Thank Goodness It's Monday #367

SPEAK WELL OF YOUR FIRM

-- AND ALL THOSE IN IT

Good policy for nearly a century.

No company can afford employees who complain about their firm or the people in it to anyone they don’t know well.

TGIM EXECUTIVE ACTION: Coach others to never criticize their company or coworkers in front of customers ... prospects … suspects …casual acquaintances … “the public” -- anyone they don’t know much about. It invariably leaves a bad taste. And it can ruin relationships that others have worked long and hard to build.

What prompts this “sudden” outburst on my part? 

What pushed my buttons recently was a little interaction that I will share with you in abbreviated form to get us closer to some universal what-to-do and how-to-do-it thoughts. Here’s my –

Case in point: While signing in in the lobby and waiting for my morning appointment to come bring me to his office suite, I remarked to the building’s receptionist that the name of the man I was calling on meant “nobleman” in German.

She gave an ironic laugh and said –

“He’s anything but!” The receptionist had little to gain by her remark; some momentary gratification at most. And (I hope) she had little idea of the harm she was doing. 

But that one flip remark tainted my thinking about the man and the whole organization. 

I confess that I could not give our meeting the 100% attention it deserved because that unconfirmed insinuation poked at my thinking like a sharp stone in my shoe. And, even with my heightened awareness, in my time with the executive I got no other impression that would have suggested her comment had merit. 

Fortunately (sort of) she was also at her station on my departure. So, while signing out, and out of the hearing of any others, I recapitulated our earlier exchange and suggested she should probably stop making such remarks or take her case up with HR.

She suggested I “Have a nice day.” 

I have not seen her since.

Why do people criticize their company or coworkers

– especially in the presence of strangers? 

Sometimes it’s because –

That’s the kind of people they are. They take pleasure in tearing others down. They look for things to complain about, and then start gossiping.

TGIM ALERT: Some people get into the habit of belittling personnel in their company to anyone who will listen. They should be stopped the moment such a tendency is detected. 

More often the reason people disparage each other is –

To get a monkey off their backs. Nobody likes to take the brunt of a customer’s disaffection. So people say or imply that others are responsible.

v  Suppose a customer calls about a late shipment. The salesperson doesn’t want to take the blame personally, so he or she passes the buck suggesting perhaps, “Our shipping department messed up the paperwork. They’re not too careful over there.”

v  When a bank customer complains about a mistake to a teller, the teller may blame the IT Department. “Those nerds aren’t bankers. They’re always making mistakes.”

v  When a department store customer asks about a change in return policy, the salesperson or floor manager may say something like, “I don’t like the new policy myself. Another whim of those guys in corporate, I guess.”

v  When a serviceman brings the wrong part for an appliance repair, he may cover himself by saying, “Those phone people always give me the wrong information.”

In my long career I particularly recall a VP in a small-ish firm who was constantly downgrading his employees to customers. Whenever anything went wrong, it was because the salespeople promised too much or manufacturing didn’t run a tight enough ship. This so-called executive constantly referred to the firm’s employees as “idiots” or “dummies.” 

Sure, there are plenty of books targeted at that Idiot/Dummy crowd. 

But just who was the idiot or dummy? It didn’t take people too long to discover that the employees were being blamed for the problems stemming from the poor skills of the VP himself.

TGIM ACTION IDEA: The way to stop this kind of criticism is to take the offending individual aside and talk to them. Odds are they don’t realize just how destructive such remarks are to the company and to themselves. Let them know.

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Also let them know how to handle problems without blaming others in the organization. 

 For example: 

v  Suggest they tell the customer they will “look into what’s holding things up” instead of blaming a delay on “those guys in shipping.” 

v  Or they might say, “I’ll correct the mistake and get back to those responsible so it doesn’t happen again.”

v  Or they might say, if the source of a problem is specifically identifiable, “Milt in shipping would want me to correct it ASAP. I’ll straighten it out now.”

v  Or even just not calling Milt an idiot might be acceptable.

Speak well of your firm and others in it. And let the insiders know that the idea is to support their colleagues and present a united front to the customer. Above all, see to it that people in supervisory positions stand by their people when talking to customers. It gives a better image of the company.

In every company, of course, people do make mistakes and need correction. Every company has its dirty linen. And I should be washed.

Just not in public.

Geoff Steck   
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com

P. S. “SPEAK WELL OF YOUR FIRM” 

That was the ALL-CAPS injunction of a 42” x 28” “motivational” poster (pictured above) that was given to me when I assumed my first publishing job that had managerial, people-handling responsibilities. 

It was a real time capsule, even when I first received it 40+ years ago. The illustration (five fashionably suited men in discussion in a rather abstract “office” space), the colors, the graphic design, the type and typographic layout, the punctuation and capitalization -- all hint at an origination date perhaps as early as 1920.

But even now, at what may well be a century later, the message is evergreen. It is: 

When you “knock” your

Firm, you insult yourself,

because you are Part

of the Firm. When you

Praise and Speak-Well of

your Firm, you speak

well of yourself: as a

part of your Firm you

therefore profit.” 

Boosting Pays! 

Throughout my most “corporate” days it hung on the wall behind me in my office. Maybe I should not have taken it down.