Thank you for …

I have been incredibly fortunate over the last week to have several conversations with practitioners who are leading teams that make a difference to many peoples lives on a daily basis and who are doing this in an exceptionally complex climate. Their ability to rise to a challenge and to continue smiling is something to be applauded.

This afternoon I met with Leanne, who is the Deputy Manager of Rose Court Nursing Home in Radcliffe, Manchester. She has kindly volunteered to help me create a video to include in an upcoming webinar on Living Shared Values, one of the Guiding Lights for effective workplace cultures that are also good places to work. As part of our preparatory discussion, we talked about the value of positivity and Leanne spoke about ‘lollipop moments’. I was immediately taken back to the TedX talk by Drew Dudley ‘Leading with lollipops’. For anyone who hasn’t watched this, it is worth a viewing. Drew tells the story of how he was greeting new university students who were waiting in line to register by handing out lollipops, and how years later, one of the people in that line identified herself to him to let him know what a significant impact this gesture had had on her life. The crux of the message is that we might not be aware of the impact that we have on the life of others unless we acknowledge and say thank you to those who have made a difference to us – however small.

This point was the essence of my conversation with Leanne about positivity. She shared how as a team, they had purposefully introduced opportunities within the day to thank each other, being specific about what they were thanking them for and the reason behind this. This recognises the possibility for everyone to have a positive impact on another person through their words, actions, presence etc. It also opens the possibility of that person intentionally acting in this way in the future, impacting more widely. In this way we can all be leaders of something – the essence of Drew’s argument, which sits very comfortably with Guiding Light 1 – Collective Leadership. 

So to my call to action. How can you create a lollipop moment – to thank people for the moments when they have made your life better?

I would like to thank Leanne and the Community Nurses that I have connected with this week for being truly inspirational and ‘Guiding Lights’ for health and social care