Focus on the Good: Lifting Others Up in Their Lowest Moments

There are so many good reasons to communicate with site visitors. Tell them about sales and new products or update them with tips and information.This morning I took a short walk out my back door and onto the 12th fairway of the golf course we live on. The sun was bright, the cool crisp 35-degree air nipped at my ear lobes. I strolled up the green grass, yes the grass is green here in Georgia and took in the surroundings of the course. Not a soul in site and the only sound was the cars in the distant traveling north and south on I-75. I was not thinking about the game of golf, I was just taking a few minutes to connect with nature and the beauty of the moment. As I walked back up the hill to our yard, I could not help but to chuckle over the fact that nobody was on the course. You see, I lived most of my years in Michigan, and if we had a morning like this in March, where you could see the grass, the sun was out bright and the temps over 35, the golf courses would have been bustling with players. Office buildings would be short a member or two and there would be business being done at the course. Why is it that I would have no interest to even think about playing a round of golf in this weather in Georgia, yet in Michigan, I would have been one of the first ones to get a group together to play? We get so used to our surrounding environment that we shift our ways of life. We get spoiled by things that we take for granted and forget the obstacles that we once dealt with happily in other places. The things that could not hold us back in once place become stifling in another. The same goes for the culture in your office. During my years in radio, I worked in many different markets, many different stations and of course, many different cultures. There were positive, negative, sales oriented, program-oriented, and some that were a mixture of both. I had General Managers who were brought up through the ranks of being a disc-jockey and those that came out of sales. Each one brought a new and different approach and in turn, we had to be flexible. The key to longevity and success was being able to navigate through the different environments. In my world today, in Dale Carnegie, I get to listen to our participants talk about their work environments, their obstacles of navigation. The stories can be joyous or heartbreaking, though some handle both ends better than others. We know that employee engagement is driven by three major points, your relationship with your supervisor, your belief in senior leadership and the pride one has in the organization. Now even if you click on all three it is not a guarantee of strong employee engagement, ultimately that is up to the individual. What it does do is help to create an atmosphere that is conducive to positive employee engagement. Culture is defined as, the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization. Work Culture…how is yours?