Volume
2007, Issue 1
March 2007
Inside this Issue:
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Working in IIa
Impact Award Nominations
Tips to help you write a winning nomination
"Design the Logo" Contest
Create a logo for the IIa Impact Award
Living the Values: A Grandmother’s Bible
Employee shows her children what community really means
Health and Safety Tips
Blue sunglasses; workday stress relief
Impact Award Nominations
Tips to help you write a winning nomination
The deadline for submitting nominations for the IIa Impact Award will be coming up in a few months. This is our second year with the formal program. Again this year, five $2,000 awards will be made to recognize employee contributions to IIa’s mission and vision.
After the awards were presented last year (see story in September 2006 InfoEdge), the Awards Committee developed the following tips to help employees create their award nominations.
Section 1. “My nominee deserves the IIa Impact Award for the following significant achievement that advanced IIa’s mission and vision:”
Really talk about how the individual’s or team’s specific contribution(s) moved IIa toward its vision or helped the company meet its daily vision. If you can write about specific achievements, that is a stronger submission than talking about the general traits of a person. The committee really needs to be able to see something measurable…something that moved the company toward being the benchmark of excellence.
Don’t just talk about how well a person achieves their daily job. Because we are a high-performance company, people achieving their daily jobs very well are numerous. Think about how to write the nomination to show how your nominee goes above and beyond daily, high-performance requirements.
Section 2. “In accomplishing this, the nominee demonstrated the following IIa values (one or more):”
A. The more values you can write about, the stronger the nomination. Think about it. If someone’s demonstrated eight of the values in accomplishing what you are nominating them for, that is stronger than if they only demonstrated two or three of the values.
B. Be sure that what you write about each value actually corresponds with what IIa says the value means to the company (see the values web pages for clarification). For instance, don’t say that someone was told to do something and then they did it and that shows empowerment. It doesn’t. Instead, talk about how the nominee either empowers others by giving them the freedom to do their job, or how the person demonstrates empowerment by being willing to take a task and run with it.
C. If nominating an individual, review the values recognitions for that person on the IIa website (www.iiaweb.com/corporate_philosophy.html). Those can provide some starter text or some ideas. Just be sure that what you include in the nomination form is clearly related to the contribution for which you are nominating the person.
D. Be sure that you talk about any recognition the employee(s) received from both internal and external customers throughout the year.
The annual deadline for nominations is July 10th. You can find the award nomination form at www2.iiaweb.com/nominate/index.html.
“Design the Logo” Contest
The IIa Impact Award needs a logo. We want your input on the design, so here’s your chance. There is a $50 prize for the chosen design. Submit an electronic version of your logo as .jpg or .gif to Susanne Dupes at sdupes@iiaweb.com by Friday, April 6th. The winner will be announced on Friday, April 13th. (The contest is open to IIa employees only.)
Living the Values: A Grandmother’s Bible
Employee shows her children what community really means
When Hurricane Katrina struck and so many lost so much, we were all looking for ways to respond. One of our new employees here at the corporate office made a unique donation in an effort to demonstrate to her children the real meaning of giving. Sherri Childress, IIa’s new proposal coordinator, was looking to set an example for her children, so she sent her grandmother’s large print Bible to the Gulf Coast, hoping it would bring comfort to someone.
As fate would have it, another Sherry (Helveston) in Biloxi, Mississippi found that Bible in the bottom of a box of donated items. Inside, she found the a handwritten note from Childress which started her on a year-long search to be able to say “thank you.”
In February, a local television station brought Sherri and Sherry together for an emotional, face-to-face meeting. Sherry Helveston told reporters that she screamed with joy when she found the Bible, because the hurricane carried her own family bible away.
Childress’s handwritten note:
To whomever finds this Bible: I feel so helpless to help you. You are so very far away. Please accept our meager offerings and please accept this Bible. It was my grandmother's. She is 101, suffering from Alzheimer's and probably would have been one of the first to die if East Tennesseeans had suffered this disaster. Please find comfort in the Word of God. Although you may be angry with Him, remember He loves you. You have friends in East Tennessee. Please tell us what you need. We will do whatever we can possibly do to help. The congregation of Union Cumberland Presbyterians are praying for you. Feel the power of our prayers and have faith.
—Godspeed, Sherri.
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(Left to right: Sherry Helveston, reporter John Becker, Sherri Childress. Photo courtesy John Becker & WBIR TV.) |
Health & Safety Tips:
Say “No” to Blue Sunglass Lenses
Spring is almost here and you may be looking for a new pair of sun shades. Do you really like the ones with the blue lenses more than the others? Does it matter? In an article in the Ladies’ Home Journal, it does. Columbia University professor of ophthalmology Janet Sparrow cautions, “The blue light spectrum in sunlight is particularly dangerous” because it can create free radicals, unstable oxygen molecules that may precipitate macular degeneration.
Macular degeneration is the most common cause of vision impairment in the United States. That’s why you should avoid sunglasses that have blue-tinted lenses—they don’t filter out any blue light. According to LHJ, even if the blue sunglasses have a UV protection tag on them, yellow or amber tints are better for your lenses because they are more effective at reducing the amount of dangerous blue light. Dark tinted glasses will reduce your overall exposure to all wavelengths of light. Be sure that you choose glasses that protect against both UVA and UVB rays.
Laugh, Breathe, and Relieve Workday Stress
There’s nothing like a good sense of humor to lick the daily wounds that stress can leave us with. That’s the word from Corporate Comedy president Jeff Justice, who is also a motivational speaker. He offers several suggestions for reducing stress on his Web site, JeffJustic.com, including:
- Balance your lives. Everybody experiences ups and downs, almost every single day. Some meditation experts call this “wild mind.” Remember your experiences are on a continuum and you want to keep yourself somewhere in the middle to stay balanced.
- Remember to laugh well, especially at yourself. Many studies have found that laughing is good for you, and there are even “Laughing Yoga” classes available in some cities. Justice says you should laugh at least 10 times a day, with five of those times being ones in which you laugh at yourself.
- Do deep breathing and stretching exercises. Most modern workers spend far too much time sitting at desks or commuting. Get up. Stretch. Move your body around and get your energy flowing again.
- Allow yourself the luxury of making one mistake or being imperfect once a day. You will burn out quickly if you get caught up in perfectionism.
- Make a list of things you like to do, and remember to do one of them at least once a day.
- Don’t feel like you have to act serious all the time to be taken seriously. Lighten up at work. Then see how those around you respond.