A Cup of Common Wealth #3 of 5: Encouragingly Develop

Be an Encouraging Developer

How can we develop others to create community?

Develop those around you by cheerleading, complimenting, challenging, and displaying gratitude. Sometimes, we simply forget to point out what people are doing well.  If we maintain a culture of “catching people doing something right” and pointing it out, it will have a ripple effect in an organization and our everyday lives.  It’s one of the easiest ways to compliment.

We have to cheerlead and support one another.  Letting the souls of a community know that we have their back and we are there for them in great and tragic times.  It’s not about agreeing or disagreeing with someone; it’s about reminding people that we are there with them in their journey and will help them back up if they fall.

Coupling the cheerleading with challenging one another is a fundamental component of developing others. In a work place, the setting lends itself to constructively criticize through reviews, write-ups, and training opportunities, but it is possible in non-work related spheres as well.  We have to be honest and give input to display our care and want for others to be better and live up to their potential.

Finally, we need to show gratitude.  For the last ten years, I’ve made it a point to send a text, an email, or make a call to at least one person every day to express my gratitude for them.  Sometimes, the same person may get a message three days in a row and sometimes I reach out to four different people in one day.  What matters the most is that someone knows that someone else is grateful for who they are or what they’ve done.

At A Cup of Common Wealth

We challenge and compliment one another to develop each other.  Every employee has an annual retrospective, where they sit down with their supervisor and go over their past year (discussing how they met their goals, how they think they did, how their supervisor thought they did, and how their peers thought they did) and what’s to come in the next year (their personal and business goals, how their learnings from the past year can be building blocks for the next year, and where they see themselves at the end of the next year).

Employees are also coached, mentored, and supported every day through our ongoing training program that includes: a four part hiring program, 75-90 hour initial training program, barista shift previews and reviews of expectations and successes, company meetings, strategic meetings, and our leadership library where employees can check out books to build upon their skill sets.

The staff is trained in conflict management as they move up in the ranks of the company.  We learn that conflict is welcomed as long as we approach it in a respectful matter and understand: diversity in collaboration, unity in direction.  Mistakes are encouraged and transparency is paramount.

At the end of every staff or management meeting we wrap up by having a Q&A session (when any question is fair game) and a time for appreciations (when we call out others that helped us or supported us recently and express our gratefulness openly in front of everyone else).  In most cases, the Q&A and appreciation sessions of our meetings are the most impactful.  There is a good chance someone will shed a tear or give a giant gratitude-filled bear hug.

Encouragingly develop.

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Photo by sydney Rae on Unsplash