For the past two weeks Jennifer and I have been working on collecting some of the incredibly uplifting stories that have come out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
We've been blown away by the acts of kindness, ingenuity, bravery and selfless giving we have seen.
The process has brought smiles (and sometimes tears) to our faces every single day.
We are SO excited to share what we have collected so far!
Here is a link to our website so you can go check them out for yourself!
Hopefully they will lift your spirits—even if for a few minutes. And please feel free to forward the link to anyone you think might need a boost.
If you run across any good stories please email them to our amazing reporter/curator/photographer—Morgan Rector—at upliftingstories@unlock-potential.com (She is fabulous!).
Thank you to all who are practicing generosity and supporting each other during these difficult times.
You never know how far the ripples of your kindness may spread.
With so much love for you, ❤️
Jennifer and Lynne
You're amazing!
Happy Valentine's Day.
It's a day to remember to love.
Start with yourself. That's step one.
Give yourself the gift of not buying into a single negative thought about yourself that pops up. Not even one.
Next, call, text or email your parent, child, neighbor or friend and tell them you appreciate them...don't overthink it...just pick a special someone and do it.
And if you have pets, love on them a little extra. Even if they're cats that ignore you (like mine).
Wishing you LOTS of love!
Lynne and Jennifer
The smile: a powerful act of kindness.
I never cease to be amazed at the rush of joy I get when I share a smile with someone. A REAL smile. Not a forced, polite one. A genuine smile that silently says "hello friend. I'm happy to see you."
These micro moments of kindness often happen when I least expect it—like when the cashier at Trader Joe's looks at me and smiles before even starting to scan my groceries. Or the barista at BlackHorse who hands me my coffee like it was made with pure love, just for me.
That 2-second smile comes before any words are spoken and instantly pulls me out of my self-imposed cocoon. It reminds me that I'm a human being, here on this earth and that I'm not traveling alone.
What a powerful gift.
As this holiday season kicks off, I'm going to challenge myself to smile more. To take that two extra seconds to look into people's eyes, smile and silently say "hello friend. I'm happy to see you."
Wishing you a beautiful Thanksgiving and upcoming holiday season!
Treating Employees Like People Makes Them Work Like Machines
An interesting article on Facebook's efforts to create a strong corporate culture. This pretty much says it all: "It doesn’t matter how great your company is or how awesome your product is, if your manager sucks, you don’t want to be there."
A great article written by Stuart Crabb of Oxegen Consulting
You know that Facebook is one of the world’s best companies to work at. You’ve heard the heavenly details, right? We all have. Some of the less lucky ones dream about them while they scrape the bottom of their company's instant coffee can with a teaspoon, hoping to gather enough dehydrated crumbs to stay awake through the next team meeting.
But the real success of Facebook’s company culture goes deeper than free granola, segways, and ping pong tables. Stuart Crabb – founder of Oxegen Consulting, and Facebook’s former Global Head of Learning – was the chief architect of this legendary work environment, solidifying its reputation and talent during a crucial period in the company’s development. All those recreational gadgets and perks that are part of Facebook’s folklore are really only the most visible layer of a culture that is anchored in something more important: people’s strengths.
According to Crabb, we are unhealthily obsessed with weaknesses and negativity. Bad news headlines are more clickable than good news stories, and out in the real world you only have to observe people slowing down on a freeway to look at a traffic accident to know it’s true. Great novels aren’t written about happy people. A film about the perfect couple will never sell.
There is a negativity bias that pervades our personal, artistic, and corporate worlds: job interviews are often exercises in concealing your weaknesses, and an impending job review brings on a weighty stress about the areas you might be failing, rather than achieving.
Crabb turned that attitude on its head while at Facebook and championed the philosophy that people are at their best when they are allowed to access their strengths. Tapping into an employee’s brilliance and allowing them the opportunity to customize their role results in higher performing teams and individuals, longer employee retention, and a greater sense of fulfillment. Tom Rath, author of the best-selling book StrenghsFinder, also supports this idea: “People who have the opportunity to focus on their strengths every day are six times as likely to be engaged in their jobs and more than three times as likely to report having an excellent quality of life in general.”
Employee engagement is also key, and a lot of that comes down to investing in thoughtful training of managers. “Managers play a key role in driving engagement and we know that the relationship to the manager will always trump the brand,” Crabb says, in Strategic Leadership Review. “Doesn’t matter how great your company is or how awesome your product is, if your manager sucks, you don’t want to be there. And so the appointment of managers and the training of managers is something we take very seriously.”
Crabb encourages all employees to take the Clifton StrengthsFinder test so they can identify their assets and play to their strengths.
To know more, visit Oxegen Consulting