New Year – New Team!

Not quite a new team, but a new perspective thanks to our recent teambuilding session!  Just before the holidays, the CFGV team was given the gift of a teambuilding exercise with Anthony Poponi. As most nonprofits can relate, 2020 was an interesting year! Switching up a Friday afternoon’s schedule to invest time in our team was a well-received opportunity. Anthony created Focus on the 40 and works with groups and individuals who want to have more positive, fulfilling and happier lives. His programs bring out the best in teams he works with and the result is happier people within those teams. And, as he says, “Happier people are more successful!”

We knew the afternoon was sure to be exciting when we were told to bring red, yellow and green objects (the funnier the better!), glue, and scissors. So, there we were – all on Zoom and ready to shape our minds, collage our strengths, and understand what makes ourselves and our team tick!  Anthony provided a fun, funny, engaging and inspiring training for the four of us. We kicked it off with an ice breaker and Lauren, Alicia, Maryo and Erica would forever be known as the “Fantastic Four.”

With new empowerment as superheroes, we were ready for the afternoon’s adventure. Anthony reminded us that we only have control over 40% of our sustained happiness because 50% of what makes us truly us is genetic, and 10% is life circumstances.

So, what goes into that 40% to make it the best it can be? Positive emotion and good feelings leading to higher frequency and longer duration of both positive emotions and good feelings all have a critical impact on that 40%. Meaningful engagement, life enhancing connections, authentic connections, belonging, achieving mastery, inspired action all certainly are critical. Awareness, exploration and application to know yourself and lead yourself along a journey for continuous personal and professional growth to be a better version of ourselves also contributes to that happiness. And, together, each of us knowing our strengths and leadership voices to then bring an even better version to contribute our incredible team is truly the next level.

We even had homework and received printable high 5’s for completing it! The dialogue stemming from the homework brought our team a further step into understanding the amazing intricacies of our team’s thinking.

We won’t give away all of Anthony’s secrets here, but what we will tell you is that all of us gained insights into ourselves and each other to improve individually and as a team, while recognizing all the good each of us already brings to the table. That, is truly happiness at work! We are lucky to have such an incredible team, and also lucky to have had this training opportunity. And, to have a Zoom meeting 100% full of  smiling faces at the end of 2020 – that’s a win!  We challenge your team to smile and laugh as much as the Fantastic Four did during our training with Anthony. To sign your team up for a training today, visit www.Focusonthe40.com.