Take Action #13: Thank someone - in WRITING

Today's action item is simple.  Write a thank you note by hand.  There is nothing more special than a hand-written note that comes in an envelope with a real stamp and real hand writing on the envelope - not a printed envelope or one with a label.  Don't know about you but 80% of my e-mail is spam or newsletters or mass e-mails.  I have to weed through 100's of e-mails a day just to see if there is one that needs my attention.  If you really want to get the attention of someone, send them a note in a colored envelope or odd-sized envelope - not a traditional business envelope.  Of course this action item came to me because I have at least 2 thank you notes to send, one birthday card and a sympathy note.

Some friends that are great at hand-written notes are Karen Hoffman, Laura Schact and Joe High.  Karen will even tear out articles that pertain to something I am working on and mail it with a note.  Laura sends me notes every once in a while just to tell me she likes me.  We even have the same birthday and she will always send a card - I, on the other hand will call and bring by beer......  Joe has a system for networking that includes sending notes, a book, documents needed before your first meeting with him, etc. 

When to write a hand-written note:

• After an interview
• After/before meeting someone for the first time
• When someone goes above and beyond
• When a client places a big order
• When a vendor saved your butt
• When a colleague goes out of their way to help you out
• When you need to say you are sorry
• When you are thinking about someone
• When you love someone
• When someone dies
• When someone is sick
• When someone divorces
• When you are praying for someone
• When someone makes a charitable donation

When do you send hand-written notes?  When was the last time you sent one?  Share your ideas here!

Enjoy Taking Action!

Angela

Take Action #2 - Discover Your Strengths

One of the greatest gifts I received was learning about my strengths from the book Now, Discover your Strengths by the Gallup Organization. A great friend and avid reader Karen Hoffman suggested the book to me in 2004. It completely validated and gave me the words to describe what I loved to do most. The book shares great stories about Bill Gates, Oprah and Tiger Woods (pre-drama of course) and how being phenomenal only happens when we are operating in our top strengths.

This may be a reason why so many corporations never become phenomenal – because they don’t hire people based on strengths or natural gifts. They hire based on a resume and past experience. I find it interesting that so many companies have you take aptitude tests, Myers Briggs and other personality and compatibility tests – but why? Do they use them? I think they are just making sure you are sane and have the capacity for the job, but whether or not it is a fit for your natural strengths is too hard to define. Most companies are “activity-based companies” rather than “strength-based companies”.

I would encourage you to purchase the book – I think it is around $15. There is a code in the back of the book that you use to go online to take the test.  There is only one code per person so it doesn’t really work to share this book. I am going to purchase the book for my kids and find out what their strengths are. What a joy it would be to actually know your children’s natural strengths and help them become exactly what they were made to do – rather than become a doctor because their dad was or taking over the family business because that’s what you do. What if you could be the best counselor in the field, but you were doing accounting because that is what your parents said you should do. Just because you understand the mechanics of numbers, doesn’t mean it is a natural fit. I met with an old friend, Jonathan Jones last week who actually works with companies to help them understand their employee’s strengths and what to do with them. Visit his site to learn more.

So what does this have to do with Taking Action? Everything. Sometimes we are frozen because we are stuck in a dead-end job or we know we are supposed to be doing something different but we don’t know what. This experience will enlighten you – guaranteed. Minimally, it will help you define yourself to others in interviews, dates, your boss, etc. For example, I am a Futurist – not a historian – don’t much care what happened yesterday, I am already on to tomorrow. I am also a WOO (Win Others Over) – I LOVE a networking event because I want to get to meet as many people as possible – where someone else might be a Relator which means they could spend the entire evening talking to one person. The only way I could spend the entire evening talking to one person is if they were the only person in the room.

When I was a young mother I got my real estate broker’s license and worked for a commercial real estate firm. They put me in a window-less office and had me briefing leases all day….. I managed to venture out to a networking event and you would have thought I had won the lottery – my energy and enthusiasm for commercial real estate went crazy. But when I came back and told my boss that we should be doing something like that every day, he said “we don’t have time for such nonsense, you need to brief these leases.” Needless to say, I was so depressed crying in the bathroom most days, finally went on depression medication and when I had an allergic reaction to the meds, I decided that perhaps it was “situational depression” – quit my job and amazingly became a happy person.

So, TAKE ACTION by finding out what your "natural" strengths are and stop spending time on your weaknesses.