Last week, getting ready for my kids to come for ten days with a 1½ and a 3 ½ year old, I was multi-tasking VERY late at night. In the process, I remember picking up my checkbook, which was lying on the kitchen counter, and planning to put it back in the drawer in my bedroom where I keep it. Two days later, when I went to write a very important check, lo and behold, my checkbook was nowhere to be found! I searched and searched, but in vain.
Days later, I remembered one of our old family legends-Sister Elizabeth Deceased! My husband’s sister, Margie, spent 23 years in a convent as a young woman, and during that time, she would often tell us about Sister Elizabeth, a rather ditzy num who was always losing things. She made a vow to all the other nuns (who were always helping her find what she had lost) that after she died and went to Heaven, they could pray to her, and she would help them find what they had lost. However, since there were two “Sister Elizabeths” in the convent, she was very clear that you must always pray to Sister Elizabeth DECEASED. Over the years, we heard miracles about all the things Sister Elizabeth Deceased found for people!
After continuing to search everywhere and worrying about the checkbook for several days, I remembered one night to ask Sister Elizabeth for help. That very night I had a visions and I knew EXACTLY where my checkbook was!
When I was working in the guestroom preparing for the kid’s visit, I must have laid it on the twin bed for a moment. It had fallen down in the tiny space between the frame of the bed and the mattress. Since there are drawers under these beds, I would NEVER have found that checkbook because there is no reason to look under the beds. So, another miracle occurred at 6140 Midnight Pass Road, thanks to Sister Elizabeth Deceased!
Just remember – whenever you lose something, Sister Elizabeth Deceased is there, just waiting to help! 😉 Who says we don’t have work to do in Heaven? (I am just remembering that I lost a new swimsuit on one of my trips this winter – maybe she can help find that, too!)
Linda Blackman, a speaker friend of mine, shared with me a favorite expression of her husband, Laurie’s, whenever he is doing something important like giving a presentation: “I’m ready for bear!” Whenever Linda is on the road or giving a presentation herself, Laurie always sends her a little stuffed bear in honor of his support and encouragement, tying back to this favorite expression.
On Valentine’s Day Linda was at their home in Naples, Florida, while Laurie was going to be giving a very important presentation in New Orleans. That morning Linda called the gift shop at the hotel and asked the young man working there, whose name was James, if they had any kind of stuffed bear they could send to her husband’s room.
James said he was sorry but they only carried sundries. Linda went on to explain why she wanted the bear and how important it was to get it to her husband before his presentation that evening and asked James if he might be able to go somewhere close and pick one up and she would send him a check.
His response was, “Ma’am, do you realize that is is MARDI GRAS, and this whole city is wall to wall people” Linda said she had forgotten that, and very disappointedly, ended the conversation.
Sometime later she received a surprise call from James telling her that he had thought about how important getting the bear would be to her husband, so he had asked the manager if he could stop at the drugstore and pick one up for her. He had just returned from that trip, and he had a BEAR!
Of course, Linda was thrilled and asked him how much she owed him and where to send the money. He replied, “Please. You do not need to send a check. This was such fun to do for you.” He then attached a note reading “You’re ready for bear! Happy Valentine’s Day. Love, Linda” and hand delivered it to Laurie’s room, just in time to reach him before his presentation.
What a wonderful sense of humor and good heart this young man had to go out of his way for a perfect stranger – and then not even charge her what it cost him! We need more people like this in the world.
Click on the link to watch Barbara answer this question.
For more ways to find out about improving morale, retention, productivity, and team spirit among your employees, read CARE Packages for the Workplace-Dozens of Little Things You Can Do to Regenerate Spirit at Work, available at www.barbaraglanz.com/products/books.php3.
Featured Article
Rebuilding Trust in Turbulent Times by Barbara A. Glanz
Nearly every week I read something in a business publication about low employee morale, fear in the workplace, the toll change is taking on organizations, lack of management communication, the stress of having to do more with less, and other issues of general dispiritedness in the workplace. More and more, we are seeing that the cutbacks and reorganizations of the last few years have slowly eroded any level of trust employees may have had in their management team, their own sense of value and job security, and even society in general. What are some ways we can rebuild that trust in our organizations?
First, stop reading this article and write down two basic beliefs you have about people and human nature:
1.
2.
We will come back to these beliefs later in the article.
