Issue 102: Is Nourish a Weak Business Word?
“Life is 10 percent what you make it, and 90 percent how you take it.”
- Irving Berlin
Mj sharing the Traffic Light Approach with three changemakers (volunteers)
While in South Carolina, I came across this all-natural boutique called Nourish. After purchasing a few products, I thought about the word nourish.
Is nourish a weak word for business?
I asked several male and female colleagues this question, which ignited an exciting conversation about using the word. Being speakers and trainers, we dove into the synonyms and antonyms of the word. For synonyms, cultivate, encourage and sustain changed the perspective. The "aha" came with the antonyms, abandon, ignore, and neglect.
When we talked about the word nourish, it now had a stronger impact on our discussions. One repeated question was, "What areas of our professional lives do we need to nourish, so we don't neglect them?"
Here are some of the discussion results.
Nourish our professional connections. Identifying when we are not cultivating our professional relationships can help us design a plan of action. Most often, when we are in our busy season, we're in a "get it done" mode. Would a quick coffee and conversation before you head into the office work? My colleague Gail Gloeckl will invite several colleagues for a happy hour. It's a great way to meet new people and cultivate established relationships.
Nourish our professional lives. To go to the next level, whether advancing our careers or growing our businesses, requires an investment in professional development. Regarding professional development, decide where you want to be in a year, three, or five. Then, to sustain long-range goals, we need a plan. What's your plan to get there? Do you need to invest in coaching, training, or technology?
Nourish our brains. What are you reading to challenge your beliefs and thoughts and increase your knowledge? What we feed our brain makes a difference in our attitudes, mindset, and professional development.
Nourish our teams/employees. Our teams are the backbone of our organizations. They give us the opportunity to do what we do best. As such, they need to know how grateful we are to them. We can do it by showing them appreciation on a consistent basis. (Thank you, Amy and Jess. You both rock!)
Although my initial question, "Is nourish a weak business word," had a different answer at the start, in the end, everyone agreed that the way they thought about the word, nourish, changed.
Mj Happenings!
I finished two training contracts last week and looking forward to the new agreements kicking off in September.
I'll head to Columbus, OH, and Wilmington, NC, in August, adding a few virtual programs to the schedule.
October is heading in the same direction as June, one of the busiest months of 2022. I booked two more speaking engagements for October.
Until next time, Power-Up, Play-Up™, and Bounce-Up™!
Mj
P.S. With numerous inquiries, I'll kick off two new digital programs soon!
