Skip to main content

Word of the Week

At a recent training session, I was sporting my new bracelet - a gift from my mentor Gigi honoring my intended word of the year.  Traci happened to notice, and asked me about the significance of my bracelet.  As I explained I establish an annual word each January in lieu of resolutions, Traci shared this year, she and her coworkers have been focusing on a word each week.  The word is chosen, and they find quotes and images around the word, creating thought and energy discussing what it may mean to each person.  This staff isn't just limiting their conversations to their office, one of them - an awesome TeamMates mentor - is also sharing with her mentee:

I always share our department word of the week with my mentee, we talk about what it means and give some examples.  Then when we meet the next week we try to share ways we used the word and things we observed or maybe I should say how we "lived" the word.  

The first week the word was compassion.  So we talked about what compassion meant and how people show compassion.  Then the next time we met we talked about ways we had showed somebody compassion or if we observed how somebody else was compassionate.  I think it has been good for both of us.


Many of you are receiving Coach Osborne's Impact of a Mentor weekly emails.  Those short inspirations focus on a word as well.  

What a great way to start a conversation. Please share how it works for you!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Strengths Activity: DBT House

The featured activity this week has become a recent favorite of the TeamMates Strengths Team. I learned of it by attending the Green Hills AEA Conference this past summer. The breakout presenter, Louise El Yafoori, taught on mitigating culturally sensitive trauma. This activity comes from the practice of Dialectical Behavior Therapy. While it can be used in very targeted ways for working with certain groups of kids, we found it a powerful reflective exercise that we all could benefit from. We facilitated this activity at our annual strengths day at the Gallup campus this year and the results of this learning and self reflection were highly impactful. Consider doing this activity with your mentee as a way to deepen the conversation around strengths and talent by incorporating discussions of values, role models, support systems, and more. Activity Instructions:  On a blank piece of paper, sketch out a house. Your house should include: a foundation, walls, windows, a door, roof, ch

Achiever: Fulfillment from Accomplishment

People exceptionally talented in the Achiever theme work hard and possess a great deal of stamina. They take immense satisfaction in being busy and productive. Clifton StrengthsFinder We are excited to hear from Stephanie Pravecek about Achiever this week. Steph is the Events Coordinator for TeamMates and leads with Achiever, Responsibility, Discipline, Consistency, and Relator. People with high Achiever are hard workers, list makers, and doers. It is very difficult for Achievers to take a break when there is a task at hand that needs to be completed.  Once one task is complete it is on to the next and then the next. Achievers set out each day to accomplish at least one task but, there is much more fulfillment when multiple things are crossed off the “to-do” list for the day. This does include weekends and vacations, as REST or RELAX are not words you often hear in the vocabulary of an Achiever. As a guest blogger this week, I am going to put more of a personal ton

Strengths Activity- Strengths Metaphors

A fun activity we have done with students is Strengths Metaphors. We often have a tendency to limit and confine our strengths to the two-sentence definition of the theme we find on the 34 list. Strengths manifest uniquely in each person based on their other 5 or 2 themes, their age, their background, their life experiences, and so much more. The Strengths Metaphors activity is a great way to break the themes of out of the boxes we put them in. Fill out the worksheet or engage in a conversation using the prompts on the sheet. Pick one of your top 5 or top 3 themes.  Describe what the theme looks like, what color you would associate with it, what it smells like, what it sounds like, and any other sensory descriptors you would add to the selected theme.  Share with your mentee and ask your mentee to share with you. Share with each other why you chose to assign these specific descriptors to the strength.  If you have similar strengths to each other, discuss the differences between