This Is Your Mission, If You Choose to Accept It!

Every morning at 8:10, I “huddle” with my staff to discuss plans for the day. Most of the time, it doesn’t take long to assign new clients, go over reports, and share schedules. One morning though, they started discussing certain challenges from the previous day, and before I knew it – the whole atmosphere in the room had changed. We’d gone from positive to negative rather quickly.

I remember when Steve was teaching a teenagers’ class, he had one person stand in a chair and another teen stand on the floor. He then instructed the one in the chair to pull the one on the floor up while the one on the floor, pulled down. Guess what happened each and every time – it’s always easier to pull someone down than it is to pull someone up. And, when we’re spiraling down – it requires a conscious effort to stop that train of thought and change the negative to positive.

“Momma said, ‘If you can’t say something nice, then don’t say anything.'” We usually concentrate on the “don’t say anything – the keep your mouth shut part,” but I think we need to think about the “say something nice” line. So, that morning in the Huddle, I challenged my staff to compliment – say something positive to one of our clients, that is not one of “theirs.” Part of good care coordination is to praise and encourage “their clients” (the ones assigned to them) – I expect them to do that every day, but how nice is it to receive a compliment from someone that you don’t know well? We all need self-esteem boosters! The next morning, we went around the room and told who “we complimented” and discussed the reaction. It went so well, that yesterday, we moved on to “telling a co-worker” that is not in our department that we appreciate them. I can’t wait to hear how that went on Monday. I love my work family!

Friends, if you want the world to be a nicer place, than it starts with you. Joses in Acts 4:36, was such an encourager that he was called Barnabas, “the son of exhortation (encouragement). What a difference he made to those around him. Paul urged the church at Thessalonica, “Wherefore exhort one another and edify one another, even as also ye do. (I Thessalonians 5:15) You, too, can make a difference! So, who are you going to compliment today? God Bless, Courtney