Happy Holidays!

 

May you and your family have a truly blessed Christmas and a very Happy New Year! 

The MMM will take off next week for the holidays and return on Monday, January 8^th of 2024. 

Undivided attention

 

As humans one of the greatest gifts we can give is our undivided attention. While that sounds simple, consider what it really means. With deadlines, meetings, email, texts, social media, and cell phones, how often do you really give someone your undivided attention? It is incredibly easy for our thoughts to drift to something we consider more urgent. There really should be nothing more urgent than what we are being told by our friends, peers and subordinates. 

 

Giving someone our attention allows them to speak and truly be heard. It allows them to feel positive about our relationship with them. It allows you to focus on what you are being told and learn something from their perspective. It is a foundational piece of the relationship between leader and follower. Loyal associates deserve your undivided attention. It is so vital in personal relationships. This principle is even more true at home with spouses and children! 

 

Try it out, you might learn something you and you will be appreciated!

Laugh, Think, Cry

 

“To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. Number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.”

-       Jim Valvano, ESPNs speech 1993

 

I am always reminded of this speech this time of year on ESPN. Jim Valvano was dying of cancer when he gave it. Sadly, he passed away less than two months later. If you have never heard this speech, you need to. (Easy to find on YouTube) His words of wisdom make up one of the most moving speeches of all time. It is powerful, motivating, passionate and emotional.  What if we all really experienced all three things daily?  He was right, we would have something special. 

 

Laugh, Think and Cry today…

Celebrate

 

We should celebrate things in life. Certainly birthdays, holidays, and significant accomplishments are worthy of celebration. But what about celebrations in the workplace? As leaders, we should celebrate our team, our successes, and our milestones. There is something fun about celebrating. It brings people together, sometimes people who don’t always work together or interact. Celebrations in the workplace create moments of pride. They commemorate shared successes. Events of celebration are also more casual than our normal work environment. This creates opportunities for camaraderie and relationship building. Celebrations are about people! Consider this…What gets celebrated gets repeated.

Who will you celebrate this week?