It’s good to connect with people who value our value. To connect with colleagues, friends, or past clients. Sometimes, it’s important to look back and appreciate the work we’ve done, and not be future stressed. Like you, I spend much of my time in future mode; it’s all about what’s next – the next potential client, the proposal, the sale, the delivery of services. The brief celebration of a job well done and then on to the next round in the cycle. It’s exciting, but it’s exhausting. And when we’re exhausted it’s not so easy to stay positive. As we round the corner to the end of the year, a friend asked me this morning, “How do you stay positive?” I thought about it and replied to reflect my immediate mindset today.
Staying Positive – First thing for me is routine; get out of bed in the morning, exercise to get those endorphins flowing and show up at my office. Make contact with the outside world; peers, friends, clients, etc. Ultimately, each of us has a personal bias or disposition, an overall sense of positive vs. negative. Are you a cup half-empty or half-full type of person? That’s an important question to answer. I’m definitely a cup half-full person, so I like to partner with people who may balance my enthusiasm with a bit of devil’s advocate approach. Knowing your own style will help you build an effective team around you. To drill a bit deeper on this – There are certain people I go to for advice when I’m concerned I may need to put on the brakes and consider the down side or potential for failure. And there are the cheerleader types I need to call when I’m not centered around my usual cup half-full self. A diverse team with open communication energizes us and makes each of us more efficient.
The folks in the picture above are from PulteGroup legal services. The attorneys (bosses) and support staff (para-legals & admin) had wildly different group personalities. I’ll let you guess which group was cup half-full! But most importantly, these people function wonderfully as a combined team.
Value Your Value
The holidays are upon us and you should plan time to celebrate with your team. Either informally, or with us, the Kidbilly Music Crew. We make a great holiday gift!