Past Belkin colleague Ryan Peterson recently began posting his “weekly wins” on LinkedIn. My impression is that he did this in part to steel his resolve during is (successful!) job search, and in part to begin a practice of positive self-talk. As he put it,
I find it easy to be encouraging and optimistic when talking about others. In the past, however, I have struggled to talk to myself in the same positive way.
Ryan Peterson, Weekly Wins #1
But recognizing my own wins doesn’t come easily. We use 15Five at work, and each week are asked “what went well last week?” This is the hardest part of my 15Five check in to fill in. Ryan points out,
What I’ve been struggling to overcome when identifying wins is to allow myself to accept a small win, such as getting lunch with my mom. Also just the practice of taking time to write them down is “forcing” me to be reflective. I’m optimistic that as I continue on this path it will become easier to identify my own wins, and I’ll be able to model this for my family at home, and in the workplace.
Ryan Peterson, Weekly Wins #7
Accepting a small win may also be a piece of my challenge.
I have already begin thanking others at work as a weekly practice, one I hope comes across as authentic; with this new practice I hope to foster an accurate feeling of regular accomplishment.
So! Three four wins for this week:
- I witnessed people on my team enthusiastically collaborating and demonstrating gratitude for each other, suggesting that my effort forming a cohesive team is working.
- I helped an embattled product time seize the crisis-opportunity created by the diversion of their engineering staff with a solid research plan and a method to capture what they will learn as they prepare for a new take on their product.
- I had a lovely meeting with someone in People Operations where I got a sneak peek into our culture survey results, lending credence to insights gained by looking at exit interview data.
- I used Local to transform my slow-as-something-really-slow blog into a speedy static site. I’m not shilling for Local, here; it just seemed like a quick way to make this change.
Same time next week?