Welcome to Episode 336 of What’s Your “And”? Follow-Up Friday edition. This is John Garrett. Each Friday, I usually follow up with a guest who had been on the show a few years ago to hear what’s new with their passions outside of work, and also hear how this message might have impacted them since we last talked, but today, I just thought it’d be appropriate, since yesterday was Thanksgiving here in the United States, just to take a day to say thank you, just thank you from the bottom of my heart.

It just means so much that you’re listening to the podcast and resonating with the guests, and more importantly, the support for the book, What’s Your “And”?: Unlock the Person within the Professional. It’s just so cool that so many people rallied around this. I truly believe that this is our message. I just happen to be the mouthpiece, if you will, and the one who wrote the book, but I really look at it as it’s all of our message as a collective whole.

Just thank you for being a part of this, from the bottom of my heart, it just means so much, and for the people that have gotten the book and shared the book with others, left Amazon reviews. If you haven’t done that yet, please just take a minute and and leave a review on Amazon, a sentence or two is great. Just, how would you describe this book to your friend? Or what was just one takeaway you got from the book? You don’t even have to read the whole book. You can just read a little bit of it and still leave a review. My publisher explained to me how crucial those are for the life of a book, and I just really appreciate anyone that can just take a minute to just go do that.

If you haven’t gotten the book yet, you can check out whatsyourand.com. All the links are there for Amazon or Indigo or barnesandnoble.com or Bookshop or a couple of other places. Again, thank you so much to everyone who supported this message.

I thought I would just read one of the chapters here from the book. They’re all micro chapters, so even if you’re not a reader, you can feel like you’re burning through them. This one here really resonates with a lot of people and on social media. It seems like it’s gotten a lot of attention. The title of the chapter is: Not Engaged to the Job, Engaged to the People.

People are more engaged because they are closer to the people they work with. Based on my experience, I believe that you aren’t engaged to your job, you’re engaged to the people you work with. Humans crave connections and are built for community. The stronger those human connections are, the more engaged you will be, no matter what your tasks are.

The first step to increasing engagement doesn’t require a lot of money or creative ideas. It only requires management to foster an environment where people are encouraged to share their outside of work interests. Celebrating these hobbies and shining a light on these passions will draw people closer to each other. I realized this when I spoke at a partner retreat for a large regional accounting and advisory firm a few years ago. Three of their partners were retiring, so time was set aside for others to talk about them. There wasn’t a single mention of the number of clients they brought in or how much revenue they had made for the firm. Each story was something personal that had occurred outside of work.

The more sharing that occurs, the greater the odds that people start to genuinely care about each other even if they don’t share the same interest, but it’s an even bigger bonus if they do share the same interest because then they have more to talk about besides work. They might also even find time to do that hobby together outside of work, developing stronger bonds that will keep them engaged.

Here’s a quote from Rumi, who was on the podcast. She’s a film festival volunteer and a marathon runner and a photographer and an awesome, awesome person who I’ve had the fortune to have lunch with in New York City. She’s super cool. She says, “All of the things that we do outside of work are part of what makes us better when we’re at work. It’s really exciting because the more we’re willing to explore and enjoy our lives and learn new things that aren’t part of our official training, I think that makes us better at thinking, better at communicating, better at interacting, better at connecting with coworkers, which ultimately makes us care about each other more.” That was a quote from an episode that she was on.

Then I go on to say, the people who you talk to about your outside of work passions have a different relationship with you. They see you in a different light and are more interested in those other parts of your life and vice versa. You have a stronger relationship with these folks, and are more engaged when you’re with them. If you had your dream job at your dream company but were surrounded by people you couldn’t tolerate, you’d quit. On the flip side, I was talking to someone at a professional services firm that had been recently acquired by a larger regional firm, and the transition hadn’t been very smooth. Many people chose to leave. Someone told him, the reason people are still working here is because of the other people who are still working here.

There you go. There’s just a quick micro chapter from the book, What’s Your “And”?: Unlock the Person Within the Professional. If you haven’t gotten it yet, please grab one. There’s the Kindle version. There’s also a paperback version. Audio version will be coming sometime in the first quarter of next year.

I just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the United States and just thank you to everyone around the world who’s been a part of this message and joined with me and allowed me to keep going and do what I do. So, just thank you so much for that.

Please check out whatsyourand.com. We’ll be back next Friday with another Follow-Up Friday. Of course, the Wednesday episode will happen as well. I’ll just leave you with this. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast, whatever app you use, or for sharing this episode with your friends, and the podcast with your friends, so they get the message that we’re all trying to spread, that who you are is so much more than what you do.