The best thing you can do to elevate yourself is to lift others: lift their spirit with a kind word, lift their hope with a positive reaction, lift their burden by helping them in times of need. The act of lifting others causes you to feel better and to improve.

Yesterday my friend Todd sent out a wish for his own birthday (via video on Facebook). His wish was that everyone would find at least one other person and make his or her day better. In his video he talked about hugging his stressed-out accountant and giving an extra big tip to a young lady at a restaurant; both simple acts that produced positive results.

Last night I listened to Dr. Paul’s interview with Steve Farber about the concept of helping others to be greater than yourself. It occurred to me that this principle is not only good for individuals who want to feel better and be happier, but it is also important for leaders who want to elevate their organizations to new levels. Ultimately it becomes cultural. When leaders go out of their way to help others, and they encourage their people to do the same, their organizations flourish.

Take a few minutes today to make a difference for someone else; leave a comment and let us know about your experience.

Do you want to improve your team’s performance? Jim Harris can give your team a motivational speaker in Toronto that can help. This will lead to all sorts of positive impacts to your life, and business.

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The Product Management Perspective: To some degree — because of the nature of the job — product managers work independently of each other. You have your products and your teams you work with (outside of the product management team), and it takes most of your time to keep things going. Even though you’re busy and have little to no extra time, it’s worth the extra effort to help others. Major dividends come from helping other PMs on your team. I recently worked with a group of product managers who are very busy and whose time is limited. However, they spend time as a team, share ideas and support each other in moving Product Management forward in their company. They lift each other in small ways that reap big returns. Look for ways you can do the same for your team.