A Summary of a Recent Keynote Speech

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to work for the city of Montrose Colorado.   My client wrote up a summary of my talk and I publish it here with her permission.

2016 is the Year of Being Happy and Awesome

The January 14, 2016 County wide employee meeting was a celebration of and appreciation for our employees and what they accomplished in 2015. We recognized employee service anniversaries, recapped County accomplishment for 2015 and outlined what to expect in 2016.

In celebrating our employees, we invited motivational speakerThe second Brad Montgomery to inspire us to be awesome and have fun at work. He contends happy (awesome) people are more productive and ultimately successful. At times organizational leaders think having fun at work is counter-productive but Brad and others disagree.  Shawn Achor writes in the book The Happiness Advantage, “Conventional wisdom holds that if we work hard we will be more successful and if we are more successful we will be happy. If we can just find that great job, win that next promotion, lose those five pounds, etc. happiness will follow. But recent discoveries have shown that this formula is actually backwards: Happiness actually fuels success.”  Brad showed us that having fun at work can lead to higher productivity with less energy, improved customer service and better business practices.

Brad also told us one way to have fun is to embrace awesome! By embracing awesome we are raising ourselves to higher levels.  Embracing awesome is at the core of what our County values, Serving with PRIDE (People Representing Integrity and Delivering Excellence), are all about.  Brad reminded us of a couple key components to being AWESOME:

1. Know You’re Awesome – most of us don’t recognize our potential and what we contribute to the Montrose County team on a daily basis. We all bring unique and amazing talents that contribute to the success of the team.  Are you using all of your talents and potential?

1. Celebrate Awesome – Brad challenged us to find and have “confetti moments”. What are confetti moments?  We tend to forget even the small contributions we make should be celebrated. One example he gave was, “I showed up for work today, confetti, on time, more confetti! Be like a magician and celebrate every feat you accomplish.

1. Embrace Your Awesomeness – own up to the fact that you have oodles to share.  As you embrace your awesomeness, others will notice and begin to share theirs. We then begin to raise our standards and expectations and become an awesome organization.

1. Share Your Awesome – throw awesome bombs whenever possible.  Recognize people when they are embracing their awesome or sharing their awesome with others. Awesome bombs come in many forms; a simple thank you for all you do, a note to a person’s supervisor about how he/she went above and beyond or solved a difficult situation. What are awesome bombs you can give to your co-workers, supervisors or even your friends and family?

1. Life is Awesome – don’t forget to have fun and enjoy all it has to offer. If you want to achieve more, at work and at home, and be basically AWESOME, you need to systematically invest in happiness. The good news is this investment is basically free.

Happiness and awesomeness are attitudes that you choose.  The happiness fairy is not going to come waltzing in with a magic wand to make you happy. Nobody else is going to make you happy or make your job fun, it is your choice. Coming to the realization that happiness and job satisfaction are things we can control is often enough to kick start joy. Be happy and awesome in all you do. Make 2016 the year of AWESOME!

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