“Trust” as a verb is defined in Webster’s New World Dictionary as “1 a) to believe in the honesty, integrity, justice, etc., of; have confidence in b) to rely or depend on (trust him to be on time) 2. to commit; entrust (to a person) 3. to put something confidently in the charge of (to trust a lawyer with one’s case) 4. to allow to do something without fear of the outcome 5. to believe or suppose 6. to expect confidently; hope.” Not all of these definitions of trust are applicable in today’s workplace; however, we need to examine what aspects of trust we CAN rebuild within the new business fabric which is emerging.
Trust is built on relationships, and these relationships are based on emotions or feelings: confidence, honesty, integrity, justice, beliefs, hope. In all my books and speeches, I use an interaction model to illustrate the choices we have in every interaction and to illuminate what is happening in organizations today.
This idea is excerpted from Barbara’s book Handle with CARE: Motivating and Retaining Employees (McGraw-Hill 2002).
According to an article in “Success in Recruiting & Retaining” newsletter in July 2000, Randstad consultants found in a study of more than 6000 North American employees that 51% of employees would stay in their current jobs rather than switch if their employer offered flexible working hours. 62% prefer a boss who understands when they need to leave work for personal reasons over one who could help them grow professionally. Most surprisingly, 51% of employees surveyed prefer a job that offers flexible hours to one that offers an opportunity for advancement. The bottom line: “Employers can gain a critical advantage in recruiting and retaining employees by examining ways to integrate flexibility into all corners of the organization. Two of the simplest:
Allow for a portable office with Internet and wireless technology.
Offer nontraditional schedules beyond the 9 to 5 workday.”
THE IDEA IN ACTION
At Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, decided to try a new way to retain nurses and recruit new ones: Give them the same schedule as their school-age children. They now have the option of working for either 12 months a year or just nine. They keep their benefits but do not earn pay during the summer.
At Columbia Bank in Columbia, Maryland, bank tellers can now choose to take off the summer while keeping their jobs, vacation time, and benefits. Such leaves are approved as long as a replacement teller is available. Employees report higher job satisfaction and the bank boasts high retention rates as a result.
Ernst & Young is so zealous about keeping employees that it has created an
Office for Retention. A poll of all employees on flexible schedules found that 65% would have left the firm without them.
BI Performance Services in Minneapolis, Minnesota, gives associates the opportunity to work summer hours. In Minnesota, the winter is long and cold. Summer hours allows the associate to work one hour longer Monday through Thursday and then have Friday afternoon off to enjoy!
A fun, flexible workforce with lots of lifestyle perks is a strong pull, especially for many young recruits. Northrup Grumman Corporations’s generous vacation package, flexible work schedule, and company sports leagues have enticed many college students who sacrifice big money in favor of lifestyle perks. One college graduate who went to work for Northrup Grumman says that another employer could double his salary, but he’d probably decline if it meant giving up the perks!
(Barbara STILL keeps her contagious enthusiasm even as the pirates attacked on the cruise ship!)
Ever since I was in junior high, when people were asked to describe me, they always mentioned my constant smile and my positive spirit and “contagious enthusiasm.” (When I moved to Florida several years ago, my new dentist told me I had the strongest smile muscles he had ever seen on a patient! 😉 So, when I began my first job at age 14 in Harlan, Iowa, that became my personal motto: Spreading Contagious Enthusiasm. I cleaned and sterilized instruments in a doctor’s office, so having contagious enthusiasm in a job like that was a wonderful lesson for my later work in corporate America!
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Yesterday I had major sinus surgery, the risks of which were blindness and brain damage, and needless to say, since it was elective, I had a number of sleepless nights before I made the final decision to do this. When I had committed to the process, I immediately emailed family, friends, special clients and groups that I am a part of to ask for their prayers, and I was overwhelmed and humbled by the response.
I was at complete peace going into the surgery from the moment I woke up in the morning until I was surrounded by seven people in the operating room as I was being put under the anesthetic-I am SURE because of all the prayers.
The most amazing part, however, was all the small miracles God gave me as a reassurance of His mighty presence.
As my friend and I first sat down in the waiting room, directly across from us was a huge poster of a butterfly. Many of you know that I use a butterfly as my logo as a symbol of hope, regeneration, and eternal life, and my home is filled with butterfly objects.
As the nurses were preparing me for surgery, they noticed that I had brought a copy of the book I wrote with Ken Blanchard, “The Simple Truths of Service Inspired by Johnny the Bagger,” which I had signed for the doctor. I asked if any of them had heard the story of “Johnny the Bagger,” and one of them said that yes, she had. She had recently come from Ohio and their whole hospital had read the book and every employee was asked to write down and send in what THEY were going to personally do to make the patients feel special. When she heard that that was my story, she squealed in delight and said she could not wait to call her friends at the old hospital and tell them she had actually met the “Johnny” lady! Of course, then all the other nurses wanted to hear the story, too.
