Happy Valentine's Day!
This week we've looked at love. It started Monday where I pleaded for the world to have more love. We then looked at change and how to love becoming the change thanks to Maria Dozlic. Shana Galen, romance novelist and mom helped us examine our dreams and reminded us to fall in love with ourselves. Frank Glaviano shared his 7 attributes of winning...a real tribute to an organization that was feeling defeated and a testament of the love he had for the people he led.
Today, my plea to you is to develop a professional crush.
Yep. If you don't have one or two, it's time to develop a professional crush.
Look for people in your business or organization that you can develop a real appreciation for. These can be colleagues, customers, successors, suppliers, competitors, and the like. These are people you admire because they are professionals you can learn a lot from or have learned from.
When I joined BP, I got to work alongside an astronaut, Jim Wetherbee (the only one to land the space shuttle five times) and distinguished members of the US military. At Shell, I was always in the room with the brightest engineers, inventors and technologists. At the Junior League, many years back as a young volunteer, I had a professional crush on a woman who eventually became the president of the organization and a great friend.
Crushes are healthy. Having admiration for another human being is a beautiful unconditional expression of love.
Admittedly, I have professional crushes on Maria, Shana and Frank.
Maria didn't give up on her dream to have a family. When I met her for the first time, I was captivated by her story of change and how it shaped her life. She's always there to show the possibilities, see the change and help others.
Shana left teaching to write. She had the strength to lose sight of the shore so she could swim across the ocean. That takes heart. Anyone with that kind of love is someone I want to know connect and learn from.
And, Frank has always had a winning attitude despite difficulty. I watched Frank and read about him when we worked in the same company, but it wasn't until he retired, I got to know him. And after Hurricane Katrina, he fought hard to support New Orleans and his employees. His heart for people is deep.
So on the day you celebrate your "loves", I ask you to consider thinking about those you admire in your work. Seek them out. Remind them why they have been special to you in your life. They are human and need to know they are loved for the greatness they bring to the world.
Have a professional crush? What makes them so special to you?
