Work hard, be kind

“I always enjoy talking to you.”

A colleague said this to me today, followed by some additional comments about our conversations always being positive that I didn’t get verbatim, because I was so struck by the significance of the simple initial statement: I always enjoy talking to you.

As the wise philosopher Conan O’Brien once said, “Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen.” For me, relationships are an amazing thing. Connecting with a colleague on a personal level beyond whatever project we’re working on is an amazing thing. Making someone feel important or valued is a very amazing thing.

Kindness is one of my core values, and while it may sounds trite, I truly believe that it can change the world. As Brené Brown discusses in her book Dare to Lead, values aren’t a choice but rather a definition of who we are in our lives. There are so many things I wish for my daughters and am working to teach them, including bravery, diligence, inclusion, and humor, but there is no question in my mind that raising kind girls into kind adults is the most important of all. My husband wouldn’t agree with this, and that’s ok, he has different core values, and that’s one of the many reasons that we make a great team.

Leslie Knope and Ted Lasso are my spirit animals, and while they are fictional characters, I aspire to their very real qualities, mostly the way that they make people feel. Leslie celebrated and remembered everything and made everyone feel important. While my memory isn’t nearly as sharp as hers, I can still celebrate the little things and the achievements of others to raise them and make them feel important.

And Ted, oh my, Ted Lasso. Y’all, if you haven’t watched Ted Lasso, this is a direct endorsement to drop what you’re doing, find it on Apple TV, and settle in for a long binge. You’ll thank me later. In this series, Ted, a lovable, football coach (both American football and what we Americans know as soccer) is witty (me, not so much), optimistic (which I consciously try to be), and encouraging (I have yet to hang up my pompoms). It has become my direct goal in life to make everyone I encounter feel the way that Ted Lasso makes people (i.e. the fictional characters on the show) feel. Because really, there’s enough negativity in the world, and it doesn’t take large acts to be the good.

It means so much to me that a colleague appreciates my positive attitude, because it takes work. I feel ridiculously fortunate to be employed in a field that I am passionate about (using technology to drive change and improve employee/customer experience), but goodness, the work is hard, the hours are long, and the expectations are unreasonable. The irony of working in change management is also that I struggle with the consistent change, which gives me empathy for those I’m coaching through the change - those who are directly impacted by whatever transformation I am leading. While I am an optimist by nature, staying positive while being beaten down is a skill, one to which I have to stay dedicated.

Science has also proven the power of positive thinking time and time again with mental and physical benefits including reduced stress, better cardiovascular health, and better resistance to illness. Details on these benefits and how to practice positive thinking is available through the Mayo Clinic.

Please seek professional help if you are experiencing depression, thoughts of suicide, or feel like you need support. I am not a healthcare professional, and positive thinking does not replace professional care. The National Alliance on Mental Health (NAMI) offers a free help line to answer questions, offer support, and provide guidance on practical next steps.

Kindness is free - throw it around like confetti. Every day can be a party worthy of confetti if you choose: use the fancy dishes, wear the shoes, take pictures (I’m personally working on this one), and be generous with your kindness.

Be the Leslie Knope of whatever you do

“I care. I care a lot. It’s kind of my thing.”

These words, verbatim, came out of my mouth today and stopped me dead in my tracks. I have long admired Leslie Knope for her dedication, fearlessness, and selflessness, and quoting naturally her feels like I might have a tiny real life Leslie inside.

Yes, I know she is a fictional character, yet she’s still a role model: she workes diligently to improve her community and made others feel valued and important (cue Ted Lasso, another fictional character I aspire to). You better believe I consciously channeled my inner Leslie multiple times during my recent campaign.

And I do care a lot.

Who’s up for a Leslie Knope challenge? To be the Leslie of whatever you do? Caring for your community and the individuals in it - in business and in life. Think of the change that could happen.
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I had forgotten that I designed the images below to print and frame in my office! I started these shortly before the shut down when my husband moved into my office and eventually took it over. I begrudgingly moved into the guest room and haven’t decorated it, but now it’s time. I’m pretty sure that’s what Leslie would do.

Note: Only love to all the cats, cat people, small dogs, and small dog people out there. I have a cat, and I love him. I also have a giant fluffy dog, the two are best friends, and this Ron Swanson quote makes me laugh out loud thinking about my fur babies.

Searching for my story

“I have nothing worthwhile to say.”

“My ideas aren’t creative enough.”

“No one will listen to me.”

