What it Means to be Included

Last month I asked you who you were going to include, who you were going to make feel special – on your work team or in your family. I want to thank you for your letters, so many of which talked about how important it was to be included, especially way back when you played junior sport.

I was overjoyed to hear stories about coaches who included rather than excluded young people, coaches who understood that winning is not just about the scoreboard in junior sport – it’s about kids having a crack and being acknowledged and maybe even rewarded for doing so. The reward can be as simple as a Freddo Frog or a pat on the back. The “winning” is based on continual improvement and should indeed be celebrated whether or not the scoreboard says otherwise.

Kids develop at their own rate. How dare we decide that a kid is ‘good’ or ‘not good’ at sport when the child is age seven or eight?!! When kids are excluded because of a judgment about their ability at such a young age, they’re often lost to the sport for life. Self esteem and confidence are integral to taking action and to on-going improvement. To quit just because somebody else thinks you are not up to scratch is not a message we want a young person to take into the rest of their lives.

While I know this is a story about kid’s sport, surely this applies in the corporate world too. We spend so much time judging other people and very often get it wrong. Constant positive reinforcement is a powerful tool. Let people know how valued they are. I always find it interesting that people who are truly engaged and made to feel important invariably are more productive too.

In our sporting clubs, in our companies and in our families, it’s beholden on us to create environments where people are encouraged to shine. We’ve got to create environments where people are made to feel special and where they can focus on the goal of continual improvement.

That has to be one of our values. And we have to live it.