An engaged manager remembers

Remembering the little things is often key to earning the trust of your staff. For me that meant knowing what types of assignments people preferred, handling their pet peeves (the work related ones) and letting people you don’t see everyday know you are thinking of them and wishing them well. You see photographers spend the most time out of the newsroom. They need to be out and about for the best news coverage. There is no real way to phone-in the photos for a story. You have to be there. This can lead to people feeling disconnected from the office and sometimes forgotten. I tried to get in the habit of sending regular birthday acknowledgements in the form of e-cards. It is hard when you have a department of 20 or more to keep track and remember to select and send an e-card so I used a service called Birthday Alarm.

Birthday Alarm is a neat service that allows you to load people’s birthdays and e-mail addresses and then starts sending you reminders for birthdays 10 days in advance. You can then click on the link select a card, add a personal greeting and it will send the card on the recipient’s birthday. It remembers every year and makes the task super simple by suggesting age appropriate and often hilarious options for cards. So it allows you to add a personal acknowledgement in a few minutes. It doesn’t add hours to your day and it makes a great statement to that employee you rarely see but who works hard and let’s them know you’re thinking of them.  Birthday Alarm remembers which cards you’ve sent to whom, so duplicates don’t happen and it offers every type of occasion card. There are thank you cards, a great way to say “Job well done!,” holiday cards, nice for sending a holiday greeting to those working abroad. They even have just funny animations to share with colleagues and staff to add a little levity on a slow day.

Today is my wonderful mother-in-law Jan’s 73^rd Birthday. She is a woman of great humor and grace whom I love and respect. You can read more about my wonderfully loving and funny relationship with Jan in today’s “Raisin in Minnesota” column on GoodEnoughMother.com Happy Birthday Jan! Check your inbox, today’s card is a hoot!