Planners’ Picks — March 1, 2022

Planners’ Picks

A collection of resources from CSN planning committee members worth mentioning

It’s time to MARCH FORTH in PP. We have employee appreciation day coming this Friday and are starting to think about new beginnings with spring around the corner.

 

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What character and values do you project to others in your actions and stories?

 

||| Resources on Gratitude and Appreciation |||

Go Big And Bold This Employee Appreciation Day

This year’s Employee Appreciation Day (March 4th) will be the first since the onset of the Great Resignation. And there are early reports that the trend of American workers leaving their jobs in droves might continue through 2022. While there are multiple theories about the forces and considerations driving these record resignations, one thing is clear: U.S. workers feel burned out and undervalued.

That’s why this is the year to go big, go bold and get creative on Employee Appreciation Day, March 4.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhsturt/2022/02/16/go-big-and-bold-this-employee-appreciation-day/?sh=58e6e021b172

“Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly, and most underrated agent of human change.” – Bob Kerrey (U.S. Senator ret.)

How often should you recognize your employees?

From smaller recognition moments at the individual level to celebrating company milestones, there are many opportunities to show appreciation for your employees. See how great work, engagement, and feelings of inclusion soar with recent recognition, based on research from the O.C. Tanner Institute.

Employee Appreciation Day is March 4th. Learn how you can create impactful recognition moments for your people.

https://www.octanner.com/landing/employee-appreciation.html

 

||| Resources on Mental Health and Self-Care |||

These Phrases Will Help You Recharge Your Mental Battery When You Need It Most

Thrive Global is thinking about one of our favorite Microsteps: Choose an affirmation — it can be a line of poetry, a quote, a song lyric — that helps you find your place of peace, and repeat it when you begin to worry or ruminate. Doing so can help you reduce stress in the moment — and the best part is, there’s no shortage of affirmations to choose from!

They asked the Thrive community to share the affirmations and phrases that help them mentally recharge and feel more optimistic. Which of these will you recite in your daily life?

https://thriveglobal.com/stories/mantras-positive-phrases-song-lyrics-increase-optimism-improve-mental-health/

“It was when I realized I needed to stop trying to be somebody else and be myself, I actually started to own, accept, and love what I had.” —Tracee Ellis Ross

Small Gestures That Help Us Show Up for Others

The little actions that allow us to show up for the people in our lives can help strengthen our bonds in entirely new ways.

Often it’s not big, grand gestures that show the people around us we care about them. It’s the small gestures that can really help strengthen our bonds — like putting our phones away when having dinner with someone, or asking a colleague a deeper question than “How are you?” to show that we sincerely want to know about their well-being.

We asked our Thrive community to share with us the small gestures that help them show others that they care. Which of these ideas will you try?

https://thriveglobal.com/stories/small-gestures-help-us-show-up-friendship-tips/

 

||| Resources on Work Culture & Team Development |||

Smart Growth: How to Grow Your People to Grow Your Company

Whitney Johnson is the CEO of Disruption Advisors, a tech-enabled talent development company. She was an award-winning equity analyst on Wall Street and co-founder of the Disruptive Innovation Fund with Harvard’s Clayton Christensen. Her writing and podcast focus on innovation and disruption theory, and her latest book takes a deeper dive into post-traumatic growth.

Whitney shares 5 key insights from her new book, Smart Growth: How to Grow Your People to Grow Your Company.

https://nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/smart-growth-grow-people-grow-company-bookbite/31957/

The Back Seat Side of Caring Leadership

Heather Younger writes: “My family and I were on our way to church this past week, and instead of sitting in the passenger seat, I took the back seat and let my son sit up front due to a leg injury. As we drove, I realized how clearly I could experience the environment in the back seat. I felt relaxed and fully relinquished control to my husband, who was driving. I didn’t feel the need to be a “back seat driver” or tell him which way to go. I just let him handle it.”

That’s how it feels to be in the back seat of caring leadership. Those in the driver’s seat can’t feel empowered if their leaders are always jumping in to micro-manage. The idea of ‘taking the back seat’ releases the need to oversee everything and be comfortable with other people having that control and making decisions. It can be freeing for the leader. But there is such a thing as being a good backseat driver. So how can we do that as caring leaders?

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/back-seat-side-caring-leadership-heather-r-younger

Daniel Pink: Great Leaders Share Their Failures With Their Teams

Regret is our most common negative emotion, says author Daniel Pink. He should know: He’s spent the recent years studying regret, and soliciting responses from both a national and an international study of human regret. The results–as well as plenty of additional research–went into his latest book, The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward.

Pink stresses that just because regrets are uncomfortable to dwell on, they are not to be brushed off–even in the workplace. “They’re also our most transformative [negative emotions], in that if we deal with them properly, they can help us in a whole array of areas, particularly in business,” he says. “They can help us make better decisions. They can help us become better negotiators, better problem solvers, and better strategists if we treat them right.”

https://www.inc.com/christine-lagorio-chafkin/daniel-pink-leadership-failure-communication.html

“Your willingness to look at your darkness is what empowers you to change.” —Iyanla Vanzant

 

||| Resources on Self-Leadership Development |||

The Two Essential (Yet Underrated) Leadership Traits You Need To Master

Have you ever worked with someone who sucked the life out of the room? A distinct shift occurs when they enter a meeting or open their mouth during a conversation, yet they seem utterly clueless about their effect on others.

If you answered yes (or maybe silently suspected you were that person), there’s good news: You can cultivate the two aspects needed to combat that undesirable outcome. Amy Blaschka tells how in this article.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/amyblaschka/2022/01/29/the-two-essential-yet-underrated-leadership-traits-you-need-to-master/

How to network in a remote world

How can you successfully network in a virtual world? Hays’ Barney Ely shares his tips, from establishing a connection online to taking part in virtual volunteering. (Hint: CSN Sessions are a great way to collaborate with your peers!)

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/advice/remote-networking-how-to

 

||| More on March Forth |||

March Forth

Rich Gassen wrote an article on Linkedin two years ago on the idea of March Forth as an official command to evolve and develop. For many years, he has had significant events happening to him at or around this time, which shaped his future based on the attitude and mindset he employed in those situations. (2022 is no different, as Rich and his team are picking up the print shop and moving to another location across town this month, which is no easy feat.)

I have been recognizing March 4th as a kick-in-the-butt motivational holiday for many years. When I was younger, I used this day on more than one occasion as a starting point for a diet. For many reasons, this date is much better for atonement than, say, January 1st. So many people announce New Year’s resolutions to exercise more or eat less, but in the dead of winter you are more sedentary and homebound by default, and neither of those things is as attainable as in springtime, during warmer weather and more opportunities for exercising outdoors. Springtime is by its very definition a time of rebirth, with new sightings of animals, buds on plants and trees, lawns peeking out from the snow and greening up, and so much more. The warmth of longer days pulls you toward the idea of wanting to get out and move; a much more natural motivator than the gray harsh cold of the shorter days of winter. Thus, march forth.”

Read the whole article from 2020, written just before the pandemic hit, which challenged all of us to march forth in a very different way once again.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/march-forth-rich-gassen/