365 Days of Living the Dale Carnegie Principles
Day 111. Friday, July 15, 2011
I heard the ding of the bell from the other end of the hallway. We had a guest in the building.
This guest was Susan, our account representative from the U.S. Postal Service.
She was here to meet with Marcy who is in charge of our shipping department.
I heard the two women talking in the other office as I worked on a marketing campaign.
I was struck by the account representative. She was very perky and talkative. The conversation between the two women was just small talk at first. But then Marcy began discussing details. Details like the best method for shipping products to Canada and the challenges of shipping overseas, etc.
Susan, the account representative listened to Marcy’s woes, offered suggestions and was absolutely perky during the entire process. There was even an in-depth explanation of why delivery takes a little longer to Hawaii. Susan actually made the business of shipping interesting.
See! There's opportunity to apply Dale Carnegie's principles just about anywhere!
I was also struck by Marcy. Marcy does more than run the shipping department. She handles the customer service department—she’s the main point of contact with our customers via phone and email. I was so impressed that despite her workload, Marcy cared about the details of shipping.
While I’m detail-oriented in certain areas, shipping products is something I consider myself the least qualified to do. I cringe when I have to exert energy by mailing an envelope.
I imagined myself in Marcy’s shoes meeting with Susan. I’d be horrible in that meeting. I’d be short and to the point. Marcy put enthusiasm and cheerfulness into her work. I imagined how the meeting would be different if Susan wasn’t talkative and perky—what a dry and boring meeting that would be! Susan clearly puts enthusiasm into her work.
Their meeting ended. I continued working on my marketing campaign with enthusiasm by setting up the html code, the links and various other details. Broken links have not happened on my watch and I do my best to make sure it never happens.
The Dale Carnegie principles demonstrated in this story are from How to Stop Worrying and Start Living:
Put enthusiasm into your work.
Do the very best you can.
Today I was able to witness other people putting enthusiasm and care into their work. It was inspiring and a marvel to observe. I don’t care about shipping boxes. But I do have the tedious responsibility of testing links in html code a couple times a week—so I can appreciate the work involved in shipping boxes. To ship boxes successfully someone has to care—and it’s even better when they put enthusiasm into it by finding the most economical methods to save the company money.
My initial reaction to hearing a talkative account representative in our building was uh-oh… another chatty Cathy in our building. But then I realized she did her job well—she was interested in learning more about our needs and her chatty style was actually effective. She put enthusiasm into her work.
For my part—my personality is the complete opposite—I’m not so chatty—but I do get my job done and with enthusiasm.
We all have our strengths. When we apply our strengths with enthusiasm toward achieving a goal—we are able to achieve success. It doesn’t matter if the task is shipping boxes, testing html code, running a corporation or performing surgery. No matter the task or your station in life—do your best, put enthusiasm into it and success will come.
The Smiling Daffodil 