Teach Yourself a Lesson

This week I was in Petaluma on assignment and went for lunch at a family restaurant.

A woman arrived and was seated a few booths from me. When her waiter came up, she berated him on the condition of the seat back on the booth that she sat in the last visit.

He said that several were broken.

She went on placing her order and complaining that they did not have cream in a pitcher and only in the small containers. When she was finished placing her order, she stopped the waiter and said, "Let me start again. How are you today? Is everything going okay?" After a short discussion she again placed her order.

How many times do we approach an employee, an associate or a friend and before greeting them begin with an order or complaint? In today's hurry up world, where verbal communication is at its worst, we need to back off and think about how we would like communication to begin when someone addresses us.

Take a moment to engage the person. Ask how they are or what's new or just extend a hand and say hello and nice to see you today..or how's the family or how is your son doing in college.

Make communication a personal issue. I knew a manager who used 5 pennies and two pockets to improve his skills. He started each morning with 5 pennies in his right pants pocket. In his walk around throughout the day, he greeted and talked to people and looked to observe someone performing their job well or doing someone correctly. He would then take to time to acknowledge this and thank them. Then, he would move the penny to the left pocket. His goal was to get all 5 pennies into the left pocket before the end of the day.

Soon this developed into a learned behavior for him and he spent more time looking for the good in people than the bad. His teams tried harder for him and he continued to have good success in his business.

Whatever you use to improve your verbal communication skills, remember to greet people politely and get to know them before you unload your problems on them.

And treat people as you would like to be treated!

Have a positive day,
Rudy