Corporate Adulting
How to Be An Intentional Encourager
During these tough times with Covid, I believe that being an intentional encourager is needed more than ever.
A few months ago, I started writing a blog series. I’ve always enjoyed writing (for a short time period, my major in college was journalism) and I just hadn’t had time to do it while working. As I planned my departure from my previous employer, starting a blog was something that I had already decided I would do.
As I look back, I had actually been encouraged to start a blog by one of my close friends and co-workers for quite a bit of time prior to my departure. I had shown her a couple of emails I had sent to my team as part of navigating our new normal (acquisition by another company), and she immediately said, “You should be publishing these. You need to publish this stuff to Medium!”
I smiled, said “thanks” and didn’t think much more about it. When I decided to actually start my blog, the first thing I did was go set up a Medium account. My friend’s encouragement prompted me to look at Medium seriously and move forward with my aspiration to start my blog. (Paula Anne Sutton, you may not have known you inspired me, but you did!)
In the last few months, I’ve been continually encouraged to keep sharing my blog posts by a number of my former co-workers, friends, family, acquaintances and even strangers. Many times, encouragement has come from people I would have never have expected. About a month after I started my blog, I received the following message from a former coworker:
“I hope you are doing great! I’m not sure if you get feedback when you put your stories out there — but wanted to drop a quick note and let you know how much I appreciate reading your articles. While I’m not a reader by nature. (ADD and all), I always somehow find myself reading through your articles and pausing for self-reflection on the topics you write about. I appreciate you continuing to share your stories, insight and experiences with us — it’s always engaging. We miss your leadership — you have made a huge impact on so many of us, and continue to do so.. thank you! Have a great extended weekend and my very best wishes for the future ahead. I’m excited to see where. your journey takes you next! ~ The Invisible Reader 😉”
I was delighted! I messaged back and wished my friend well. I let him know how much I appreciated his message. A couple of months later, I took a short hiatus from writing (I had a week of vacation and started a new consulting role) that resulted in not posting a new article for about 4 weeks. I then received this message:
“Hi Monica. Just following up. I have noticed a downward trend in your free, uncompensated, thought inspiring article production and noticed today your work status had updated to “Independent Consultant at Undisclosed”. I would like to lodge a formal conflict of interest complaint with what I can only assume is a compensated work engagement vs. the free service that doesn’t pay the bills (obviously this is not acceptable), and I guess to extend congrats to you on your undisclosed opportunity. I hope it is a good project, we still miss your guidance and leadership here.”
I love it! This is the epitome of intentional encouragement. He let me know that he missed my articles and did so in a way that made me laugh out loud when I read his note. I made sure to get back on track with posting at least weekly to ensure I was living up to his expectations. 😉
During these tough times with Covid, I believe that being an intentional encourager is needed more than ever. I am grateful for the persons who have taken the time to intentionally encourage me and I know I’ve personally focused on reaching out more to my friends and checking in to make sure things are going ok.
Being an intentional encourager really doesn’t take much effort. What it does take is intention, specifically, the desire to be an encourager and the action associated with actually doing it.
This weekend, I was on a text chain with several of the people I currently work with. In the back-and-forth, one person said to another “Don’t take what happened at work personally. You’re amazing!” The rest of us chimed in immediately in agreement, prompting the person we were speaking about to text back, “You don’t know how much I needed to hear that today.”
Being an intentional encourager also means taking the opportunity to encourage when it presents itself.
Here are my ideas on how you can be an intentional encourager to those around you.
Some Ways To Be An Intentional Encourager
- Take the moment to congratulate someone on an accomplishment or milestone in their lives. It may be as simple as saying congratulations on your new role, or congratulations on making it at your company for X years. LinkedIN and Facebook are great for this as they serve up milestones like work anniversaries, job changes and birthdays in your feed.
- Reach out to people in your life who you know are going through a tough time. Tell them something positive you see in them or something you admire about them. If they are in need of a new job, proactively provide a recommendation, if you can.
- Connect people who are in need of a new role, new business, etc., with people you know who might be able to help them. Provide your heart-felt endorsement of the person and tell your connection why they would be great to work with or are a good fit for a role.
- Take a few minutes each week and think about who you haven’t talked to or heard from in a while. Reach out with a text, phone call or email. Your message doesn’t have to be long, nor does the conversation. Just let that person know you were thinking about them and wanted to know if they are doing ok.
We all like to know that someone is thinking about us and wishing us well. It makes us feel good. Being an intentional encourager is taking the small extra step to make someone aware that they are on your mind.
You never know what type of inspiration you may ignite in someone.
Thanks for reading! Read more of my Corporate Adulting Blog series at https://monicaojendyk.medium.com/.
