Don’t Limit Thankfulness for Your Team

Some years ago, two colleagues—friends with each other for ages—disagreed over some sports-related news. It had zero to do with work. It had nearly zero to do with their friendship. Yet when one finished making a point, the other said, “Give me a break.” The first responded, “You got a break the day this place hired you.” Feelings were hurt.

Sometimes that sort of snarkiness may not be spoken aloud by managers to their teams, yet from time to time a sense of that attitude may creep into the workplace. It’s wrong—or should be if managers are doing their duty.

If a team member is underperforming, the manager has many tools to address the situation, from simple conversations about expectations to more training or retraining and much more.

Remember: At some point, someone—and usually several someones in the hiring process—saw something in that person that led to their employment. It’s true that there can be “clunker” hires, but far more often, something went wrong in onboarding, training or supervision. Those are all things that can be remedied by an attentive leader.

This is a good time of year to remember all our team members who work every day to help us achieve our goals and for that we should be thankful. Leadership requires a mix of skills: nurturing and instructing, guiding and inspiring, listening and deciding to name a few.

I’m thankful for many things and leading good teams of good people is one of them.

Attend Safe team members have deployed from coast to coast and beyond to help events move forward with a degree of safety unmatched in the industry. Our team’s skills go beyond COVID-19 safety to include detecting the recent surging threats of the flu and RSV, to make gatherings safer for others—maybe even one of your upcoming events.

Have a safe, healthy and happy Thanksgiving, my friends.