I have the best team! There are a lot of things that make them a terrific team; more on that later…but most recently they did something special for me. They awarded me this beauty. Guess what!? I got my blog trophy!
This is…part joke, part recognition, with a sprinkling of premonition people. See, my work friends didn’t know that I was about to go live with this big blogging initiative, and ultimately my crazy plan to up and leave them in a few years too. So, that’s what makes this a bit ironic. The poking fun, and recognition part has a back story, let me explain.
I love writing.
I think I’ve shared that in the past – and it has been a well-honed craft in my work world. Then, I started out sending my teams ‘weekly updates’ via email with reminders and tidbits that later turned into a weekly blog that was all business with an added bonus of my oldest kiddo – when she was just a babe.
Everybody loves baby pictures, I think. Then it was upgraded to a monthly ‘memo’ blog that was a bit long winded…and meeting like. That wasn’t my best work. More recently, it’s a spot that I share thoughts and ideas about what’s happening in our suite and often how it mixes in with real life lessons as well. It’s much more fun to read…in my humble opinion.
Blogging
Faithfully, I write a blog post at work every month or two as the mood strikes, and the topic inspires me. I have a team of 100+ and although the page gets a lot of hits – my peeps don’t comment much. Sometimes the topics are kind of juicy, answering a rumored question, or sharing some big news. I often find myself rounding and checking in and asking the question; have you read my blog? What do you think about the XYZ? I’m out there fishing to make sure the communication reached my target audience, and the message was delivered as intended.
Where is the thumbs up on SharePoint, anyway? So, the fact that this ready-made trophy actually has the words “HAVE YOU READ MY BLOG”, my same one liner – and makes me the punch line of this joke? Perfection. I can make fun of myself, right along with them. Turns out they DO read my blog.
I got my blog trophy!
Not only did I get this trophy gift, but they awarded me the MVP award for the week. See, our team can nominate one of their peers as Most Valuable Player and our leadership team votes every two weeks on who will take home the recognition; which isn’t much – a couple of movie tickets, a café gift card, and some snacks…but also some face time at the front of the room during a Stand Up meeting while on video for our work at home team. What’s not to covet about that? But we’ve limited this award for employees only – not leaders. They broke all of the rules for me. How sweet is that?!
Side note: THIS is why good teenage girls always go after bad boys, isn’t it? The rule breaking wins hearts somehow. I digress… The award comes with some hand written notes on the back of a simple little certificate that gets laminated. This is the real treasure, all of those words of appreciation – forever secured under a piece of plastic, priceless!
Then of course, the icing on the cake of this little award is that I was starting THIS blog – and they didn’t even know! As I was being awarded, I was crafting posts to prep for launch day. It was meant to be. So, if you were wondering if I had the right experience for this gig; I do. With a trophy to prove it. LOL Now to update my resume…and dust off my trophy.
Thank you for joining me on my journey to influence.
Sarah