Tweet

Tell Me Something Good

Guest post by: Betsey Nash

Article Overview: "Don't trash your co-workers, tell me how great they are!" Wouldn't you like that type of atmosphere at your company? Betsey explains how one CFO is strengthening the culture of her company with regular acts of kindness.

Tell Me Something Good

Molly Comin is one of the smartest people I know. The CFO (and co-owner with her husband, Giovanni) of Atascadero, CA’s Central Coast Seafood is not a stereotypical financial person: geeky with numbers all day long. She somehow combines her number geekiness with a great grasp of the key role employees play in the success of a business and what she can do to keep them engaged. Oops: cliché alert. Let me be specific.

Molly’s management team reads books together. They have all read and discussed Good to Great and First Break All the Rules, among others. Her management team is not made up of MBA’s who love to read, either. These are all hands-on managers, and their hands smell like fish. But at every management meeting, they take the time to tie the concepts of the current book to the issues they are dealing with. Overtime is discussed as a function of scheduling, last-minute orders, poor supervision, long rest breaks, AND “are the right people on the bus in the right seats?” (Good to Great). Replacing an office administrator is discussed as a talent and temperament match that would make Marcus Buckingham of First Break All the Rules proud. And so on.

What this shared reading and language creates is, of course, a culture that values thought, creativity, and a sharing of ideas. Which means it values every employee.

Molly has also come up with a monthly exercise in which all of her employees participate: “Tell Me Something Good”. Once a month she sends out this request in an email, and before long everyone sees emails praising their coworkers for all sorts of things. Someone praised a new employee for her great attitude even when she was clearly buried under new info. In another, an employee said how much he appreciated the employee who left notes in a file so he knew what had already been taken care of. And so on.

This is brilliant. Every company should have a strong cultural rule against criticizing your coworkers, but Molly has taken “Don’t trash your coworkers” and elevated it to “Tell me how great they are.”

Too often we hear an employee sell one of their coworkers short or blame them for something that’s gone wrong: John says, “Oh, I didn’t get such & such from so & so, so I couldn’t get this & that to you on time.” Shame on him. While I believe in honesty, diplomacy and tact are critical here for a number of reasons: You need to satisfy the client, not merely move blame around; disrespect shown to a coworker does not make you look better, it just makes them look worse, and that doesn’t help anybody.

With “Tell Me Something Good” Molly Comin has made it easy for her employees to respond to a complaint about a coworker with: “Really? That doesn’t sound like John; let me take care of it for you.” She has all her employees on the bus, and none of them under it.

Related Articles
  Doing Better Than Good!
  Staffing needs in the Holiday Rush
  Give yourself a magical life
  Enlightened Millionaires: AHA Number 7
  Feeling the Positive Opposite
  Why Me?
  Easy Solutions For Managing Problem Solving Challenges
  The Seduction of Technology
  How to start your day the right way
  Joyce Hall Quotes
  The Power of Thought - Insurance Sales Training
  LISTENING SKILLS IN COACHING
  Staying Up, Up, Up in a Down, Down World
  About Those Good Dishes
  What Makes a Great Sales Manager?
  A great leader's tale
  What Does it Mean When You Can't Reach Your Sales Team?
  Entrepreneurs – Getting Your Plumbing And Heating Business Better Known
  The intuition vs. analysis conundrum
  How a Top Sales Manager Gets Their Salespeople to Sell More Stuff!

Article Tags: acts of kindness, atmosphere, coworkers, culture, trash



Related Forum Posts
Re: Networking - Good work, just remember to continue to plug away and dont stop. Good luck, Matt Belock
Re: SEO for your small business: 4 tips - Good post....thanks for sharing. Good to know. Thanks for a great source.
Google Pagerank update inprogress - Hi All, Good news! Google PR update is in progress & my new blog (3months baby) acquired PR2 yesterday but I am seeing a SERP drop. Lets hope for the best. Good luck to all ! -Mr.Ven
Using youtube disadvantages? - Youtube embedded players play instantly. Good. However, if you use a youtube embedded player on your business website and click it twice, it takes you away from your site and on to youtube's where a prospective buyer can wander endlessly and perhaps never return. Good or bad? Does anyone know how to alter the html so that it plays only and doesn't link to youtube?
Re: Book Promo 201 - Preview Trailer - Hi Shri, Good to see you! One of the first things I look at before watching a video is the amount of time it will last. With your video on 1:58, you keep it nicely below two minutes. I can commit to two minutes (sometimes!). It does a good job of convincing us of the need for social networking, and that you must be a good source! Good stuff. David H


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

The Importance of Master Data Management (MDM)

The Basics Of A Home Based Internet Business

Join Conversations Politely, Part 1

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.