We are busy, we want results, we want growth, we want success, we want feedback, we want to feel heard, valued and important. With the speed of life, it is sometimes very hard to understand where you are and how this place is much different from where you were a year ago.

To help my team members understand all the things they do and how much value they deliver, I ask them to do the “Self-Hype” exercise.

The Self-Hype exercise

The exercise is purely personal, and the outcome is only for the person themselves. The person will take a week or 2 weeks and will write down all the tasks, initiatives, meetings, presentations, they have worked on. The idea is to write down everything that comes to mind. No matter how small it is. One way to think about it is, to think of a scenario when the person needs to describe their day-to-day tasks to someone else so they know what it takes to be successful in your role.

At the end of the period they should have a long list of things. Now they should look at the list and see how much they do and try to think which of these things they did not do a quarter, six months or a year ago.

After the exercise, I will have a 1on1 with the person to hear their reflection and the feelings this exercise gave them. I will never ask to see the list as it is personal, and I only need to understand the effect, not the details. I have always seen people getting a good boost of motivation afterwards as they see that they are doing so much and have achieved so many things.

Try this idea out and see how this can help your team to learn about how awesome they are.