http://venturearchitecture.com/portfolio/albion-street/ A few weeks ago, I had lunch with a retired consultant who had been a big wig at Sears in the 1980’s. Back then, Sears was in its hey-day and was worth about 6 billion as a company. I asked this gentleman what he thought made them so successful back then. His response really surprised me. “The CEO had a full time ‘Atta-Boy’ Girl.’
Ummm… what?
The CEO at the time instructed his personal assistant to start looking for people in the company who had done good work, because he wanted to promote great customer service in Sears. She began soliciting the stores to communicate with her stories of people who had gone above and beyond the standard to provide great customer service. Then, the CEO would write a personalized, hand-written thank you note. Eventually her job as the ‘Atta-Boy Girl’ became a full-time job. She would hear about these stories, type up the note, and every day at 4:30, she would take these letters to the CEO, he would read them, sign his name to them, and she would send them out.
Can you imagine what commitment it took for him to do that? Can you imagine what impact that made? Sears ultimately replaced that CEO with another who was not committed to the thank you letter writing campaign and look at their current status. Coincidence?
During the holiday season, during the time of gratitude and gratefulness, If you want to improve your company culture, start with a simple thank you, and grow it to needing a full-time ‘Atta Boy Girl’/ ‘Atta Girl Boy’/whatever.
There is quite simply no better use of your time.