The other day, I saw a LinkedIn connection mention that she had been “coined.”
Now if you’re not familiar with this practice, it began probably in the early 2000s with the military. I had already retired by then, but my wife began bringing home command coins, small coins with the command’s logo and motto on them. They were given out on special occasions and then to distinguished visitors. Later they became known as Challenge Coins.
About that time, I was working on a training project with the Air Force that sent me to different bases for a week at a time to train supervisors on communication and negotiation skills. Although I never got one, some of the other trainers bragged about being “coined.” Apparently, this practice has been adopted my civilian corporations, hence the “coining” of my colleague.
I’ve become a regular speaker on the HR conference circuit. We do this as they are a good source of business leads and while they rarely pay or reimburse travel, I often get Starbucks gift cards tucked inside of a thank-you card. The other day, I decided to go through and upload them to my app. There were over $50.00 worth of gift cards! I guess I should brag about being “Starbucked.”
As we wrap up this series on buzzwords, maybe the last thing to explore is how they come about, and how we might even become one (these are sometimes known as nicknames).
Years ago, when I managed people in the Navy, my assistant manager and I had a system to test out our communication to ensure it was heard and understood. One of my technicians seemed to struggle more than the rest to understand things. So, when we wanted to be sure our message worked, we tested it on this tech. We called it the “______ test” (not sharing the name, but we used the last name). If the tech understood it, we knew everyone else would. Now I know that’s not a nice thing to do. But at least I owned up to it.
What about you? If someone was to describe you and your work ethic, what would your branded buzzword be? “Hard charger?” “Go getter?”
Or would it be negative? We certainly had a bunch of negative ones for people I served with in the Navy. “B.P.” (short for “buck passer” – guy never owned up to anything). “L.J.” (“little Jesus” – he thought he walked on water). Several others that I won’t mention. I found out shortly before leaving the Navy (from an officer on my training team that had WAAAYY to many Coronas when we were on travel at a Train-The-Trainer event) that my Commanding Officer referred to me as a “loose cannon” and he was supposed to keep an eye on me. I was proud of that!
This week, think about what word or phrase you want to be used to describe you. I wouldn’t recommend “loose cannon” or “L.J.” but hopefully a way that best describes the best of YOU! We’ll all be remembered for something. What will people say about you?