Snuggled in my bed last night under my three year old daughter’s bright pink knitted blanket, lovingly made by her late great-grandmother – the Strutt family matriarch whose husband my daughter is named after – sipping on a cup of hot sleepy time tea in a Baby Yoda mug, I dreamed and planned my personal 2022 goals.

Back in 2020, I set a goal of creating AmyStrutt.com, which I purchased and published on December 30 and 31 of that year. I spent 2021 revising the site and making only a few blog posts, which I blamed on time: I finished my master’s in the spring and ran for local office in the fall. Sure these things kept me busy, but they also would have been great blog topics. So why didn’t I write about them? 

The answer hit me instantly, like a 1-2 punch in a Peloton Kendall Toole boxing class: I didn’t think I had worthwhile things to say about either topic. Or anything else for that matter.

Ya’ll, I’m a writer. I’ve been writing professionally my entire career. I’ve been working in internal communications and change management for a decade, I love it, and I’m good at it. But I work with executives and business leaders to tell their stories, consulting with them on strategy and tactics to finely tune their messaging. I haven’t told my own story in…well…forever. And because of this, I have doubts about my story being interesting, my thoughts being original, and anyone taking using their precious time to read what I have to write.

Also – and if you don’t know this you don’t know. Or if you know, you DO know – content is time consuming. The beautiful social media and blog posts canvassing the internet are [generally] not thrown together, and each one is crafted through hours of drafting, revising, and often visual image creation, either through graphic design or photography. There’s an entire study behind “pink collar” jobs – the demanding and time consuming social media jobs most often held by female-identifying individuals.

I know I can make time to write, if writing for myself is a priority. And through my goal setting, I’m figuring out that it is. I rarely post on social media, because I consciously try to be present: this was a huge 2021 goal of mine which I’m continuing in 2022, because my six year old asked me more than once last year to put down my phone, and it is not ok that my phone gets more attention than she does. But I do want to engage with old friends and colleagues on social and leverage LinkedIn to build my professional credibility, and to do that, I need to post content that is insightful and worth reading. I’m working on a strategy to connect longer blog posts here on my website to shorter social posts, all while finding my own voice and leveraging the expertise that I know I have.

What would you like to read about this year? What topics would make you pause and spend your finite resource of time reading? Are you a content creator (hint: if you post on social, you are!) and how do you determine what to write about? How can I connect my social platforms and website in an efficient way that is interesting and worthwhile for my audience? (This last question is one I’m working through for myself, but please please please share your thoughts – I’d be grateful.)

Cheers to 2022, more thoughtful content, and moving forward together.

If you had an hour...

We lost an hour this weekend. If you had it back, what would you do with it?

Sleep?

Binge Netflix?

Make it to church (or watch the livestream)?

Not feel like you were hit by a bus? - This would be me!

How does a one hour change make such a huge biological difference?

My kids can’t sleep. My body feels terrible. Everything is just off.

Does DST still have purpose? I do love the extra daylight, so I’d argue yes purely from that standpoint. It is a practice that originated long ago around the world to save energy. Check out this National Geographic article to learn more about its history.

Popular Mechanics argues that DST is a good thing, and that its benefits include better health, lower crime rates, and reduced energy consumption. As I already mentioned, the extra sunlight in the evenings is great, and that seems to be general consensus. But winter days are short and dark no matter what, so why do we make the switch back to Standard Time for a short four months each year? Why don’t we stay on DST all year? Well, turns out, that is a question gaining popularity, and a bi-partisan bill - the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021 - is currently on the table.

Would you support this bill to stay on DST all year? Or do you like to spring forward and fall back? Let me know what you think in the comments! Especially if you like the change - please share your thoughts!

Also, how old were you when you learned that it’s Daylight Saving Time, not Daylight Savings Time? I was today years old.

Hollyday 2021

If you visited social media last Friday – any social media site – you may have noticed #happybirthdayholly trending. Glancing at any post would have showed you that this originated at the Widget Factory where I work, beside more than 266,000 of my best friends across the globe.

So what happened?

An email issue caused a distribution list error and resulted in the entire company - all 266,000 employees plus company contractors and consultants - receiving an email meant for a specific team.

And what was this email about?

Why, Holly’s birthday of course!

Amy, why are you telling me about this?

Thank you for asking! Coincidentally, I actually know Holly. I worked directly with her in my previous role. When I received the original email, I thought that I was mistakenly still on the team distribution list, and it wasn’t until I received the first 10 or so replies from employees all over the company that I realized this was way bigger than little ol’ me mistakenly being on a distribution list.

Ok, cool…so what actually happened?

