How did you feel about the week?
How you feel is important. I mean 'really feel'. Feeling knackered is one thing. Feeling tired is another. Feeling exhausted is not good. Feeling ready for next week? Don't go there?
How we feel is a big part of how we make others feel. If you are a boss, do you make people feel good and proud of what they do? If you are not the boss, do you make the people you work with feel good about being around you.
If you are the boss's boss, do you bully down and manage up... that's toxic, or do you make a real and sustained effort to 'feel' the front line?
How do you make people feel?
Do you remember everyone's name? That makes them feel good. It's a real skill. Giving someone a friendly nickname; 'Mr. Chelsea' or 'The Tweet Queen'... is fun and if the workplace isn't fun, what is it?
Struggling for a name, using sanitised, impersonal sentences is as obvious as the smell of carbolic.
Ask someone to show you how to do something. An explanation can make people feel valued and good about sharing their knowledge. How to work a piece of software, drop a Pivot Table into Excel, upload a picture or advice on the best route to a meeting. Simple everyday things to ask about, making people feel valued and part of your day.
Show people you are listening. Repeat back something they say. Simple, isn't it? Show an interest, make eye contact, be involved. Management is not a spectator sport.
Make a real effort to understand the world through someone else's eyes. Do you really understand the worries of finding good, safe, reliable, flexible child care? Do you really understand what it's like to have to depend on the bus to get you to work on time, all the time, every time... and when it doesn't... Can you put yourself in the shoes of someone who goes home, after a long, hard day, to caring duties?
You can't judge people through the window of your life, you have to see it through theirs. Do you know their partner's name, their kids and family circumstances?
People bring 'themselves' to work as well as their professional skills. It's what makes them who they are. If they are struggling outside work, it can make them what they don't want to be, inside work.
We don't manage nurses, or finance people, or groups. We manage people with the same hopes, dreams, problems, rows, issues, financial pressures and aggravation that you have.
Say thank you. Say well done. If someone does a good job, tell them and let everyone know you've told them.
The great skill in management is handling people. Giving them time and space to develop, perform and deliver. People can be brave, resourceful, innovative and amazing. They can also be frail, confused, fearful and uninspired.
We bring ourselves to work. What we take home depends on what happens to us during the day. It's in the gift of us all to make each day a new day, take the best of yesterday and build it into a better tomorrow.
We just need more best bits...
The fear that a bad yesterday might repeat itself today, keeps us focussed on the past and worried about the future.
The question for us all is what did I do today; say today, let go today, forgive today, challenge today, inspire today, turn my back on today, cheer today, reward today that will plant the seeds of a better tomorrow.
Have a good weekend but think about making Monday, special.
