Mark Faust: The Importance Of Being Eupeptic
Have you ever chosen between vendors or new hires and your choice came down to the difference in the attitudes you saw? After you meet with a dour bore, how do you feel? After meeting with an upbeat, cheerful person, is your mood affected?
Here is the kicker. As a leader, you set the tone for your entire organization. This is why it’s important to be eupeptic! Being upbeat, positive and cheerful is contagious.
In just the same way attitudes in others can impact you, your attitude as a leader is magnified through your leadership bullhorn and can be a tipping point in the direction of your culture.
As COO and president of a multibillion dollar organization, Sandy Costa was sensitive to the attitudes of his team throughout the week. He believed it was critical for him as a leader to not only kick off the week to a positive start but also do the same for the weekend.
Through the week, Sandy had the objective of capturing positive developments from each of the company’s main areas. He wrote down the names and the good news. He identified what aspect of good character each person displayed and made note of that, too.
On Fridays, he was ready to quickly write one of the most important messages of the week. Imagine getting a note from your president with this subject line: Good News Friday!
People looked forward to this 100% positive missive handcrafted by their leader who wanted to recognize the good in others. He praised team members’ character more than the numerical results because he knew results come from team efforts. “But people love to read their names being mentioned and the names of their teammates,” Sandy enthusiastically said.
Sandy’s goal was to send everyone home for the weekend with positive thoughts to consider and share. As you know, due to the stress of many work environments, Mondays are emergency rooms’ top day for heart attacks, but this wasn’t the case at the Fortune 500 Quintiles. I’ve met many people who worked there in Sandy’s era; they all have spoken of how much they loved work because they felt loved.
Could you do a Good News Friday? If you do share good news on a consistent and frequent basis, then I can promise you employees will rate your leadership skills more positively.
In my client relationships, CEOs make a commitment to answering a few “Good News” questions every week or two. First, what have been the biggest successes of the week as an individual and organizationally? Second, what are a couple of things that have moved over the finish line? I even open up most conversations with “What is your good news of the day/or of late?”
Clients knowing they have to answer these questions improves their mindsets and results. You choose whether you’ll be eupeptic or dyspeptic. Using “Good News Friday” as a tool will help to engrain the right attitude into your culture and build positive habits in you and your company’s culture.
