It's Summer! These 6 Magic Words Will Help Anyone Lead While Apart

TOGETHER UP! Edition #21 https://togetherup.beehiiv.com/subscribe

6 Magic Words

“I was thinking about you and…”

Pause.

Think about if you received this from someone. A Text. An Email. A Written Note.

These 6 words when put together are a secret weapon for you.

Flip it around. What do you respond with when someone makes an attempt to invite, include, or send you a note of sympathy while sick or sad, or after a loss of a loved one?

“Thank you for thinking of me”.

It’s not the flowers or necessarily the event. It’s what person communicated to you through that gesture - You are thought of.

I’ve been vocal about the high leverage that a hand-written note has. And while the words matter, when it is received, what the person is actually feeling is you having sat down and singularly thought of them while writing it for 2, 4, 6 mins.

In these instances, you feel seen.

Why Does It Matter?

Only 17% of U.S. employees report that their leader has made “an investment in our relationship” in the past 3 months. *Gallup Are you in the 83% who haven’t?

When someone feels seen, they are more engaged in what they are doing because they know how their contributions matter to the mission.

When Gallup researchers analyzed the differences in performance among business work units, the benefits of employee engagement were clear. When comparing employee engagement levels, Gallup found that the top and bottom-quartile business units and teams had the following differences in business outcomes*:

• 58% in patient safety incidents (mortality and falls)
• 18% in turnover for high-turnover organizations
• 43% in turnover for low-turnover organizations
• 81% in absenteeism
• 64% in safety incidents (accidents)
• 41% in quality (defects)
• 10% in customer loyalty/engagement
• 18% in productivity (sales)
• 23% in profitability

This summer, people will be out of your sight for extended periods of time. Perhaps they already are because of remote circumstances in the workplace.

If you’re an NCAA coach, that’ll be months.

A corporate leader - you’ll have your team members on vacation throughout the summer months.

These 6 simple words can be your secret weapon in not only maintaining levels of engagement but increasing them. When someone is thought of outside of the normal course of your day-to-day it affirms your connection.

But Here Is The Important Nuance.

Having worked through messaging with leaders, It is remarkable how often they are genuinely motivated to try and put a new, specific message to work -but when shared back to me, the alterations they make in their own head change its impact.

My obvious hope is that most of you come away from this and say “Okay yes this makes sense I’m going to do this.”

But in this outreach, if your goal is to build personal engagement, and increase the motivation the person has upon reconvening, it is important to be specific. As I tell young athletes who are looking to get better at lacrosse - “Practicing on the backyard bounceback is better than sitting on the couch, but going to the cement wall is better than the bounceback!”

So yes, some outreach is better than no outreach, but the personal development you will gain, and the impact it will have on your team member comes from the specificity. For example, you may take this and revert to what feels comfortable for you:

• “Hey, just wanted to say have a great vacation”
• “Hey I hope you’re well”
• “I was thinking about you and hope you’re doing well”
• “I was thinking about you and just wanted to say have a great vacation”

Simply put, these are “nice” but with just 8 more seconds, you can really deliver an impact.

How You Can Be Specific

Two ways:

1) There will be something that comes up that makes you think of a that member of your team. - Or don’t wait for that to strike you - 2) Carve out 15 mins and list each member of your team and think of something specific they do that you value - it can be anything, even their sense of humor in stressful situations. Something that might remind you of them:

• A personality trait you see in someone that reminds you.
• A job needed to be done that they normally do.
• A joke someone says.
• A question that needed answering and they weren’t there to answer it.

• A unique skill that they possess that is needed.
• An example of the team not being complete without them.
• A conversation with them that was important to you recently.
• An area of growth you’ve seen in them that you are looking forward to see them do more.
• A discussion that would have been elevated with their unique ideas

On all of these examples - whatever it is that you think of

Tell Them.

“I was thinking about you and realized what a positive presence you are in the group - looking forward to seeing you when you get back”.

“I was thinking about you and I am looking forward to seeing how you and (XYZ name) continue to develop the great chemistry you started to develop this past year.”

The fact that you’re thinking about them and articulate a specific trait that they bring to whatever team you lead affirms that they matter to you.

It affirms that they are seen. That they’re understood by you and it elevates their engagement in the team.

Upon returning, they will be more motivated to go and do the thing you feel they contribute.

I’ll Leave This Right Here

Reiterating that only 17% of U.S. employees report that their leader has made “an investment in our relationship” in the past 3 months. *Gallup And challenging you to think: Are you in the 83% who haven’t? We’re better when we know how we contribute.

We’re better when we know we are valued.

We’re better when we’re motivated by our ability to have an impact.

We’re better when we’re engaged and resilient in what we’re doing.

We’re better TOGETHER.

Together UP!

Go To Website: UnlockPerformance.co