Saying "Thank You"

15/02/2011

 
Have you ever stopped to think about all the different people who have had a positive impact on your life? A few years ago when the Government were trying to encourage new teachers, they had a campaign about the teachers that we remembered. I'm guessing if you stoped now, you could bring to mind at least one good teacher whom you haven't forgotten. Maybe there were youth workers, parents and other adults who said or did something which you can now see had a significant bearing on what you did or didn't do with your life.
From Gareth at Marrick Priory who challenged me that 'why not?' was a rubbish justification for anything to Alastair Cram, my headmaster who broadened my horizons when it came to leaving school, I have a whole list of people that I can recognise made a difference.
Once you have identified them, what next? You can simply be grateful for their contribution. Even better though would be the chance to say thank you to them, in person, by email or on the phone. It may take effort to track them down but its worth the time spent. I was lucky enough to bump into one of my significant school teachers (for the record, Wilma Pearson) a few years ago and had the chance to say thank you for her encouragements, in this case in bible reading, and it felt good to say it, to acknowledge her contribution in my life.
Being grateful is worth it, for our sakes as well as for those we target it at. We give ourselves a more positive view of life and they get a sense of a having achieved something. For most youth workers, they will never truly know the fruits of their labour unless we become famous. Or we tell them.
How about finding someone from your past that you owe a thank you to, tracking them down and saying it.
 

Ryanair fanfare

30/04/2010

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So, flying home from Bremen on Wednesday evening, I single-handedly managed to prevent Ryanair from playing their 'we've arrived on time' fanfare.  All I did was not point out someone's mistake as I walked through the gate to board the plane - they didn't remove the slip at the bottom of my boarding card so when we sat on the plane there was one more passenger than they could account for.
Give them their due, they put out a tannoy announcement for 'Mrshsshsmmischthh to press the call bell' - listened more carefully and they asked for Mrs Smith so I ignored it (no its not just my hearing, the guy next to me also thought it was a female they were looking for).
Eventually, everyone had to rummage in their bags and produce their boarding cards so that they could weed me out, give me a telling off and then we were on our way, 15 minutes late.
Should I have corrected the man at the gate? Maybe but different airlines at different airports have different ways of dealing with similar situations. Should I have spoken up earlier on the plane? Maybe, but I didn't.
It did make me wonder though, how often do we go out of our way to help other people do their jobs even better? Sometimes we are keen to correct our colleagues when they get it wrong but its not just about that. How can we help our colleagues work more effectively, more easily, enjoy themselves more or whatever.? But maybe more tellingly, how much are we willing to put in the extra effort on their behalf?
Yesterday, I was running a children's abseiling session with a colleague at an outdoor centre. When she started to vomit off the crag, I realised I needed to try to do everything possible to make her job easier - would I have been so supportive and helpful if the particular scenario had not arisen?
What inspires us to work more closely with our colleagues? Is it because we want to help them to enjoy life, to help the company be more successful or to help ourselves inhabit a more harmonious workplace? What are your thoughts?
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Are we past it?

09/04/2010

 
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There was talk yesterday of how the Augusta National golf course has long holes and is more suited to the younger golfers. And now we find Fred Couples (age 50) at the top of the first day leaderboard, just one stroke ahead of Tom Watson (age 60) and even Sandy Lyle (52) up amongst the third group on 3 under par, 3 shots off the lead.
Tom Watson showed us all last year at the Open at Turnberry that he is still up amongst the greatest golfers of our era and some people rate him as the greatest player of all time. Certainly the 5Live commentators were waxing lyrical about his excellent swing.
Now, despite my father's best efforts, I actually know nothing about golf. But even I can recognise that these guys are masters of their craft. Whilst they may have lost some youthful vigour they have gained skill and experience that carries them to the top still.
What are the skills that you are a master at? It might be something simple but it still marks you out as a specialist. David Wood in his new book "Get Paid For Who You Are" posits that we all have things unique to us, based on our skills and life experiences. Skills tend to be gained over time and experience is always building which would suggest that the older we are the more of an expert we become.
David reckons that this is something that you can sell since the flip side of the argument is that there are people out there who don't have what you do. (If you are interested to know more then go to his site to download the book for FREE. Or for a donation to the Rainforest Foundation).
So what are you the world's top expert in? Maybe you won't win a green jacket but what pinnacle could you reach instead? Who could you pass this knowledge on to? Could you earn money doing it or just build social capital?