Danielle V. Minson — Raising the Bar

September 11, 2017 | 0 Comments

Fundamental #25 — Bring It Every Day

For the better part of two years, our Federation team has been making a deliberate effort to define what drives our work and how we do it. The four core values of Community, Inclusivity, Learning, and Integrity rose to the top. The next step was to identify a list of fundamentals: actionable, daily core behaviors that bring our core values to life and define our culture. Each week, we make a point to focus on practicing a different fundamental, and I kick off that effort by sharing my thoughts on each one at the beginning of each week. Here are my thoughts for our twenty-fifth week:


“BRING IT” EVERY DAY — Be present, passionate, and fully engaged. Make the most of each day by approaching every task with energy, focus, purpose, and enthusiasm. Your passion provides the electricity that makes JFC an exciting place to be.

I remember when I was new to the staff at the Pittsburgh Federation, one of our young adult leaders really caught my attention.  He had left a steady job to try to start up a new business. He was working crazy hours and had a young family.  Yet he took scarce hours away from his business and family and spent the time volunteering at the Federation.

When I asked him why, he told me that a lot of what made him take roles of increasing responsibility at the Federation was the energy, compassion, and enthusiasm of the staff.  He said just walking into our offices was refreshing and stimulating.  That taught me that the attitude and atmosphere the staff creates directly attracts the volunteer talent and the financial contributions that enable our jobs and our work.

Since then I’ve realized, that how passionate and fully engaged we are in this office every day is also as essential to creating the kind of place that our colleagues want to work. Passion, energy and enthusiasm are infectious.   I am grateful that we have a team that has all of these in abundance. 

See here for Shep’s comments on all the fundamentals so far.

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