by N6A TeamThe Giving-Back Roadmap to Galvanize Your Team
Taking stock of teamwork and more in 2020.
With Thanksgiving on the horizon, and Small Business Saturday and Giving Tuesday following in the subsequent weeks, it’s the perfect time to sit back and take heed of just what it’s taken to pull everything together in 2020. This year has put an even greater importance on connectivity in general, and team connectivity in particular. Who you surround yourself with has become increasingly more important to individuals throughout COVID-19 than what they are surrounded by — especially now when separated through Zoom calls and Slack channels.
In normal times, you spend more hours at work with your peers than you do outside of the office with many of your friends and family members. You usually go through life with these people just as much as with anyone. The pandemic may have flipped this notion on its head, but it remains important for individuals on teams to strive to become the most complete versions of themselves “inside the office” just like they want to become the most complete versions of themselves as people outside of the office.
N6A’s 2019 Thanksgiving Celebration
The shelter-in-place order has given each of us an opportunity to spend more time with some of our loved ones, and time to take care of our body, mind, and spirit. We have more downtime to do those things, which means we have an opportunity to positively impact others, our daily work routines, and on the way we collaborate with our teammates.
N6A has been blessed to include some incredible people — over the last decade of the agency there have been many laughs, many shared strategies, and even more passion about working together for common goals that create a solid team bond. Business leaders know whether they’ve built a great culture based on how their teams respond to adversity, and that sentiment is being tested.
In this most unusual holiday season, taking stock of the teamwork initiatives that drive N6A’s spirit is more important than ever.
N6A has tried to use COVID-19 to galvanize our teams, both when they’re logged on, and when they switch off at the end of the day, using everything from custom social media sharing campaigns, food deliveries, or even little impromptu things like shout-outs to top performers who are rising to the occasion each week in their remote environment.
Our #Pitching4Purpose initiative, which was started in late 2019, is still going strong as a way to back up our hard work with actions that impact positive change. Each month, we continue to tally our secured client results and reflect those results in donations to a selected charity. All of the charities and organizations are selected by our employees, and hold a meaningful place in the hearts and minds of our team, clients, and colleagues.
We’ve had the pleasure of highlighting causes like Laughter Saves Lives, Camp Fatima of New Jersey, Citymeals on Wheels, Unity Performing Arts, Black Visions Collective, Data for Black Lives , Equal Justice Initiative, Operation Backpack, the American Cancer Society, and the Loveland Foundation.
One cause in particular we continue to spotlight is Al’s Angels, the non-profit founded by N6A President Al DiGuido that has grown to become one of the largest and most impactful charities for children suffering from cancer, rare blood disease and financial hardship across the country.
Another, which hits close to home for N6A founder and CEO Matt Rizzetta, was Quinn for the Win, the foundation founded by his friend and fellow Iona grad and N6A supporter Pat Quinn, who helped raise hundreds of millions of dollars to fight ALS by promoting the viral Ice Bucket Challenge. Quinn, who battled the disease for decades, passed away on November 22, 2020.
Months before his passing, Quinn was slated to meet N6A-ers on March 13, 2020, and the company planned to unveil and dedicate one of our conference rooms — the “Pat Quinn Underdog Room” — to him while he visited. Right before his scheduled visit, COVID hit New York, and we had to postpone Pat’s visit.
The Pat Quinn Underdog Room
In an op-ed honoring his late friend, Rizzetta said, “[Quinn] was steadfast in his commitment to share his mission and spread his message of hope with our staff…his spirit of hope, perseverance and optimism will live on forever in our company, and in so many millions of people across the world.”
The buck doesn’t stop internally either. This year, for example, we’re helping our client Mouse.org, a non-profit that brings technology to historically underserved youth, with a Giving Tuesday campaign. With less fundraising opportunities available this difficult year, they’re using N6A’s digital marketing team to create campaigns to drive support.
As the effects of COVID-19 continue to be dire, this pandemic will either pull the company culture apart or bring it together. If other companies are going to break through COVID-19, it’s going to require sacrifice, strategic ahead-of-the-curve decisions, and the ability to push beyond your limits at times. But we make sure to have our moments of laughter, our moments of thought, and our moments of tears. This has led us to develop the most special bonds across our agency and our pool of clients, and it has made our teams more connected in these trying times.