When it comes to the languages of appreciation, Angela Coloretti McGough speaks them all. When Angela speaks about her role as the interim student affairs coordinator, she lights up and is quick to propose solutions. Her resourceful and optimistic approach to student affairs has proven vital in finding opportunities to innovate in order to overcome unprecedented challenges. Angela is revisiting her old stomping grounds at Leeward Community College to co-present “Speaking the 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace” this Friday. Angela shared a sneak peek into Friday’s program during an interview with Sara Kim (Title III Fellowship & Professional Development Coordinator).
Sara: Tell me about the upcoming webinar you’re doing this Friday, June 19th.
Angela: It is about the 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace. Which is a book written by Dr. Paul White & Dr. Gary Chapman, and it’s based on the 5 Love Languages. Cori Conner (Coordinator of Leeward CC’s Job Prep Services) and I used to work together at Leeward and we started doing these workshops together for the students in 2011.
Originally we were looking at how students show each other appreciation, from the viewpoint of teamwork in the classroom or in their future jobs. So we just retooled it to, “[h]ow can you as a person in business, or in your organization, show appreciation to others? The reason why this is important is because people will work well, or feel more satisfied in their work, when they are recognized and appreciated.”
So in a sense, it’s discussing your bottom line, as worker morale affects productivity. As a supervisor you want to know how to show appreciation, but also as a coworker you want to know how to show others appreciation, even virtually.
The new part of this webinar that we’re going to talk about how do you show appreciation virtually — now that we’re not in person?
Sara: How can you show people that they’re heard, they’re understood, and they’re recognized, even though we’re not in physical proximity to each other?
Angela: During the webinar, the Zoom platform will allow participants to take polls to get a general idea of what their own language of appreciation is.
The more important part is learning languages we don’t know. It’s like a language class. We’re going to talk about how you show appreciation to someone with a particular love language, so that as a coworker, colleague, or supervisor, you try to show the other person appreciation in a way that they would like to receive it.
Angela and Cori’s webinar will highlight a new concept called the Platinum Rule, which is Do Unto Others as They Would Have You Do Unto Them. This rule has you put yourself in the other person’s (coworkers, supervisors) shoes.
Angela explains, “You might like a big party and a huge announcement on the internet, but, they may just want you to walk in or just call into their office and say, You did a great job on that. So it’s all about, interpreting the languages of appreciation by what the other person wants, not what you would like.”
Sara: What motivated you to want to do this webinar?
Angela: Cori and I did [this workshop] at HISSI together, we also did the same workshop for HIACTE and that was actually our first one for professionals. We had HIDOE people from K-12 schools, and participants from college CTE (career and technical education) programs. Since we work with students, Cori and I would always talk about how we could tell what a student’s love language was by the way they would interact with us.
The student who just wanted to hang out in the office — didn’t need anything, just wanted to hang out — would be someone who prefers quality time. And then a student who comes with a thank you card and a balloon, some flowers, or maybe they baked you bread, that would be your gift person.
We just turned it around for the teachers and instructors, to show them, look- you can tell what your students are, they’re showing you in their own way. So learn their languages and see how they respond!
That was the motivation to do it on a professional level. So when HICARES approached Cori, to see if she wanted to do a workshop, she immediately thought of this one.
Sara: What are you most excited about for this webinar?
Angela: Speaking to a different audience. I’ve been attending the HICARES webinar myself as a participant and they’ve been really good. There’s been a lot of different professionals from other worlds in the seminars.
These webinars have had business people, non profit org, executive directors, other college faculty, staff, and students from continuing education. Students pursuing a short term degree or certificate which are different from our liberal arts/four-year degree seeking college students. So it’s been a diverse group that’s attended and that’s always good for me, I always want to try to reach different people.
Sara: What do you want the audience to take away from this webinar?
Angela: The Platinum Rule is probably the most important. Even if they can’t remember the content of what we were talking about, they can always look that up later. Having empathy and trying to serve others from their perspective is hard to do, and that’s probably the one key aspect that I want them to remember when they’re thinking about key relations, or working with others.
Especially with today’s current events, people are now really trying to put themselves in other people’s shoes. I think that’s where innovation happens, and progress and the kinds of things that take you out of yourself. When you start to think about others, I just think that’s where growth happens.
Sara: How has working toward your Ed.D. prepared you to present on this very topic?
Angela: I think specifically with the Doctorate of Education (I don’t know how it is with a Ph.D. I would imagine it’s different).
With the Ed.D it’s a practical program. In every single class we had group assignments, we had group presentations, and in my particular program we had a cohort. So we were with a group of people taking classes together for those 3 years. I actually think the content of this presentation helped me in my grad program instead of vice versa.
Angela reflects on her diverse group of classmates and felt that her Doctorate program was a great way to practice what she preaches in this webinar.
Sara: How can the Shared Services or Fellows’ support you before, during or after the webinar?
Angela: You’re so nice for asking that question!
I would love it if anyone is available to attend. It’s free, and it’s fun, I think!
After, if folks want to, we can share in our next meeting just with each other, about our preferred language of appreciation. I don’t meet as regularly with other colleagues as I do with the Title III Fellows, to just sit down and check in. We can talk about the love languages — or the languages of appreciation — and practice with each other!
The Shared Services Center is focused on highlighting the accomplishments of the Title III Fellows over the summer through a weekly article published on the Title III Ohana site called, Featured Fellows. To learn more about Fellowships please contact Professional Development & Fellowship Coordinator, Sara Kim at sjohashi@hawaii.edu.
To register for the Speaking the 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace webinar please go to the Leeward Community College OCEWD Continuing Education & Workforce Development website, or click here.