Once you breach a confidence, even of a friend, your relationship is permanently damaged. No matter how much you apologize or how often you assure them that it won’t happen again, there will always be an element of doubt. This applies to personal information or information about their organization; moreover, to avoid suspicion, avoid breaching… [Read More]
Are Role Models Becoming Extinct?
When we were growing up, our teachers saluted great individuals who changed the course of history; during dinnertime, our parents lovingly recalled their idols; and of course, we had our own personal heroes who walked on water. They were wonderful role models. Martin Luther King, Princess Diana, Leonard Bernstein, Walter Cronkite, Colin Powell, Helen Keller,… [Read More]
Manage the Small Details
There’s no way to overemphasize the point that every impression is an important one. In Customers for Life, Carl Sewell and Paul B. Brown point out that customers look at everything in your organization as a sign of its quality. They ask themselves, “If that’s how they take care of their restrooms, how’ll they take… [Read More]
Reputation: You Can’t Run from Your Shadow
In a world where time is a precious resource, we often draw conclusions without examining all the information that’s available to us. We rely on shortcuts, such as someone’s reputation, to simplify the process. Did the job applicant have a good reference? What did my neighbor say about the contractor? How was the restaurant review?… [Read More]
Trust Me . . . Trust Me Not
Trust is the fabric that binds us together, creating an orderly, civilized society from chaos and anarchy. If we can’t trust our husband or our wife, if we can’t trust our children, if we can’t trust our boss or our colleagues, if we can’t trust our preacher or our senator, then we have nothing on… [Read More]
The Many Faces of Greed
Greed is a term that describes ruthless people with naked ambition, people with an insatiable appetite for riches, those who give new meaning to the word selfish. Greed evokes images of the rich and famous playing with lavish toys such as luxurious yachts, expensive furs, and mansions that resemble palaces. Think women dripping in diamonds… [Read More]
Ethics as Usual
One of the first things we learn as children is the difference between right and wrong (the punishment being the time-out chair). Yet as we grow up, we too easily forget the simple lessons that we learned in kindergarten, and the line between acceptable and unacceptable behavior gets blurred. This contributes to a decline in… [Read More]
Trust Me: 55 Ways to Build Trust and Credibility
55 Ways to Build Trust and Credibility
