When coping with “different” is a lonely place.

We read all the time about people being “ engaged” it’s a buzzword and it’s around all the professional employee surveys and the business community.

What we all want is that “engaged” employee! They can help us achieve greatness and move on. After all we are told if we don’t change we are moving backwards!

Its simple really, we want people to like what they love and then transfer their love to the work they do.

I really enjoyed the book by John Gordon – “ Soup” one of the special ingredients’ he talks about is love. I tested that theory with a couple of friends who had baked the same blueberry cake at a BBQ party.

Why with the same ingredients did they taste different and they never tasted the same twice made!

They said “When we have time to bake we know we take more care and put more love into our work and it does make a difference”!

When I speak to new hires I talk about their absolute need to bring their hearts and minds and their spirit to the work they do at the hospital where I worked.

I say it makes no difference whether you are a direct care giver or you wash the floors, its how you go about doing what you do that will be noticed by the patients and their families and its all important, and all of what we do is part of the experience for all who come for care.

The only thing that really differentiates business and much else for that matter are the people.

We all know that and in his book the “Dream Manager “ Mathew Kelley said that we will only become a really successful organization (community) “when the people who work there become better versions of themselves” for it is they that will make us what we can ever dream to be.

I talk much about change to people in the work I do and yet I find that many people find “different” to be a big enough challenge. Whether it is a different office, a different phone line or a new job some distance away from there loved ones.

We are all creatures of habit. Yet all our habits are different and that’s why we need to inspire the hearts and minds and then all else will follow.

What I know from recent conversations is that it’s a lonely world giving of your self and sacrificing things that you love and I also know that we must not forget that simply moving into the world of “different” can be just as hard as the world of “change”.

It’s our job to notice these things and be there to support our friends and colleagues and to give our love and support.

At the end of the day our greatest quality and gift is love. Yet its not often that we see that as a guiding behavior or value or competence….