Let’s do a little math: I have 266,000 best friends here at the Widget Factory (best friends = teammates, and that’s a conservative estimate because it doesn’t include the contractors, consultants, and others who aren’t classified as employees). More than 300 ‘reply alls’ were sent in reply to the original message, all of which went to all of my best friends, which means that more than 80 million emails were received around the world in regards to Holly’s birthday! Guinness World Records doesn’t report a record for most birthday emails sent, but the Widget Factory collectively may have set some sort of record last week.

And those 300 replies, well, those can be divided into three categories:

1.       Happy birthday Holly!

2.       You have the wrong person on this email/I don’t know Holly.

3.       Stop replying all! (My personal favorite, and another potential world record: most Stop Replying All emails sent.)

There were some rumors that it wasn’t actually Holly’s birthday, rather that her birthday is in April. I don’t know where that originated, but I can confirm that January 8 is Holly’s birthday, and a day that the Widget Factory should consider adding as a new company hollyday (get it?!) The company even got in on the fun, wishing Holly a happy birthday on various social media platforms.

Every year, the Widget Factory names a plush animal after an actual historical animal that worked for the company way back in the day when it delivered the original widgets. My fingers are crossed that one of those horses was named Holly and that the 2021 pony will be named after that horse and the birthday girl. And the Widget Factory should consider naming Holly its spokesperson, similar to Flo from Progressive and Jake from State Farm. Holly from Widget Factory - how great is that?

In my 10+ years with the Widget Factory, last Friday was one of my favorite days. This error brought our company together like never before, which is welcomed anytime, but needed during these lonely days of 2020/2021. It gave us something to unite around, something light and happy, and I know I’m not the only one who has Holly’s birthday saved on my calendar for years to come.

With all of that said, no, of course this is not a best practice. Lots of lessons were learned from this experience, namely, don’t reply all telling people to stop replying all. But it does show that people need things to celebrate and a reason to do it together. May we continue to find moments of celebration and unity in the every day.

So Holly, wishing you the happiest birthday from your best friends across the globe! Here’s to it being one to remember…for all of us.

We made it!

January 1, 2021: how sweet does that sound? We made it. Good riddance 2020 – you were the worst. What a dark year.

Personally, my family lost five dear family members this year. No closure, no goodbyes, no holding each other, no reminiscing about the good memories. That was the worst part. We also lost our beloved Newfoundland, Tiberius. But I am so grateful for family and our gentle giant and all of the memories.

Work has been long and demanding. It has taken a physical toll in the form of back pain and gray hair, but I’ve been able to spend a few minutes each day taking care of myself through exercise, and I’ve formed some incredible friendships with coworkers thanks to those long hours.

My dear friends have lost loved ones and been through trying emotional challenges this year, and we weren’t able to connect as usual to support each other. Local businesses that I love have been forced to close their doors. 2020 was just the all-around worst (knock on wood…it’s going to get better!)

I’ve been thinking hard about 2021 and setting my goals for the year, and it hit me hard that I, personally, had some incredible rays of light through the 2020 darkness:

  • Played a key role in emergency business continuity work that enabled more than 13,000 team members and customers to e-sign documents this year.

  • Never in my wildest dreams imagined that I’d be serving in a public office role, yet here I am sitting on City Council.

    • Side note: I’ve heard research that – in general – men only have to be asked to apply for something once, while women have to be asked three times. This was definitely true for me in this situation, and I am fortunate to have a tenacious and persistent mentor who didn’t give up on me. Ladies, take the chances!

  • Completed three graduate courses, including the hardest course in my program, and maintained a 4.0 grade point average.

  • Was thoughtful about how I invested my dollars into my local community by shopping small and buying local.

  • Read the Bible in its entirety.

  • Connected with friends and family on a deeper level, because we were forced to talk. Like actually talk. And we laughed so epically hard thanks to the filters, online games, and stories.

  • Celebrated birthdays, new babies, retirements, back to school, and basically anything and everything else we could possibly celebrate, however small.

  • Spent more time with my family, and more of that time was outside.

This doesn’t even touch on the good things that happened outside of my control: election of our first female Vice President, our nation uniting for the social change that is so ridiculously long overdue, my sister-in-law was honored with an incredible national award, and the list goes on.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of terrible things that go hand in hand with the good, and much of it helped me recognize my privilege. Which is a lot of what I’m thinking about in setting my 2021 goals. More about that coming soon.  

So friends, what rays of light emerged in your 2020? As we say farewell to that terrible-horrible-no good-very bad year, what victories and joys, however big or small, can we celebrate for you?

Here’s to a new and better year. I’m cheering for you. xo