At the beginning of this four day work week, Memorial Day weekend and its many festivities might still be on the mind for many of us. In between the vacation of yesterday and the business of today, an opportunity to merge these two states of mindset manifested.
Personally speaking, it is my hope as a member of entreQuest that our team constantly works together towards creating a community that is conducive to always appreciating the big things and the little things.
For example, yesterday we as Americans all took a pause to step back and honor those who gave their life for our freedom. Although there is absolutely nothing wrong with the philosophy behind a holiday of remembrance, I want to challenge this practice.
If we put too much emphasis on celebrating this one day - this one event - then it might be easy for us to let ourselves off the hook the rest of the year. Think about it. Are we practicing this "attitude of gratitude" for the men and women who have served and given their lives for our country, always? Are we living it, every day?
Returning to a more personal perspective, would we at entreQuest ever tell a client to discuss companywide career path opportunities, constructively coach their team members, or conduct performance reviews just once a year? No. We would tell a client not to save these types of interactions for annual events but make them on-going conversations of accountability, vision, and progress as much as possible. We would tell our clients to live this philosophy every day.
I am not saying this recommendation is easy to put into action. No matter what your company does or what position of leadership you hold, falling short of continual practice is not rare in the work environment. But to improve your performance in developing your people, it is your company's mindset, mission, goals, and story that must come into play.
For us at eQ, our very own brand name "entreQuest" implies that growth and development is a journey, is a process, is a quest. It is not a single event. Our team must challenge each other daily to grow regardless - after all it's one our values. Of course, the most important goal we must aspire towards together is being “the Source for Growth” for our clients and our community. Using this mindset, we can keep our word passionately and the likely byproduct of our efforts is that we will always find a way to deliver remarkable experiences.
Again this practice not easy, but this practice is entreQuest. This is who we are and aspire to be. This is our story. And lucky for us, we know well from experience that despite the hardships, the reward has always been the journey.
Who is your company and who do you aspire to be? What is your story? How can you joyfully immerse yourself and your team into your company's mission, fully aware that it won’t be easy but equally confident the results will be worth it?
If you have 1 minute and 48 seconds, check out this thought-provoking video about the power of words, mindset, and story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzgzim5m7oU.
And then going forth, as we challenge ourselves as Americans to live up to an “attitude of gratitude” every day when it comes to our fallen soldiers, we must also challenge ourselves to live up to the free world ideals of this country that so many of our brothers and sisters gave their lives to protect. As business leaders, we can always better ourselves, our people, and our community. We can make achievements in constantly practicing every day – especially when we learn how to appreciate the big and the little things.
Joe Mechlinski is the President of entreQuest and has partnered with countless leaders to effectively improve their team’s performance, their clients’ experience, and their company’s profits.