The anesthetist heard that I was a speaker and was well aware of the possible danger to my vocal cords with this procedure, so she assured me that they would use a much smaller throat tube than normal to help prevent any injury. She saw the picture I brought the doctor (described below) as well as the book and then brought me the “fortune” she had received at lunch that day, “The greatest truths are the simplest, and the simplest men are the greatest.”
I had also brought the doctor a picture I have long loved of a patient and a surgeon in an operating room, and Jesus is standing behind the surgeon, holding his hand. Dr. Deems was thrilled with this and said that that is always his prayer when he operates on a person. I knew it was taking a bit of a risk to bring this to him when I had only met him once for about 10 minutes, but God used it to help us create a very special bond before the surgery.
When I came out of the anesthetic in the recovery room, the nurse taking care of me was wearing scrubs with butterflies on them, and she also knew my friend who had brought me, so again, I received special care.
While I was in the recovery room, the doctor’s operating room assistant came in to see me (we had talked for a few moments in the operating room) and told me that he, too, was a Christian and had been praying for me during the surgery. In the conversation, he also shared that his whole church had done the “Lead Like Jesus” training which is Ken Blanchard’s foundation on whose Board of Directors I serve. What an AMAZING coincidence that only our awesome God could plan! He has already called me today, and I feel sure that we will have an ongoing friendship.
I am doing fine today, but most of all, my heart is overflowing with gratitude for so many caring, praying friends, for the skill and caring of all the doctors and nurses, and for the blessed assurance that God is with us in every moment of our lives if we only look for Him.
I recently got this lovely email from Carolyn Joslin from the Human Resources Department of the Southwest Florida Water Management District. I had spoken to her organization in 2006, and she currently receives my email newsletter. (You can subscribe to the newsletter at www.barbaraglanz.com) She shared with me a wonderful way that they are using one of my ideas all year around to promote appreciation, gratitude, and caring:
I wanted to let you know that a short while back, one of your newsletters mentioned an idea you had used with your family at Thanksgiving – a manzanita branch ‘tree’ for each family member to add tags stating what they were thankful for. I thought it would be a good idea to use at work to help everyone focus on positive things during the holidays, especially since we had recently learned there would be no raises this year. My husband helped me choose a young oak tree (we live in the country and have many!). We cut the top out of the tree and stripped the leaves, then placed it in a recycled flowerpot filled with mortar mix. I added some colored glass stones to the top of the mortar mix, painted the flower pot, and we were good to go! Instead of using tags and yarn, I searched online and found a maple leaf outline that I printed on paper in various fall leaf colors.
With help from our admin staff, the finished ‘Human Resources Department Tree of Thanks’ was displayed prominently in the Human Resources Department along with a fall basket holding the paper ‘leaves’, a hole punch, glitter glue sticks, pens, and various colored ribbons. Our staff and department guests enjoyed taking a ‘craft break’ every now and then to create leaves to hang on the tree. As the days went by, our tree grew more and more ‘leaves’ and was beautiful! In fact, a few ‘acorns’ and additional leaf shapes even appeared. The tree reminded us of our many blessings and helped us focus on the good things in our lives. The finale was our department’s Thanksgiving luncheon where the leaves were removed from the tree and placed in a basket. The basket was passed around the table and each staff member chose a leaf to read aloud until each leaf was read. It was very inspiring and brought us closer together as a group.
“Having heard Barbara speak several times, and visiting with her personally, it felt only natural to seek out her advice and counsel, coaching if you will, on my own personal development. When we sat down together, my mind was so full of ideas and opportunities, all pulling me in different directions, that it seemed impossible to determine where I should be directing my energies. I was suffering from a sort of professional paralysis; wrestling with so many possibilities, yet doing nothing to my full capabilities. Barbara helped me to identify the key core elements of what I wanted to achieve and brought crystal clarity to what I should be doing to maximize my efforts. She helped clear away the clutter, prioritize, and left me focused and heading in the right direction. We developed a quick and effective action plan that will take me straight to my destination. It was never about what she wanted, but always looking after my best interests, even when I myself didn’t realize what those interests were. I am so blessed to call Barbara my friend and mentor!”
Dr. Mark Wade,
Manager of Human Resources,
Safety & Compliance, Evans Properties, Inc.
I have been trying to make the best of grief and am just beginning to learn to allow it to make the best of me. - Barbara Lazear Ascher -
