A Letter of Thanksgiving
Dear Loved Ones,
From the above greeting, you may be wondering, “Did she mix up her diary and blog again?” Even though it is early in the morning and even though I do make some wacky mistakes sometimes, this is not one of them. During this week of Thanksgiving in the US, I do mean to write you a letter, addressing you as my “loved ones.”
Because although I do have a life outside of work (I promise: I really, really do!) – full of love and life and the best friends you could ever imagine, I love my work. But more importantly, I love the people in my work: my esteemed colleagues Sarah and Tammy, clients, and our network of business partners around the world.
There are 3 things in this business that I think about all the time and do not take for granted. I am perpetually grateful for these over, and over, and over again…
1. We get to do this incredibly cerebral (read: nerdy) work in the backdrop of a culture that is fun, learning-based, and supportive.
When people ask about my story, I summarize it as this: I’ve been doing technical strategy and operations work for a decade now. It’s so fun to me, and I still salivate over it. (Cue last week to sitting down with a new cash flow forecasting template, shared by a business partner. My head! My heart)! I love being a brainiac and teaching colleagues and clients how applying the right technical lenses, can literally change their businesses and their lives. It’s a thrill that still puts butterflies in my stomach, as I sit here writing this.
Yet in my “past life” as they say, I got to a point where I knew that I needed to change my environment. Mistakes weren’t permitted, talking behind one another’s backs abounded, and aside from personal satisfaction of a job well done, the work felt… inconsequential. Like it was cast into the void, leaving me to wonder, “Does anyone really care if I do this?”
Today, I work in an environment where each Tuesday we have a Learning Cafe to collaborate and teach each other new techniques we’re learning from our client portfolios. Then, we cap off every Friday with our retrospective, where the agenda is,
- What’s my quick win for the week?
- What did I learn (aka mess up)?
- And what’s my priority for the next week + what obstacles are in my way? What support do I need from my colleagues to unblock them?
I’m so proud of our culture and those who make it a reality.
2. We choose our clients.
I think about this all the time, yet when examples arise it still (delightfully) surprises me. Several weeks ago, I was talking to a former colleague/current friend, and she was dreading an upcoming business trip to Colorado to see a nightmare client (who happens to be humongous, financially).
I started to say, “Fire them!” and then caught myself, realizing… “Oh. She has quotas and a boss and an organizational president who wouldn’t let that fly.” But she read my mind before I even got the words out, countering, “You don’t know how lucky you are, to choose your clients.” She’s right.
It is the biggest gift to possess the autonomy to accept clients based on chemistry, true value exchange (from both sides), and even an answer to the question: “Are they making us and our client ecosystem better?”
3. The warmer and more caring we are as humans, the more our business flourishes.
This one is my ultimate gratitude for Thanksgiving 2021, as it’s such a summation of our annual theme: Money & Meaning. You can have commercial success and be a great person. In fact, dare I say that the better of a human being you are, the better business success you can have.
I recently said to a much younger friend, “I’m worried that you’re still hanging out with the ‘cool girls,’ who think it’s cool to be… well, cool. When you get into your mid-thirties, if you want to really flourish, you have to learn that it’s cool to be warm, out-of-your-way-nice, and inclusive.” Cool is out. Warm is in.
This quote says it better than I ever could:
Don’t worry about being cool. Never worry what the cool people think. Life is warmth. You’ll be cool when you’re dead. Head for the warm people. Head for life.
-Matt Haig
So in conclusion, ultimately the thing I’m most proud of… astounded by my lucky stars for… and thankful for every day… is this very interaction of life and business at Ellevated Outcomes. It’s humbling, and a pleasure, and words will never express the depth of my thanks to you.
With warmth & life,
