Many of you know, if you’ve seen my Pecha Kucha, that I have a passion for soccer, especially women’s soccer! I recently saw an interview clip of Brene Brown and Abby Wambach. Abby Wambach is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, FIFA World Cup Champion and the highest all-time international goal scorer for male and female soccer players. She has recently written a book titled, Wolfpack, in which she outlines eight rules of the wolf pack.  I loved Brene’s take on Rule #5. “This idea that …we go through the world and celebrate other peoples’ successes – other women. If something great happens, we’re rushing toward her. If something great happens, we’re pointing to who helped us. That would solve so many problems!”

Are you rushing and pointing in the workplace? Do you recognize good work among your peers and staff and rush toward them to acknowledge them? If you’ve been the one to be recognized, are you pointing to those who helped you get there or made it possible? Recognition and praise is one of the drivers of employee engagement and we continue to score below 60% in this area. In the last seven days have you recognized someone for doing good work? Or have you received recognition in the last seven days for doing good work? Let’s pass it along! Let’s rush to someone great or point out those who helped us get there. Recognition or gratitude is also a huge component of building positive relationships and enabling positive emotions – two important components of positive psychology and well-being.

One of the most beneficial happiness interventions to practice to improve positive emotions is to write down three things that went well that day and why. Inviting and allowing others to state what went well and why encourages rushing and pointing. And I say why wait until the end of the day? Why not begin staff meetings or 1:1’s with asking the question? Let’s practice this together. My agency, and maybe yours too, has a kudos board that is posted on our intranet. I’m going to look forward to some rushing and pointing this month. Will you join me?