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This Week's Thank You: The Person Who Says Yes

Yes by Kai Friis on Flickr CC BY NC SA

In my role as a trainer, I push people. I push them to think differently. To develop new skill sets and try new tools. To do things that aren't always comfortable. It's so easy to stay where it's nice and warm and everyone smiles politely at us. As a natural introvert, there are days when a life of monotonous data entry sounds about perfect. But ask any teacher, any parent or any boss who encouraged someone to try something new. That's when you see growth. That's when you see potential. Oftentimes, that's when the fun begins.

The training program I oversee has a number of knowledge-based quizzes and courses to make sure everyone has similar levels of content understanding. Boring, but necessary. It also has a number of opportunities for my co-workers to step away from their inbox and try something brand new. These are my favorite. I never know what I'm going to get.

One of these opportunities is called The More You Know presentations, a hat-tip to my Saturday mornings as an 80s kid. For their job, most of the presentations my co-workers do are through a webinar or a phone call and rarely face to face. The More You Know presentations give them an opportunity to work on their live audience presentation skills. The employee gets to choose the topic of the presentation and they have to present to their peers for five to 10 minutes. They have to provide some kind of visual, from a slide deck to a backpack full of survival gear, as one of our presenters used to teach us how to live in the wilderness for seven days.

These presentations have become a favorite not only of mine, but also of our entire department. It allows us to learn about our co-workers as well as how the Marvel ecosystem works or what board games we should add to family game night.

We do these presentations once a month. Last month, I had a schedule mishap and needed to find someone to fill a slot quickly. One of our newest account managers volunteered. She admitted this wasn't something she enjoyed doing, but she wanted more practice so she could get better. She put together a great presentation about her home country that she emigrated from when she was still in elementary school. I knew she was nervous because she instant messaged me a few times earlier that day with last-minute questions. But she did a great job. And she brought food native to her home country. Success.

The fact that she said yes, that she even volunteered for something she wasn't comfortable with, speaks volumes. She knew she wanted to get better at presenting and took the opportunity.

Thank you, Dika, for saying yes.


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