Pleasant. Caring. Engaged.
There have been lots of thoughtful Comments to my last post [I’ll Miss You! (I Already Do.)]. One, from Todd Reed, speaking of Zingerman’s (see Bo Burlingham’s Small Giants), parallels my point: “They don’t say the interviewee/employee has to be a ball of fire, just pleasant, caring, and engaged in the moment.”
Fact is, the work place to a great extent is “where we live.” We need star accountants. Boffo saleswomen. Over-the-top creatives in marketing and new product development. And so on. But, since we’re effectively talking about “where we live,” good sense and good business and “good” engagement throughout the “supply chain,” from vendor’s vendor to customer’s customer, we would benefit mightily—including on the P & L—if we insisted (!) on: “Pleasant.” “Caring.” “Engaged.”
So, let’s put it in the hiring practices manual (would-be peer assessment will be front and center). Let’s put it in every evaluation. Let’s feature it in promotion decisions.
For everyone.*
Starting now.
(*If we look for “it” in accounting as much as, say, sales, we’ll have gone a long way toward making all-important cross-functional coordination more or less automatic.)