Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 38 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Make it a Honey Day
— From The Art of People: 11 Simple People Skills That Will Get You Everything You Want by Dave Kerpen
Happy Easter! Happy Passover! Hope it’s a joy-filled holiday with your family if you celebrate it.
Growing up, I remember loving Easter because my mom made it very special: when we were little she decided that the Easter Bunny would bring us presents, above and beyond the traditional Easter eggs. So, in the Escalante household, besides Santa Claus coming in December and the Three Kings bringing presents in early January (yes, we Mexican kids have it so good in the holiday presents department!), the Easter Bunny would show up a few months later bearing gifts. One of my favorites was a fluffy, stuffed rabbit toy I called Ynnub (bunny spelled backwards… lots of neurons went into crafting that name…). To this day, decades later, the Easter Bunny continues to bring gifts and now includes my husband and our dog. (I love you so much, Mom, thank you! I know you’re laughing out loud reading this.)
I share this because it’s a perfect example of the topic that I want to talk about today: lovely, made up celebrations that delight and create beautiful memories. How can we make it special for our loved ones, our coworkers, our clients, etc? What kind of holiday or special gift can we come up with to recognize or celebrate an accomplishment, something special, or just because?
One of the best ones that I have come across was “Honey Day” as described in Dave Kerpen’s book The Art of People. Dave is the Chairman and Co-Founder of Likeable, a digital agency (with a great story behind it). He found himself at the office one day thinking it was another regular day… until Brian Murray, the Director of talent and recruitment announced: “Today is Honey Day. The entire day will be dedicated to appreciating the amazing work that Honey does for us.” Out came the balloons and ribbons and even a cake in Honey’s honor: surprise! Honey Comer-Cantrell is the VP of Client Services at Likeable today, yet back then, in Dave’s words, “From the little I know, Honey is a terrific employee. But she wasn’t a manager and hadn’t accomplished anything remarkable. That was the whole point… Just by recognizing someone who worked hard and represented the Likeable core values well, Brian sent a message not only to Honey but to the rest of the team and to would-be team members that this was a group that celebrated hard work and loved to surprise and delight. [… And while no one can] afford to surprise and delight everyone all the time, by surprising and delighting some people at random and unexpected times, you get everyone thinking that she could be the recipient of that special something… the next time.” (Meet Dave, Brian and Honey here.)
When was the last time you had a holiday created just for you? When was the last time you did something to make someone feel i-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-y special? Keep in mind that causing delight doesn’t have to cost any money. “It’s all about making people feel special and doing things a little differently to accomplish that.” Also, you don’t have to throw a big party or celebration, you can delight people on a daily basis in small ways too: a kind word, a nice email, a heartfelt compliment, a handwritten thank you note, a piece of candy, a magazine or newspaper clipping (or link via email) of something you saw that reminded you of them… any thoughtful gesture… they all go a long way to brighten up someone’s day.
ACTION
TODAY: Put your creativity hat on and make a list of the various ways—big and small—in which you can delight your family, clients, coworkers, etc.
FUTURE: From the list that you made, select the first way in which you will delight someone. Plan it and make it happen. Depending on what that is, you can schedule a few of these actions in your calendar to make them happen throughout the year. You can choose recurring dates, or at random—such as Honey Day—or you can even go as far as to create a unique tradition—such as the Easter Bunny presents. Enjoy!!
Happy delighting, and cheers to you for creating beautiful, indelible memories!
Know someone who’d be delighted to read this? Please share via email, Facebook or Twitter, thanks!