Monday, January 13, 2014

Don’t compliment me please!


Last year I was working countless hours for many months on what I considered a very noble cause. Occasionally I would receive a compliment that would make me feel frustrated, sad and irritated. How can a compliment do that? Easy: I was skipping sleep and all kinds of self-care to get everything done, I was creating structures from scratch, being pro-active, resourceful and managing too many things at a time. When a potential problem could arise, I was immediately taking action forwarding the information to other partners, just to receive a plain feedback about a teeny tiny detail of the “unfortunate use” of an… adjective!
I was juggling tasks, deadlines, processes, people and problems with notable results and no acknowledgment. Oh, but I received a few compliments. And I got upset. And I was refusing to accept these compliments. Why?

The answer came with today’s class on Acknowledgment. Acknowledgement is about honoring someone by recognizing his or her accomplishment or something they’ve done that has made a significant difference. It is genuine, authentic and honest and it is purely about the other person, not our own preferences. 
By receiving occasional compliments (that by the way, had nothing to do with the results I was creating), I felt unseen and unappreciated.

You want to honor others? You want to show them that you appreciate and recognize them; that you value and respect their hard work? You want to have a positive impact to someone’s life and/or work?
Acknowledge them! Acknowledge the unique individuals they are and their achievements.
There is nothing as empowering as showing our gratitude and appreciation by the simple act of acknowledgment. 

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