WANTED - Snowmen Makers

On a weekend where a good share of the US faced severe winter weather, I was reminded that even storms can be turned into something fun. At 7300 ft. in elevation in the mountains of Colorado snow is not something new, Plowing, snow blowing and shoveling is just part of the territory. We would much rather have lots of the fluffy stuff than the fires of a couple of weeks ago.

On Saturday my wife, Ann and I were dealing with the most recent snowfall and as we were finishing she broke away to start building a snowman (he/him/his). We had been out there for a couple of hours and I am sure she was tired and had other things to do but she turned a chore into something fun for both of us.

For those of you that know Ann she can be VERY serious, passionate, and caring with people but one of the first things I noticed about her was she was just fun to be with. Fortunately for me, 38 years later that is still true.

With everything being written about the impact of COVID on mental health, the snowman was a reminder how critical it is to pay attention on who we surround ourselves with. People that can generate joy are exceptionally valuable to the world around them. For many of us that lead teams making sure that we are hiring for more than competency is imperative on creating high performing teams.

I would suggest that we add a new rating to our review of talent -- Is the person interviewing for this job most likely to:

• Start building the snowman?
• Jump in to help when it is started?
• Ignore what is going on because it distracts from the chore?
• Push it over when no one is looking?

WANTED - Snowmen and Snowwomen Makers!!