Careers and Enterprise Blog
Susannah Gilbert
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We’re in the countdown to Christmas. The advent calendars are being opened, and and we’ve got four reflective blogs for you, using four words associated with this season, but applying them to the workplace. We hope they’re an encouragement to you, and give you something to ponder. Enjoy…
We start with hope.
Firstly, I think more often than not, hope is very much a verb – an active word. We actively hope for whatever is on our mind, we expel energy with our hoping – being hopeful can be very tiring!
How can we utilise hope in the workplace? Well, in a number of ways.
Hope is a great way of engaging people, by sharing the vision. When we all know what we’re working towards, and ideally when we work towards it together, we can remain hopeful, and inspire hope in one another. The reality of life is that we’ll all have bad days – but if you have a misunderstanding, or make a mistake, but you’re reminded by colleagues of that hope and shared vision, then the culture becomes not one of blame, but one of beauty. As you look at your company’s values and the direction it’s heading, and as you align your commitment to that, your hope can be refocussed.
“Exactly at the instant when hope ceases to be reasonable it begins to be useful.” ― G.K. Chesterton
Hope is helped by perspective. When we remember why we chose the job, why we enjoy what we do, and what we’re working towards, that makes a huge difference to our levels of hope. When we remember not just what we’ve achieved, but also what we’re capable of, we are filled with hope. As we remind others of their strengths and abilities, we instate in them a sense of hope of the ways in which we might be able to utilise those strengths going forwards.
How can you encourage hope in a peer or colleague today?
Who can you remind of their strengths?
Hope breeds hope. As you share your hope today, in your individual or team goals, you’ll share enthusiasm and energy to others too. And that hope might be shown back to you just when you need it too. Hope is forward facing, and a notion I dare say should be a key part of work; especially when the going is tough. Believing there can be better in future.
“It’s hard to be successful without being hopeful. When you think the future will be better than the present, you start working harder today.”
When you work from a place of hope, you have infinitely more scope to your work than the planned task set before you.
How will you use hope this week?
If you have any more ideas for others, feel free to add them in the comments below.
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