I posted a few weeks ago about feeling a little bit depressed. My solution was to write cards to people and point out how they impacted me this year.
Writing them helped. I believe the reason why is because I get to see how much small moments impact me and my journey. Therefore, I can imagine many ways that I impact others, even if I don’t see it or hear about it. I am not sure why my ego needs this validation, but it seems to be a motivator for me, which ultimately becomes a good thing.
Either way, it did help, and it initiated a lot of great interactions and discussions with the leaders I provided the card to:
For one of my leaders, it was an affirmation that he needed to check in on me and ensure I was not working too much. I told him that I appreciate how he tries to teach the importance of taking on less work as a method to ensure that the tasks focused on are successful. I always see him get everything done, even the smaller stuff. I am often impressed. This year, I can see how my workload will be quite a bit more if I do not do a better job managing myself, so I told him I appreciate how he challenges me to think about delegation or saying ‘no’.
Another leader told me how writing cards is a lost art, and he appreciated my card. He also said that it’s his pleasure to see people rise in the organization and expand their influence.
A third leader just awkwardly said thank you. I wrote to him about a very specific situation where he challenged me to act like an equal to the other staff leaders at the organization. I’ve thought a lot about that interaction, and I feel like I have embodied that more and more. I am okay with challenging leaders even though in terms of the hierarchy, I am below it. Remembering this discussion continued to influence me, which I will discuss in my next post, in the present.
The last leader who read my card let me know that he read the card five times. Our discussions about the card led us to talk more about how important the small things are when it comes to the grand scheme of the universe. Communication allows us to cocreate with each other and there is no way to measure the importance of where that leads. We discussed how paradoxical it is that organizations focus on business goals at the cost of the goals and development of people. Whereas, it could be that focusing on the goals and development of people is what leads to business goals. This might be something we believe in, but it’s difficult to get that buy-in when the results are so intangible.
I am still waiting for one leader to get his card, and I am curious if it will lead to any discussions.
