#Dignity March 16

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Today contribution to the 30-Day Letter Writing Coach4aday Challenge is on DIGNITY.

The challenge involves composing a letter to yourself when you were an earlier age. The goal is to focus on a value, habit, or choice that needs to be adopted or made.

Today’s letter is a lesson you learned in the past 10 years on the importance of dignity in the workplace. This came about because a friend and professional colleague exposed you to a book that provided clarity on what qualifies someone to be dignified.

Day 16-Letter-Self Worth

January 2016

Dear Still Learning Dan:

One of the ways you become enriched and grow working at a university is being exposed to leaders in all walks of life. In 2015 you will meet one of those exceptional people who will come to UNC Pembroke as a consultant but later become a trusted full-time employee and dear friend. His name is Mark Gogal.

Mark will recommend to you many books and leadership principles. One book titled The Fred Factor will galvanize where to find DIGNITY in the workplace.

This non-fiction book will talk about leadership lessons the author Mark Sanborn learned from his postman who was named Fred.

Defining dignity can simply be described as being worthy of honor or respect. That further means that being dignified is having a sense of pride or self-worth in all that a person does.

Dignified Leaders

When I first started attending First Presbyterian Church, I encountered an example of The Fred Factor. A gentleman named James Fletcher modeled being dignified. He did a hundred little things to get the church ready for Sunday services. When he passed away in 2016 the church operation manual had to be edited because he took on tasks that had never been done before. Today in our church another leader named Margie Herthel does the same thing.

When elected officials want to talk about economic development they often will use as a rationale that work gives people dignity. What you will learn reading this book is that people give work dignity. That happens because they decide to set a higher standard than what is expected. They find a way to kick status quo to the curb. James and Margie are two examples, but you will encounter countless others.

Coaching for a lifetime has taught you a lesson that position/title/ranking does not determine performance. NFL, MLB, and NBA rosters are full of athletes that were rated 3 stars out of 5. What the real-world values is performance and over the long game that is what determines position. Pay attention to the dignified people in your life and emulate them.

Grown Up Dan