Actions speak louder than words
I will be writing periodically about how a single action can be very meaningful - how actions speak louder than words.
In 1995 i was asked to start up a customer service center. I was hiring about 80- people, many of them straight out of college. About a month into the operation, my HR manager came to me and said there was a rumor running around that I disapproved of many of the guys wearing earrings.
The culture we were building was very important to me, and this feedback I was receiving really troubled me. Not only did i not care, but I wanted my organization to know that transparency was important, that performance for our customers was what mattered, that prejudice was not going to be tolerated in any form.
The next morning, I came to work with my ear pierced.
I got a lot of questions that morning about my pierced ear. I faced them head-on, explaining that I had heard the rumors and wanted to make it absolutely clear as to the culture we were building.
By facing the rumor head-on, and by leaving no doubt where i stood ... by choosing actions over words, I believe I gained a lot of trust, and a lot of momentum that day.
Send me your stories and i will use them for future blogs.
In 1995 i was asked to start up a customer service center. I was hiring about 80- people, many of them straight out of college. About a month into the operation, my HR manager came to me and said there was a rumor running around that I disapproved of many of the guys wearing earrings.
The culture we were building was very important to me, and this feedback I was receiving really troubled me. Not only did i not care, but I wanted my organization to know that transparency was important, that performance for our customers was what mattered, that prejudice was not going to be tolerated in any form.
The next morning, I came to work with my ear pierced.
I got a lot of questions that morning about my pierced ear. I faced them head-on, explaining that I had heard the rumors and wanted to make it absolutely clear as to the culture we were building.
By facing the rumor head-on, and by leaving no doubt where i stood ... by choosing actions over words, I believe I gained a lot of trust, and a lot of momentum that day.
Send me your stories and i will use them for future blogs.
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