Opinion: Readers respond with positive work traits from 2020

In my January column, I asked for reader feedback on the positive work traits that 2020 has cultivated. I shared mine, so now it’s your turn. We can learn from each other.

Here are a couple reader responses, and we’ll publish more as they come in.

From Joey Powell, public relations/marketing director for Dickerson Park Zoo/Friends of the Zoo:

Your article, “Say Goodbye to 2020, but not entirely,” prompted me to really stop and think about the identified character traits – drive, adaptability, gratitude – and your three: lessons, care, resilience.

All six of those traits are relatable and spot on necessary for 2020 and the future (I even have a gratitude journal on my desk).

But personally, my three traits are:

1. Ingenuity. In a year where pretty much everything shut down, it has been even more important to be resourceful. Instead of getting caught up in “we can’t do that,” it’s been rewarding to approach the year with “what can we do?”

2. Efficiency. I don’t like to waste time or money. While there seemed to be nothing but time in 2020, that wasn’t an excuse to put things off. Plus, as a not-for-profit, it was amazing to see the support. There is an obligation to be efficient stewards of others’ resources.

3. Positivity. Negativity is miserably exhausting; attitude matters.

Thanks for making me stop, think and take inventory.

From Elisabeth Mouery, chief financial officer for Mouery’s Flooring:

We have learned a lot in 2020 – and the most important lessons haven’t come from the pandemic, or rerouting our 14-year-old business overnight, or being responsible for the financial burden of 30 families during a pandemic, or even from losing our best employee overnight.

Apart from all the great ideas you shared, if I could only pick a few words to describe what 2020 has brought/meant/changed for me, my family and my business, it would be this:

1. Words matter. What we say matters. How we say it matters. We can speak stuff into reality. ... I have come to realize that our attitudes, our outlook, even our physical response to situations start changing when we speak it with our lips. It gives us confidence and hope. Words are huge. Why not use them for life-giving, positive advantages in our life?

2. You can do hard things. I say this to my girls now every morning as they get out of my car at school. Life is full of situations that aren’t fun, that we don’t plan for, that don’t feel good and that are just plain hard. We can get through these things (by) just having the mental mindset that when things get hard, we have what we need to get through them.

3. Kill them with kindness. I say a version of this to my girls too. Theirs is more along the lines of: “You are kind, you are strong and you are beautiful.” [My husband and business partner] Rick’s mom is probably the kindest, sweetest woman I have ever met. Rick says she used to say this to him as a kid constantly. Now, Rick is known as the “nicest mean guy” – he can tell you truth or hard words to hear but in the nicest way and really incite change. In light of all the political unrest that 2020 brought, kindness is a trait that is somehow being lost in the next generation. We don’t have to agree with everybody or like everybody. But we do have to be kind to everybody. With all our dealings with changing employees and issues with vendors and product production that 2020 brought, we could have gotten extremely ugly and stressed out. But that gets us nowhere. Navigating a tough situation with kindness is a learned art form. And I hope to teach this to my daughters.

I could write a book on how 2020 has changed myself, my family and my business. Again, thanks for your words!

Thank you, readers. I welcome more responses at the email address below.

Springfield Business Journal Editor Eric Olson can be reached at eolson@sbj.net.