From the Post: Is time worth a penny to you?
As leaders, we blow the opportunities to see our staff in pennies of time. We fail to see a frustrating moment. We miss the opportunity to smile and nod at someone acknowledging them for doing the right thing. Waiting in line to get our coffee, we stare at our phones missing a penny of time to say hi to someone and share a smile. When we pick up that penny we might say the only nice words someone has heard all day.
If used wisely, those pennies of time can add up to developing trust. People start to see you as an authentic leader, not just a boss.
When we collect enough pennies, we can spend a dime and write a thank you note to a staff member who will remember the thank you long after the dime was spent.
While we sit and wait for our food we are granted a penny of time to smile and tell our significant other how much we appreciate them and why.
As you go through your day look for the pennies. Write them down in your journal so the penny becomes a habit to pick up. The penny of time it takes you to jot down a quick note in your journal can add up to major dividends down the road when you see the value in the penny of time.
Make sure you spend pennies on yourself. If you want to double your investment do or say something for someone else that will make them and you feel good. Take a penny of time and look around the office and see the office, the people, the activity, and the amazing things happening right in front of you that you miss with your nose in your phone.
Pennies of time can make you feel wealthier than money itself. My wife always tells me, that the more you give away the more you get back. When Elijah and I came back from the park Elijah would tell his dad about the ants, the dead spider, and the rocks we found along the walk, not a word about the park at all.
If you don’t do something with time, it spends itself and what we have left at the end of the day is a sink full of dirty dishes.
It’s your choice, you can choose to ignore the penny in the parking lot or you can choose to stop and pick it up.
