Catch them doing something right

​Yesterday, a dear friend shared a letter she got from the superintendent of her school system. The letter informed her she'd been nominated to be recognized for 'moving our school system forward in a positive way.'

The person who nominated my friend said this: "Selina always greets parents with a wave and a smile and has ensured our lunch time program has proceeded without delays and without a hitch. She's outside each and every day - rain, wind, heat or otherwise."

One of the best pieces of advice I ever received was "catch them doing something right." A supervisor told me that when I was working with at-risk kids, but it's become one of the most powerful leadership and relationship tools I have.

This letter my friend got has 'catch them doing what's right' written all over it.

We live in a world that's not great at 'catch them doing what's right' I'm afraid. I think there's two reasons for that.

One, our media saturated world loves to focus on the big attention-grabbing versions of right - the right that sells advertisements and subscriptions. Right has become a superhuman gift that few possess outside of superheroes.

The other is maybe more an 'us' thing. I think we too often get so focused on what's wrong with people that we overlook there are a lot of things right with them.

Either way, we do each other no good when we fail to find the good in each other.

There's something beautiful that happens to me when I go through the world obsessed with catching people doing something right. And something incredibly beautiful happens to people who get caught doing something right.

Friends want to share their letters on Facebook. They come to realize their role in a kid's school lunch is every bit as worthy as an NBA superstar.

Our kids want to stand up straight and walk proud. They are far more likely to do right when they know they will be caught doing right than they are when they are strictly afraid of doing wrong.

Our friends and partners in life want to be close to us. When someone knows you're obsessed with catching them doing something right, they come to think you're the right person in life to be around.

I sometimes dream of a world obsessed with catching each other doing what's right.

Maybe that dream won't come true, but we could all play a small part in the dream today. Catch someone doing something right. And, to make it all the more powerful, catch someone doing something right who doesn't always know how much right they are doing.