Communication+Management

When I was the business editor for a daily newspaper, some friends and I started a tradition. Every Friday, one of us would stop at our favorite doughnut shop on the way to work and pick up two dozen pastries to share with our colleagues. It was a delicious way to celebrate the end of another crazy week in print journalism. Later, when I was the assignment editor for the same newspaper, one of my jobs was to prepare a list of the stories that were available for each day’s edition. I would indicate which pieces were going to run on A1 and the front of the metro section, as well as the priorities for spots inside the paper. I sent this list to the staff each day, but I didn’t want it to be boring. So, as a lover of bacon, I started including a bacon- or pig-related joke or pun with each day’s email. Many of the funnies I used were real groaners—definitely in the “dad jokes” category—but my colleagues came to expect and (usually) appreciate their inclusion on the daily rundown. I left th...

I was stressed.  I was about two months into a three-month stint of filling in for a colleague who was on leave. She had trained me thoroughly before she left, but the tasks I needed to complete had nothing to do with my education, background, and experience. I did my best, but I was in over my head.  On this particular day, I was struggling to resolve a particularly confusing and irritating problem. I knew people were depending on me to find a solution so they could avoid delays in their work, but it wasn’t coming together.   I felt bad about myself and my predicament. I assumed everyone was upset with me. Then an amazing thing happened. One of my colleagues contacted me out of the blue to thank me. They said they wanted me to know how much they appreciated the work I was doing, even though it was well outside my wheelhouse, and they ended with a few words of encouragement. All told, the message was maybe four sentences. But it completely turned my day around. Inste...