Note special occasions. If your office posts a monthly list of employee birthdays, send a short email - just a simple note wishing them a great day.
Ask how someone is doing –and wait for a response. The next time you ask someone, “How are you doing?” stop them and really listen to their answer. Hint: You may have to follow up by asking, “How are you really doing?” or "On a scale of 1 to 10, where would you rate that?"
Pick up the slack. Help someone. Offer to make their copies when you're through with the machine. Stay late to help someone meet a deadline.
Reprimand kindly. If you must reprimand someone, follow Christ's command to treat others as you could like to be treated. Do it privately and kindly. If appropriate, offer to help the person in his area of struggle. If you receive a reprimand, control your temper. Take a walk, cool off, and request to speak with your supervisor privately if follow-up is needed. If you have a true difference of opinion, express it professionally while showing respect for your supervisor’s authority.
Be generous. Buy a $3.50 box of Girl Scouts cookies from a coworker's child, pay with a $5 bill, and tell her to keep the change. Practice going the extra mile.
Recognize Someone. Every week, pick out one person – it could be the janitor or the boss – and thank him or her for doing their job well.
Provide Laughter. Laughter is good medicine. Post a cartoon in the break room. Leave a mystery gag gift in someone’s chair. Lift someone’s spirits. But always be sensitive and appropriate in your subject.
Write it down. Keep a supply of note cards in your desk drawer. When someone is on your mind, take it as the Holy Spirit’s prompting to drop a line to them saying that you’re thinking/praying for them.
Remember the quote from Mark Twain: "Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see."
Copyright 1998, Dik Lapine and Christianity Today International/BuildingChurchLeaders.com. Used with permission.
THINGS YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN ....
FOR EDUCATION STAFF: GBREA Workshop at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, Marietta, January 19 & 20 with Allan Taylor, Dillard Wilbanks, and Steve Parr plus breakout conference leaders- http://www.gbrea.org/templates/System/details.asp?id=39977&PID=890161
FOR SMALL GROUP MINISTRY: Fresh: Reviving Stale Faith by Kerry Shook, explores ancient disciplines and reveals the irony of how patterns of the past are really practices that promise to revive faith. - http://www.lifeway.com/Product/fresh-reviving-stale-faith-leader-kit-P005470699
FOR SMALL GROUP MINISTRY: Stolen by Chris and Kerry Shook, things that rob us of our passion, joy, peace, strength, spiritual inheritance, and dreams - http://www.lifeway.com/Product/stolen-dvd-leader-kit-P005469705
FOR SMALL GROUP MINISTRY: Group Insights Leader Training Kit by Les Parrott & Bill Donahue, provide a small group leader insights for deepening the small group experience - http://www.lifeway.com/Product/group-insights-leader-kit-P005487574
FOR WOMEN’S MINISTRY: Nehemiah: A Heart That Can Break by Kelly Minter - http://www.lifeway.com/Product/group-insights-leader-kit-P005487574
FOR DISCIPLESHIP STUDY: Honor Begins at Home - http://www.lifeway.com/Product/honor-begins-at-home-the-courageous-bible-study-leader-kit-p005325609
FOR CHURCH & COMMUNITY MINISTRY: Courageous DVD and Site License for Church showing - http://www.lifeway.com/Product/courageous-dvd-and-site-licenses-M00000213
FOR COMMUNITY MINISTRY: October Baby movie coming in March 2012 - http://octoberbabymovie.net/
FOR LEADER TRAINING: Sunday School in HD Conference at FBC/Woodstock, March 15 & 16 - http://sundayschoolinhd.org/
COMING NEW BIBLE STUDY CURRICULUM: The Gospel Project, Trevin Wax, editor, a description of the dynamics of this new curriculum coming in Fall 2012 - http://trevinwax.com/2011/11/21/the-gospel-project/
