LAURA BENJAMIN'S ONLINE MAGAZINE

Dedicated to help your business grow and your people prosper. It's never 'just business' it's always personal.

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Vol. 8, Number 1 - January 3, 2007
Editor: Laura Benjamin
http://www.LauraBenjamin.com
Published continually since the year 2000
Copyright©Pinehurst Press Ltd., 2007

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IN THIS ISSUE
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1. Teamwork Quotes & Funny Quotes
2. Teleclasses & Expert Interviews
3. Customer Service Discussion Point
4. Difficult People Daily Tutorial Tips
5. Comptroller General's Leadership Advice
6. Ethical Issues and Humor Too

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1. TEAMWORK QUOTES & FUNNY QUOTES
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"You learn how to scale the wall when you're on the wall." (unknown)

Quotes from Coco Chanel, French Fashion Designer (1883-1971):
-"Don't spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door."
-"In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different."
-"Look for the woman in the dress; if there is no woman, there is no dress."
-"Elegance is not the prerogative of those who have just escaped from
adolescence but of those who have already taken possession of their future."
-"Guilt is perhaps the most painful companion of death."
-"A woman has the age she deserves."

Teamwork Quotes at: www.LauraBenjamin.com/teamworkquotes.htm

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2. COMPLIMENTARY TELECLASSES & EXPERT INTERVIEWS
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"How to Fire a Customer (and why would you ever want to?)"
Date: Thursday, Jan 11
1pm pacific, 2pm mtn, 3pm central, 4pm eastern

"Top 10 Reasons Why Teams Fail"
Date: Thursday, Jan 25
9am pacific, 10am mtn, 11am central, 12 noon eastern

Register at: http://www.LauraBenjamin.com/interviews.htm
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3. CUSTOMER SERVICE DISCUSSION POINT
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NEW ITEM: A short discussion point you can use to generate dialogue
among your employees. Get the communication going and find out what
they think about the grey areas. Hopefully, it will create some
lively debate.

DISCUSSION POINT #1:

HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT STEW LEONARDS' GRANITE ROCK?
Stew Leonards has grown to become not only the world's largest dairy store,
but one of the most renounced grocery stores. Fortune Magazine has listed
them among their "100 Best Companies to Work For in America" for four
consecutive years. Stews's Rules are etched in a 3-ton granite rock at each
stores entrance. The rules?

Rule #1. The customer is always right.
Rule #2. If the customer is wrong, re-read Rule #1

But Seth Godin of "Purple Cow" fame says, "...if it’s not worth making the
customer right, fire her. It’s the unwritten Rule 3 on Stew Leonard’s famous
granite rock: If the customer is wrong, they’re not your customer any more."

Q: Is there a compromise between these two philosophies or are they really
the same? Which is correct. How does our organization handle this issue?

To read more about Stew Leonards: http://www.stewleonards.com/html/about.cfm
To participate in a complimentary teleclass on this topic, see above

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4. DIFFICULT PEOPLE DAILY TUTORIAL TIPS (COMPLIMENTARY)
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Got a difficult person in your life? Need help now? You can get 107 Daily
Turorial Tips on how to deal with difficult personalities in the workplace,
or anywhere else. Each one gives you a short slice of information on how
to cope and shows up each day in your email without you having to lift a
finger. You can use these tips in the following ways:
- As a team or start-up meeting discussion
- To send out to friends or family who are struggling with a difficult person
- As foundational training modules (with attribution please)
- As short articles for your intranet, association trade magazine, or company
newsletter (with attribution please)
- Or you can use them to help you cope with the person you live with, sit
next to, do business with, or date

And did I mention they are complimentary?
Get them at http://www.LauraBenjamin.com/difficultpeopletips/signup.htm
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5. COMPTROLLER GENERAL'S LEADERSHIP ADVICE
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David Walker, U.S. Comptroller General says there are 3 things the U.S.
Government and businesses should do:
1. Incentives: motivate people to do the right thing
2. Transparency: for clarity and to shine the spotlight
3. Accountability: personal responsibility at all levels

He also cited 4 key leadership traits:
1. The courage to be candid and do the right thing
2. Integrity - practice what you preach
3. Creativity - willingness to try something new even if mistakes result
4. Stewardship - not just going after positive results for today, but
also for the future

Laura's note:
Sound familiar? How many times have we heard these words from various
leadership and management texts? What's good in business is also good in
government, in families and in communities. Easy to say, but often very
difficult to do. Why? Because human nature gets in the way. People get
embarassed, folks are afraid of stepping on toes because their jobs may
be on the line, taking care of someone for tomorrow doesn't meet our
number goals today. Time is crunched, people are stressed, and there's
way more to read or do than energy to do it with.

Tips:
- Pick one, focus on it, promote it, include it in performance goals
and performance review discussions
- Reward those who do it right and fire those who abuse it
- Include it in new employee orientation programs
- Establish incentive programs built around how people illustrate it
- Then pick another
- Rinse and repeat

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6. ETHICAL ISSUES AND A LITTLE HUMOR TO BOOT
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SURVEY DATA ON ETHICAL ISSUES
Regardless of which survey you choose, the message is clear:
-82% of 834 full time employees surveyed nationwide said they would rather
work for less in a company with ethical business practices than not
-76% say that how they perceive the company's ethics affect whether they
would want to work there
-94% said it was either critical or important that the company they work
for is ethical
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ETHICAL VIOLATIONS (National Defense Magazine, Sept 06)
From the Defense Department's "Encyclopedia of Ethical Failure":
- 96 boxes of outdated Oracle software stated to have been destroyed
when it was really sold for cash to a company for resale (Result: this
Air Force officer got a conviction)
- Supervisor at Bureau of Indian Affairs had BIA purchase excessive
quantities of overpriced light bulbs in exchange for $21,000 in bribes
(Result: 1 year and 9 mos. in prison and a $72,000 fine)
- Navy vice admiral organized private golf tournament using gov't
property and subordinates on official time. Winners got prizes
improperly solicited and accepted from contractors.
- Veterans Admin. clerk earned kickbacks for referring abandoned
bodies to a funeral home where another VA employee was moonlighting.
- FBI officials traveled to Washington, D.C. at gov't expense to
attend an official's retirement party, and claimed the purpose of the
trip was to attend an "ethics conference".
- Procurement workers bought 100,000 rolls of red tape for the gov't.
They paid more than twice the normal price in exchange for kickbacks.

(Laura's note: ya just can't make this stuff up!)

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Laura Benjamin International Inc.
Colorado Springs CO USA
Phone: 719-266-8088
Fax: 719-785-5768
http://www.laurabenjamin.com
Copyright(C)Pinehurst Press Ltd. 2007
Reprints upon request and with attribution please