A Boy and His Dog – But Unlike Any Other!
As I was eating breakfast this morning I read this story in the Lexington Herald-Leader:
“A boy with autism and his dog find a world in common”
I’m not sure what I could say about this beyond the fact that I’m amazed at the intelligence of this black lab, the love and patience of the family and therapists of this boy, and mostly the professionalism of the trainer of Mercury, the dog.
I don’t want to give away the story… so I better have you go read it first. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
Now, my attempt to add something of value to this story. While it is inspiring to me to see the example of love and concern these people all have for Michael and for Mercury, I want to focus on Jo Brosius, the dog trainer. Did you notice:
- Ms. Brosius, while confident in what she did, was unsure of this new situation and surroundings, but plowed ahead anyway.
- She had “a million ideas. Some worked.” Obviously, some didn’t. But she kept at it. (And no one gave her a “poor [tag]performance review[/tag]” because of the things that didn’t work!)
- When she got stuck, she reached out for help - a sign of strength, not of weakness.
- She let others into her workspace without hesitation (by letting therapist Durham be involved with how to handle Mercury).
- She spends a couple hours a week doing this with no monetary reward (although I’m sure that would be nice for her).
Do your employees act like this?
Are they focused on your work processes, on your product quality, on your [tag]customers[/tag] like Brosius and the others are focused on Michael? “Oh, but Scott, that’s so different – these people are trying to help this lad; this is more than work to them.” Is it? Maybe that’s exactly why they do what they do – because they love it!
Workforce Expertise:
If you find someone like Jo Brosius who loves what they do this much…
- not just because she was donating her services,
- but because she is so willing to do “whatever it takes” to succeed
… don’t let them get away!
Hi Scott,
You are correct that Jo Brosius is an excellent employee…she works for us at North Star Foundation as Mercury's trainer (although it wasn't mentioned in the article, Mercury is a North Star dog).
Jo has been a very creative employee, and although she does get compensated for her training of Mercury, she also puts in extra volunteer hours, which is greatly appreciated as it is expensive work we do at North Star and we could not serve the 100 families we do without enjoying considerable volunteer support. .
I do believe we are at a crossroads in our society, and that businesses and nonprofits that thrive in the future will have to fully engage both the hearts and minds of their employees and allow them to be creative and supported in developing their own job descriptions…
If you are interested in learning more about our work at North Star, please visit out website at http://www.NorthStarDogs.com
Here's a short video of a North Star dog, Rory, who joined me at the inauguration last week!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE2hbp-eIxE
Kind regards,
Patty
Patty Dobbs Gross
Executive Director
North Star Foundation
http://www.NorthStarDogs.com
northstarfoundation@charter.net
“We help children find their way.”
Hi Patty, thanks for the additional information. Nice video.
You hit on one of the factors that really differentiates performance – I call it H3 engagement: Head, Hands, and Heart. People do good work with one or two; they do great work with all three.