Do Your Team Members Have a “Best Friend at Work”?

It’s February 8th…the day after “Send a Card to a Friend Day” and just 3 days before “Make a Friend Day”.  If you missed yesterday’s “Send a Card to a Friend Day”, it’s not too late to let a friend know that you appreciate him or her with a handwritten card—how rare are those in these days of e-mail, Facebook, and other social media?

Oh, and get ready now for “Make a Friend Day” on Tuesday, February 11.  So, what do these celebrations have to do with the workplace and “out of this world leadership”?

For years, the Gallup Organization’s research has shown that friendships at work are a critical component of employee engagement and a healthy work environment.  In their famous Q12 (the 12 employee engagement survey questions that differentiate high-performing organizations from the rest), one of the key questions is “I have a best friend at work.”  Their research shows that if you are among the 30% of employees who report having a best friend at work, you are “seven times as likely to be engaged in your job.”  Other findings from their research include:

  • People without a best friend at work have a 1 in 12 chance of being engaged in their job.
  • Closer friendships at work can increase satisfaction with your company by nearly 50%.
  • People with at least 3 close friends at work are 96% more likely to be extremely satisfied with their lives.

So, this Tuesday, I ask, “What better way to break out of the overworked and stressed out state of mind than to make a friend?”  Many of us are busy leading such hectic lives, we barely have time for ourselves…much less developing and maintaining friendships.  Make a Friend Day gives us the perfect opportunity to begin a new friendship…and I’d encourage you to make that new friend at work.

For advice, let’s look to John Maxwell’s Everyone Communicates…Few Connect.  Click here to learn more

Do You Lead with Integrity?

photo credit: Wonder woman0731 School Poster Integrity is doing via photopin (license)

OK, that’s probably the wrong question.

Let’s take a closer look at the word integrity.  Since integrity comes from the word integer and means “whole”…a better question would be “Do you live with integrity?”

Integrity means “sound and complete.”  To the extent that a person’s ethics (defined standard of right and wrong, good and evil—what you say) and morality (lived standard of right and wrong, good and evil—what you do) are integrated, they have integrity.

There are a few other ways to define integrity:

  • Webster defines the word as the “quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.”
  • A kid-friendly definition says “doing the right thing when nobody is watching.”
  • The Bible points to a consistency between what is inside and what is outside, between belief and behavior, our words and our ways, our attitudes and our actions, our values and our practice.

The bottom line is that integrity is a powerful word that needs respect…it is a life skill composed of many other powerful life skills — patience, honesty, responsibility, dependability, accountability, and caring…to name a few.

If we let our personal commitment to integrity show in what we do during the day, every day…we’ll become a leader others will eagerly follow.  Let’s learn from two Old Testament leaders who demonstrated integrity:  Samuel and David.

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