This skill will immediately add 20 to 30% to your organization’s bottom line.

I call it “letting go” but you may call it “forgiveness.”

Let’s start here.  Dr. Daniel Goleman, author of Primal Leadership, states, “Our research suggests that overall, how people feel about working in their organization, can account for 20-30% of business performance.”

Notice the word, “feel.”  Another set of terms for “feel” would be “morale,” “hostile work environment” or “clocking in is like ringing the front door of hell.”  You know, going to work is the most unpleasant thing in your life.  Most of us have had at least one place of employment that falls into that category.

Now, most dysfunctional work environments got that way because everyone learned the only way to survive is to queue up to play the “pay-back” game.  This is when someone was victimized and then decided to strategize how to make the victimizer “pay.”  It is an evening-up of the score or “getting a pound of flesh.”

Well, think about it for a minute.  Working at getting someone to “pay” for what he/she said to you in front of your coworkers back in 2002 does not leave a lot of time to…work. I have met some people who look forward to work as…a time to get even.  Should we really be surprised that holding on to resentment and anger can chink away at our bottom line?

I am suggesting three interventions your workplace can begin to end this unproductive cultural practice that is costing you greenbacks while trying to break someone’s back.

First, I believe all employees need to be informed that the pay-back game is costing the organization, and them, dollars.  This is an easy case to make.

Second, your organization, using an outside consultant, should provide enticing organizational training that provides a step-by-step set of hands-on interpersonal skills on how to “let go.” If no one knows how to do this, why would we expect anyone to stop playing this game?

Third, senior management must make a definitive statement about the pay-back game and may sound something like, “We have looked in a mirror recently and what we see, we do not like.  Specifically, there are a significant number among us who are refusing to let go of the past.  The senior management of your organization will not engage in retaliation and we are expecting the same of everyone.  Regardless of the job title, anyone who decides to use company time and resources to make another coworker ‘pay’ for the past, will be terminated.  We expect more of each other than this childish and unproductive practice.”

O.K., so this may not be the most profound column you have ever read in LeMonAide, but it could be the most important to your organization’s future.

If you want a more detailed explanation of this issue, please go to DOWNLOADABLE RESOURCES on the homepage of www.execenrichment.com and then choose ARTICLES.  Look for “Forgiveness as a Business Strategy.”

Revenge tastes sweet the first day; the second day it starts going bad.

The pay-back game never ends because the other person does not seem to hurt as much as he hurt you.

“Letting go” is a gift you give yourself.

The title of the book I am recommending this month may remind you of your organization, The Self-Destructive Habits of Good Companies…And How to Break Them by Jagdish N. Sheth (Wharton School Publishing, 2007  ISBN:0-13-179113-3).

So, let me give you the “skinny” on the attitudes and organizational maladies that afflict really good companies and make their success stories a nightmare.  They are: denial, arrogance, complacency, competency dependence, competitive myopia, volume obsession and territorial impulse.

I believe Sheth is on to something in this book.  Organizations, like people, often make stupid decisions.  I think it is smart for especially the entrepreneurial company to cruise through this book and see where the “big dogs” made their mistakes so they do not duplicate mediocrity and disaster.

If you are part of an “up and coming” organization, you must pick up this book.  You will thank me ten years from now.

New Free Article

Leading Professionalism is a new article I have just written especially for people in leadership who believe their staff may not cut a “professional image.”  I will address the four “marks of a professional.”  This is a great article to reprint in your organization’s newsletter.

To view the article, please go to my website at www.execenrichment.com and choose the DOWNLOADABLE RESOURCES option.  You’ll see it under the ARTICLES section.  If you’d like to reproduce the article in a company or organizational newsletter, feel free to do so.  I ask that you give me credit for the article in a by-line and send me a copy of the publication where the article appeared.

Featured CD of the Month

If you are in any managerial position you may want to look at the following description of my 50 minute training CD, Skills to Motivate the Stuck, Entitled Employee.  

"Entitlement” is the practice of demanding benefits that have no connection to performance. You know, the entitled person who brazenly states, “You owe me OT, health care, my birthday off with pay and a uniform with my name embroidered on the left pocket.”   When you ask, “Why do I owe all of that to you?” this entitled, stuck employee replies, “Because my body walked through the door today.”

