Focus on the POSITIVE of Things!

This is Toby Flenderson’s desk.

Toby is the HR rep for the Scranton branch of paper distributor Dunder Mifflin on The Office.

As fans of the show, you know that Toby is not very well-liked. 

In fact, Michael Scott famously said, "If I had a gun with two bullets, and I was in a room with Hitler, Bin Laden, and Toby, I would shoot Toby twice."

Due to his position in HR, Toby has duties to ensure the company's procedures and rules of conduct are followed.

Toby is often sending emails off to Corporate about Michael, he has an entire Bankers box of Dwight complaints, has a calendar filled with employee HR meetings and in general exudes negative energy (mostly because of his HR role).

Toby got me thinking.

How do we focus on the positive and not the negative within our organizations?

Some random thoughts by Mitch:

1) Show interest and appreciation in your co-workers. Asking “How are your kids”? Or “What are you watching on Netflix right now?” can go a long way.

2) Reach out to a co-worker and say, “Hey, looks like you really killed it with XX project, tell me how you pulled that off”

3) My good friend, Mark Greenburg gave me a tip. Try starting a sentence with “I noticed”. As in “I noticed the other day you came to work early/were working late, what’s going on?”

4) If you are in a leadership role, send out group emails telling others about their amazing teammate. “X is great at their job, check out this email he/she/they wrote to a client”

Try to focus on the positive every day and hopefully you will be able to hold your inner Toby at bay.😊