More than 25 years ago, I was sitting in my 10th-grade class when Ms Anis (bless her), our wonderful Geography (and General Knowledge) teacher, walked in and proclaimed, “Children, today we’re going to do an interesting exercise.”
She continued when the class fell silent in anticipation.
“I want you all to take a sheet of paper and divide it into rows using a scale. Then you will write each of your classmates’ names against one row.”
She further explained how she would call out each student’s name, and she wanted every other student to write one positive quality of that student in the row they had marked for them on their sheet.
At the end of the class, our teacher collected those narrow strips of paper (cut along the rows) for each student and handed them over one after the other.
“Here you go, son. Compliments of your class!” she smiled lovingly as she handed over a clump of paper strips to me.
For somebody who felt extremely unappreciated and worthless at that time, the warm compliments of my classmates had a profound impact on me. That exercise by my teacher was one of the best things I felt somebody had ever done for me until then.
I held on to those strips of ‘appreciation notes’ for many years before they fell prey to time.
I now directly lead a team of 22 at Boeing. They aren’t 15-year-olds but professionals who range between the ages of 23 to 40+. Yet, when some of the most promising among them one day told me how underappreciated they often felt, I felt a need to develop a culture of mutual appreciation. Remembering this story from my life. I then put my life learning into action.
The spirit of the team exercise I conceived was the same, though this no longer being the 1990s, we used Excel spreadsheets instead of paper, and instead of collecting and distributing paper strips, I improvised and spent a couple of weekends creating a beautiful template that could be printed into physical certificates everybody could hold on to for a long time.
Our team celebrated appreciation week in the last week of November, and appreciation certificates were presented to every team member, much to their delight, from the Senior leader of our division Ajit Singh (who wholeheartedly supported the initiative).
Sharing appreciation is a wonderful thing. The lack of appreciation often detrimentally impacts our morale and self-worth, impacting all aspects of our lives. I hope that the team exercise taught my team a valuable lesson that they will pass on.
Thank you Anis Ms. It took me over a quarter of a century to pass your baton on, but your gesture made a difference to many lives like mine and I hope it does the same for the ones I was fortunate to pass your lesson on to.
Note: If you are an MTRS alumnus, do let me know if this tradition passed down over the years and is still around. 😊
PS: Shared one of the appreciation certificates we made (with due consent) on the cover of this post.
#AppreciationCulture #LeadershipLessons
Six Strings For Supper 