David
Pollay
Read David's bio and previous columns
November 19, 2007
Real Thanksgiving is
Personal, Right Down to the Smudged Signature
Our national day of gratitude, Thanksgiving, is just a few days away.
Christmas, Chanukah and Kwanzaa are just two to five weeks later. Good
leadership involves good planning. If you’re a business leader, start
thinking about your gratitude plan now.
Someone in your company, maybe even you, is going to place an order for
holiday cards soon. Stop the order! If you were planning to send
generic, non-personal cards, don’t waste your time. Your customers are
too busy to open and read messages that have little thought and no
personal meaning behind them. Generic cards send messages you don’t want
to send. Here’s what they communicate: “Even though you spend thousands
of dollars as a customer of our company, I am having someone on my staff
send you this generic card. I don’t have time to tell you how your
business with us makes a difference in the lives of our employees and
many others. I don’t even have time to sign this card. So have a happy
holiday and tape this great card to your wall!”
Buck this terrible trend! Get personal. Tell your customers how much
they mean to you. Tell them why their business matters. And make sure
your letters pass the “lick test.” Your signature should smudge when
someone’s wet finger runs across it. If it doesn’t, you’re showing again
that you don’t care enough to even know what’s being sent to your
customers. Your photocopied signature says, “I don’t value you enough
to personally sign my letters.”
I
laugh every time I hear people say, “I don’t have time to write personal
thank you notes.” I have an easy answer for them. They should send a
blanket letter or email to all of their customers and everyone else they
know at the beginning of the year. Here’s what they could write: “I am
way too busy to thank you personally for anything you’re planning on
doing for me this year. As I would prefer not to have the burden of
thanking you for going out of your way for making my life better, please
don’t do anything especially nice for me. Don’t give me presents. Don’t
help me with my projects. Don’t open doors for me. Just cut me out of
the picture. That way I will have no need to spend time personally
thanking you.”
Here’s another great excuse I hear people give: “They know I appreciate
what they did for me.” Maybe they do, and maybe they don’t. The number
one reason people leave their companies is because of their bosses.
Typically the employees who leave feel underappreciated – they don’t
feel that their bosses have appropriately recognized their contribution
to the company. People leave marriages for similar reasons, they feel
that their spouse does not value them.
One of the greatest gifts we can give others is the gift of appreciation
for what they contribute to our lives. The best companies know this.
Leaders know that companies are simply a web of individuals who
coordinate their work on behalf of the company. All employees are just
people – they want to be appreciated by their bosses, peers, direct
reports and customers.
So as you begin making plans for the holiday season at work and at home,
set enough time aside to thank people personally for everything they did
to make your life better this past year. You’ll feel good that you did,
and you can bet they will appreciate your gratitude even more.
David J. Pollay
is a syndicated columnist with North
Star Writers Group, creator and host of “The Happiness Answer™”
television program, an internationally sought-after speaker and seminar
leader, and the author of “Beware of Garbage Trucks!™ - The Law of the
Garbage Truck™.” Mr. Pollay is the founder and president of
TheMomentumProject.com, a strengths-based training and consulting
organization with offices in Delray Beach, Florida and Washington D.C.
Mr. Pollay is also the associate executive director of the International
Positive Psychology Association (IPPA). Email him at
david@themomentumproject.com.
© 2007
David J. Pollay. Distributed by North Star Writers Group. May not be
republished without permission.
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