Use ‘National Day Day’ To Inspire You and Your Team
One of the best ways to keep your team members on their toes and excited to come to work each day, is to have a little variation in their work days. Occasionally, you want to toss them a curve.
However, trying to come up with original ideas and get them scheduled isn’t easy. With that in mind, I’m declaring today “National Day Day.”
Today is the day when you look over the calendar of special “National Days” and find some that you think would be great to incorporate into your company’s routine in one way or another. There are a variety of websites that note these days, like the National Day Calendar site, but to get you started, here are some I think you and your crew might enjoy.
February 17: National Random Acts of Kindness Day. Challenge your employees to do something especially nice for a coworker or a customer on this day…and don’t forget to include yourself in the challenge. Use it as a teaching moment. Encourage everyone to remember how good it felt to have done something kind and to have received unexpected kindness. That way this may become more than a once-a-year event!
March 3: Several special days fall on the first Friday in March, including the National Day of Unplugging, National Employee Appreciation Day, and National Salesperson Day. You could combine employee appreciation and salesperson day into a special event, like a catered lunch or after-work outing. And, if your work requires people to be constantly “plugged into” the Internet, try to find a way for them to get some relief.
April 19: National Wear Your Pajamas to Work Day. This might not work for every business, but if it works for yours, relax on the first day back to work after individual income tax filings must be in the mail this year. (That’s right, the deadline is April 18 in 2017.)
May 19: National Bike to Work Day. Use this day to emphasize fitness. Recognize individuals are creating healthy habits in their lives, such as biking or walking to work. Share what they do as a strategy to inspire others.
June 2: National Leave the Office Early Day. Need I make a suggestion for the best way to celebrate this day?
July 12: National Simplicity Day. Have your team focus on ways to simplify processes in your business. How can you make their lives easier or make the customer journey more efficient? As with random acts of kindness, simplification should be a year-round process and a goal for every employee. Bake this one into your culture.
I’ve given you six special days that you can use to inspire events and actions in your business during the next half of the year. Frankly, they don’t have to happen on the exact calendar days assigned to them. Use them in the best ways that fit your business.