At a previous firm I used to work for, I had a colleague who would periodically send the managing principal emails about certain team members, unbeknownst to them. Essentially, he would call attention to specific team members that he saw were working well with the rest of the team or going the extra mile, because he knew [the principals] might never have an opportunity to see it for themselves.
I had never encountered that before. One day, a junior designer turned to this guy and gave him a huge hug, because they had received an email from a principal expressing how grateful the firm was for their work, because of the email this person sent.
I don't think we all have to start sending secret emails to our firm leadership, but I think this culture of recognition amongst team members could be a fruitful practice. With the hustle and bustle of the end of the year approaching and with the closing of Thanksgiving just a couple of weeks ago, perhaps we might challenge ourselves to express gratitude to the team members we work beside everyday.
Architecture is a tough business, and collaboration can sometimes be a difficult and arduous pursuit: we get caught up in our CD production, our design sketches, our coordination phone calls. But the camaraderie amongst the project team is always a fruitful and beneficial outcome and taking a proactive step in telling a team member what you genuinely appreciate about them can be a practical step toward that result.
7 Comments
This is exactly why I hate this profession, this right here.
We don't talk about this in school, or in the profession; Radical[?] Kindness. It's an Us vs. Them attitude, and the Us = Us and the Them = Us. Obviously there are going to be personalities that drive us stupid, but by and large, we're all doing the best we can, and we should start cutting each other some slack, at school and the workplace. This inculcation to cut each other happens early, and this is a helpful piece to acknowledge that fact. We are not the enemy, this is not a competition.
Can I interest you in this large megaphone? I don't think this can be said LOUDLY ENOUGH.
Curious, was the former team member in a senior role?
He was a Job Captain and reported to a Project Architect. So more mid-level. He is in a senior role now at another firm though.
Patience, humility, wisdom, appreciation.
let me know when you find that unicorn.
The elements of compassion according to Buddha. Humility can also be read as generosity.
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