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This week's thank you: The Thinker

Photo credit Davide Restivo CC BY SA

I have a reminder that goes off each Monday at 8:30am. The reminder says "Write a Thank You Note".

This week, I wrote a note to a former boss. I only worked for him for about a year, but I worked with him for almost four. When I joined his team, he told me that, while I was on his team, he wanted me to do the best work I'd ever done. Not because he thought I needed a reminder, but because he saw potential. When someone asked me about an interesting project I'd worked on, he wanted it to be something I was doing in this role, now. Not something I'd done years ago, or a side project not currently related to what I was getting paid to do. He recognized that doing my best work required projects that gave me new problems, required I learned new tools and asked a lot of "why not?" to both him and myself. And he gave me those projects.

In the 12 plus months under his tutelage, he also encouraged my fledgling interest in Twitter as a listening tool and constantly provided links to articles prefaced, "I'd like your take on this." We'd spend hours discussing theoretical concepts in education (mainly him talking and me asking questions).

Since he left to follow a different dream, I've realized how much my excitement for what I'm doing came from the fire he lit under me and knowing I needed to be curious just so I could keep up with him. I have yet to find another person to fill that role, but he has been kind enough to stay in touch to bounce ideas off of.

He even invited me to a Twitter chat last week that was slightly out of my comfort zone where I was able to ask questions and learn.

And that's why I wanted to thank him.
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