This training CD will expose your organization’s rewards for entitlement and then give you 10, practical skills you can do to grease these folks up and motivate them to move into your organization’s future.

To order a copy of the CD, please go to www.execenrichment.com and choose the OUR PRODUCTS option.  You’ll see a list of current CDs available.

I just do not understand why people “do not get it.”

You have read about it, dabbled in it and may have even institutionalized it, but it is not until you practice it that you find out what it will do for you.

Extra-ordinary customer service.

I recently went out for dinner in Huntsville, Alabama.  I chose a national chain of pasta-themed restaurants (because I am addicted to rigatoni).

The hostess seated me quickly and said my server would be with me in just a moment.  The “moment” went on for 10 minutes.  I was reading a good book but noticed I had been “missed” somehow on a quiet Sunday evening in a half-filled restaurant.

Because I practice what I teach in assertiveness, I left my table and made my way to someone who looked like the manager.  His name tag read “Cedric.”  I said to Cedric, “I think I have been forgotten at my table.  Could you please let my server know I have yet to be waited on.”

This manager responded, “I apologize on behalf of all of us who work here.  I will personally take care of you.”

I said that would not be necessary, but Cedric insisted.  My steaming plate of rigatoni and shrimp arrived in what seemed nanoseconds and then Cedric leaned over and quietly said, “We are so disappointed we did not keep our promise to you this meal is on us.”

Even in the face of my protestations, Cedric prevailed and I walked out of that restaurant savoring a free meal and then making a promise to write a letter.

I had my staff look up the physical address for Romano’s Macaroni Grill and I wrote a letter extolling the customer service I received and also tossed a few kudos Cedric’s way.  I really did not expect to hear back.

A week later a letter arrived from the CEO of Macaroni Grill, Jean Birch, thanking me for taking the time to tell them what they did right.  She stated that Cedric would also be financially affirmed for going the second mile on that Sunday night.

And then they fell out of the envelope.  This CEO sent me $40.00 of coupons to use at any Romano’s Macaroni Grill.

When I have choices in my travels and see a Macaroni Grill on a corner, where do you think I will be having dinner?

I just do not know why we don’t get this!

Have you ever left something while traveling?  You know, sunglasses, passport, alarm clock, important I-will-die-if-lose-this-document, a calendar, etc.

Here is my seven-step process for never leaving a trail of your possessions around the world.

**When you take something out of a purse or briefcase, immediately put it back when you are finished.   

**When you unpack a suitcase, put the same article in the same place in any hotel room (shoes always go in the closet, scissors always go on the vanity in the bathroom, etc.).

**When repacking, put the suitcase on the bed and pull down the bedspread so only the sheets are exposed.  Nothing can “hide” on a white sheet but a multi-colored bedspread has been known to suck up articles that resemble its hues.

**Gather from the bathroom, drawers, nightstand, etc. all of your “stuff” prior to repacking your luggage.  When you are finished packing you can be somewhat confident that you have regained your prized possessions.

**Immediately start rechecking all the places where you placed things when you first came in the hotel room.  Especially open every drawer.

**Hold on to your room key because, undoubtedly, you will remember one place you failed to check in the room you have just vacated. 

**Make sure you have a place to file the bill from your hotel room.  On that bill you will find a phone number, physical address or e-mail address that will permit you to immediately contact Housekeeping if you have lost something.  You will have to pay the cost of overnight shipping or mail if you have, in spite of these enlightening seven steps, left something of value for someone else to enjoy.

If you would like to personally meet with me during the month of September, here is my schedule.  Please call 800-373-4040 to set up an appointment.

This month I am presenting three points on how to use…the ellipsis.   If you do not know what an ellipsis is…read on.

·         Use ellipses in direct quotations when words are being omitted.

Example:  He rambled on about the importance of strong writing skills to…one’s success.

·         Use ellipses to indicate an abrupt pause or halting speech in a sentence to set off a group of words for emphasis (loses effectiveness if overused).

Example:  He would rather not say…and who could blame him…that he is not going to be involved in the project.