The foundation of good morale and productivity is hiring the right people. Yes – don’t hire grumps. The people you hire must have clear roles, responsibilities, expectations and goals. And they must receive training and coaching which includes feedback, direction, support and recognition from a trusted manager or coach.

If these aren’t in place, this article is NOT for you. Instead, use some of the other resources on this site that will help you get your roles and goals clear and get everyone headed in the right direction.

If you do have all of those things in place, take a look at these October only ideas for putting this quote to work. In some cases, you may feel like a fool. Your teammates may roll their eyes. But they will laugh too. And that will lighten the load, break the tension and maybe even bring people closer together. Not just today – but down the road as they think about or talk about the day that ___________ (fill in the blank).

1. October 1 – World Smile Day. You can find a great tool to help with that in our new e-book.

2. October 4 – Techies Day. Take your IT person or staff to lunch and promise you won’t ask for one piece of computer advice during that hour.

3. October 11 – National Kick Butt Day. Offer free kickboxing classes to those who reach their sales goal for that week or month.

4. October 11 – Columbus Day. Discover something new at your next staff meeting by having each staff member reveal something about themselves that is unknown. This is a great way to get your staff talking. End with these inspiring words from Happy Columbus Day.

5. October 13 – Bring Your Teddy Bear to Work Day. Invite everyone to bring a teddy bear from home and tell a story for a bit of discovery like that mentioned above for Columbus Day. And/or organize a teddy bear donation (new ones only) for area hospitals, local shelters or upcoming toy drives.

6. October 15 – National Grouch Day. If the teddy bears didn’t get the grouch out of everyone, have a grouch session as an agenda item for your staff meeting. For ideas on this, see #6 in 10 Ways to Get & Keep the Grump Out.

7. October 18 – National Chocolate Cupcake Day. Okay, need we say more?

8. October 30 – Haunted Refrigerator Night.  Ideas for this are in our new e-book.  

9. October 31 – Halloween, National Candy Corn Day & National Caramel Apple Day. Bring in the ingredients to make caramel apples. You’ll feel like you’re at the State Fair.

For more help on this, get our new e-book!

10. And then we have the entire month of October to celebrate:

• National Popcorn Poppin’ Month – Bring in a machine and keep things poppin’ all month. Can’t pop it at work? Buy those inexpensive tins with different flavors. You’ll be all set to gather your staff and enjoy one or more Business Class Movie of the Week.

• National Roller Skating Month – Relive your youth. Organize an outing to a local rink.

• National Chili Month – Nothing gets things heated up like a chili contest. Challenge your staff to bring in their favorite chili recipe and vote.

• Apple Month- Celebrate each Friday celebrate with an apple treat of some kind. Ask your staff to share recipes.

Oh – and did we mention our new e-book? 🙂

Also see: