Watch How People Treat Staff

One of my friends (Sarah Worsham: aka Sazbean) posted a wonderful article on her Facebook page that I thought all of you would enjoy.  It's on business ethics and the subject of the article is the CEO of Office Depot, Steve Odland.

Steve talks about the importance of character in the work environment an how he can instantly weed out people who would damage a corporation by how they treat hired staff at a restaurant, here's a memory of his when he was working as a waiter that he has never forgotten:

"The purple sorbet in cut glass he was serving tumbled onto the expensive white gown of an obviously rich and important woman. "I watched in slow motion ruining her dress for the evening," Odland says. "I thought I would be shot on sight."

Thirty years have passed, but Odland can't get the stain out of his mind, nor the woman's kind reaction. She was startled, regained composure and, in a reassuring voice, told the teenage Odland, "It's OK. It wasn't your fault." When she left the restaurant, she also left the future Fortune 500 CEO with a life lesson: You can tell a lot about a person by the way he or she treats the waiter."

Isn't that amazing?  Thirty years have passed and he can still remember the reaction of the lady whose dress he stained!

Here's another quote that I felt was really important:

"They acknowledge that CEOs live in a Lake Wobegon world where every dinner or lunch partner is above average in their deference. How others treat the CEO says nothing, they say. But how others treat the waiter is like a magical window into the soul.

And beware of anyone who pulls out the power card to say something like, “I could buy this place and fire you,” or “I know the owner and I could have you fired.” Those who say such things have revealed more about their character than about their wealth and power."

A 'window into the soul', my prayer is that the people who view through my window will see a heart of compassion!  The journalist who wrote this piece did an amazing job writing it, and the editors did an amazing job editing it.

Nuff' said... :-)

You can find the whole text of the article here:  Protocol Advisors

It was run in USA Today originally but I'm not sure what the date was.

The whole article is wonderful and really spoke to my heart!

PS: The Ping.fm study that I'm working on is coming soon, please come back, you won't want to miss it!