avoid saying “I’m a hugger,” and expecting others to welcome your hugs. Handshakes are the safest form of touching in a professional environment. If someone responds to your attempt to shake hands by presenting a fist bump, high five, hand-on-heart, or other, more limited gesture, respect that gesture and respond in kind. If your goal is to express gratitude and create a bond, responding to their gesture will be most effective at reaching that goal.

COMBINE LOVE LANGUAGES FOR EFFECT
​
As you learn your team’s love languages, you can create moments of celebration that check off everyone’s need to be appreciated. Margaret Thatcher used to cook dinner for her ministers in her home. I know other leaders who BBQ dinner for their teams, donning an apron to serve others. But acts of service can include personally arranging something they would appreciate. You can include a public toast recognizing each team member, use individual conversations throughout the night, and send people home with a special thank you gift and heartfelt handshake, and you will have touched every team member’s needs in some form. The better you know your team’s love languages, the more closely you can tailor the event to making them feel appreciated. 

********

Once you recognize the need to celebrate your team, Identifying the love languages of your team members will help you celebrate and motivate them. Creating moments where several languages can be combined to express gratitude and appreciation, as part of a team celebration, improves talent retention through bonding.
Picture
Megan Mayer celebrates a successful year with her 2020-2021 team. She treated them to a lunch where they shared reflections on the year and she shared special contributions each team member brought to the team. Throughout the year, she sent gifts in the mail to team members, such as a box of ginger bread mix, since they could not meet in person. Gifts of sunscreen might have been nice for this lunch! A volunteer group (not an employment relationship), everyone hugged as we departed.
0 Comments

Highly Stressed and Highly Depressed – Onboarding Today’s New Hires Requires New Approaches

6/16/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
​Highly Stressed and Highly Depressed
Onboarding Today’s New Hires Requires New Approaches.

An increasing number of young adults struggle when adjusting to new work environments. These 4 steps will help your new hires succeed.

The United Nations and the World Health Organization warn that emerging adults will suffer increasing mental health issues for the next 10 years. Adjusting HR practices will improve the onboarding of new hires.

Four important steps will help these new hires succeed in your organization: know your audience, reset expectations, deliver bite-sized instructions, and repeat often.

1. Know your audience

Employers have complained that over the last 20 years, new hires have worsened at adjusting to professional workplaces, showing difficulty engaging with colleagues, clients, and supervisors. The Coronavirus pandemic grossly accelerated this trend by increasing the percentage of youth and young adults experiencing mental health issues.

  • In 2021, the US Surgeon General warned that youth were experiencing devastating mental health effects from challenges of their generation. In 2022, the World Health Organization and United Nations reiterated these concerns, noting that emerging adults were suffering at a global level, especially among vulnerable subgroups.
 
  • Emerging adults experience tragedies more concretely and immediately than older adults. Mass shootings (often at schools), fires and floods, food and water shortages, and political crises all stress this demographic more severely than older adults.
 
  • A new population of high school and middle school students has arisen since the pandemic: those who performed well before the pandemic but now cannot get out of bed to attend school. Many can’t even attend online classes.

If you hire young adults, know that an increasing percentage of your candidates experience stress and depression, and that this trend will continue for a decade.

2. Reset expectations

Rather than seeking candidates with high achievements and accolades, we will do better to focus on those who have developed skills for adapting and learning.

  • On a resume or cover letter, candidates who describe how they achieved a goal rather than simply listing their accomplishments are more likely to succeed in a new organization.
 
  • In an interview, candidates who share with pride how they accomplished a goal, how they adjusted to adversity, or how they resolved conflict are more likely to succeed in a new work environment.

Unlike achievements, skills are transferable, repeatable, and directly applicable to your organization. Skills reflect adaptability and the ability to learn, increasing a candidate’s likelihood of success. Skills indicate the ability to recreate success in a new environment.

3. Deliver bite-sized instructions

Clarify those basic assumptions you think needn’t be said; spell them out in small, simple steps.
  • Instead of, “I want you to meet these people,”
 
  • Be more specific. “I want you to join our client meeting. Be sure to introduce yourself to each person in the room and make them feel special. Take good notes because you will join this team. Do you need to grab something to take notes?”

Clearly stating expected behavior before its execution helps new hires focus their behavior. You are giving them two jobs: to make good introductions and to learn about the client. You did so by breaking those two jobs down into three simple actions:

  • introduce yourself
  • make the clients feel special
  • take good notes

For those already performing well, your primary objectives are clear. For those who need help executing this expected behavior, they have opportunity to perform. For new hires who simply cannot perform, they will still not perform. Thus, you are not propping up those who should not be in the role, you are simply helping those who can perform do so smoothly and quickly.

4. Repeat these instructions often

After the meeting, provide feedback on their efforts. Affirming what you liked always helps. Avoid negative feedback unless something must be addressed.
  • “It looked like their Marketing Manager enjoyed speaking with you – well done connecting with her.”
  • “I saw you taking notes; great job.”

For future meetings, provide quick reminders and then shift to having the new hire present to you their meeting goals. These repetitions will train them to self-manage their preparation.

*****
Health experts warn us that for several years coming, emerging adults will struggle adjusting to new environments. Modifying onboarding will increase success:

  • Know your demographic
  • Reset expectations
  • Give instructions in bite-sized pieces
  • Repeat often

When executed well, onboarding will bring out the best in our emerging adults, helping them contribute in unique and masterful ways.
0 Comments

    Megan Mayer
    Chair, NFI

    Sharing insights that create your success.

    Archives

    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    June 2024
    November 2023
    August 2023
    December 2022
    October 2022
    August 2022
    June 2022
    August 2021

    Categories

    All
    Celebrations
    Communication
    Gratitude Bump
    Healthcare
    Leadership
    Network For Impact
    Networking
    Parenting
    Polite Argument
    Professional Success
    Team Building

    RSS Feed

Network for Impact and Carmel Cotillions, LLC  -  PO Box 162, Pebble Beach, California 93953  -  [email protected]   -  (949) 838-5896​
Contact us for more information or use the Calendly link to schedule a free introductory meeting.
*The terms POLITE ARGUMENT, GRATITUDE BUMP, and NETWORK FOR IMPACT are proprietary terms with trademark pending; unauthorized use is prohibited.  

Use of our services constitutes consent and permission for Network for Impact's use of your digital image for educational or marketing purposes, and waiver of any rights or claims thereto. 
Portions of our live programming will be recorded with photos and videos.  By attending these events, you consent to the use of your recorded likeness for educational and publicity purposes of Network for Impact and Carmel Cotillions, LLC, without financial compensation or editorial control. The advice provided by Network for Impact and Megan Mayer does not guarantee desired employment or salary outcomes. 
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Polite Argument
  • Gratitude Bump
  • Network for Impact
  • Speaking/Workshops
    • Polite Argument Keynote
    • Gratitude Bump Keynote
    • Network for Impact Keynote
  • On Demand Training
    • Step I: Introductions
    • Step 2. Introducing Others
    • Launch Your Teams
  • Personal Consulting
  • Books & Articles
  • Blog
  • Youth/Parents
    • Restaurant Tips for Parents
  • Resources
    • Accent Coaches
    • Books for You
    • Consultants & Specialists
  • Contact