When former President George H.W. Bush died last year the obituaries made much of the fact that he was a politician from a different era — a man who set great store by kindness, civility and an ability to see others' point of view. The contrast with today's practitioners is, of course, stark. But even when he entered the White House at the end of the 1990s such characteristics were not the norm. A key exhibit in the case for Bush senior's decency was his habit of writing thank you notes.
"Bush was one of the modern era’s great letter writers. This old-fashioned virtue became his hallmark, an endearing practice and a pragmatic one as he fostered warm connections with world leaders, potential allies and even his opponents. He knew that compassion and kind manners help a person establish strong and positive relationships. He held dear the core diplomatic belief that a leader should make friends, not enemies — and that leadership and civility are mutually reinforcing," wrote Sarah L. Kaufman in the Washington Post.
It is a conviction shared by Dr Cindy McGovern, a consultant on sales management, communication and leadership. She says she is "a big note person" (disclosure: she wrote thanking me for interviewing her), and adds that "simply saying 'thank you' can go a long way toward improving employee morale, retaining valuable staff members and keeping your clients coming back." She points out that "in survey after survey," more than 20% of employees have said that if they don’t feel recognized for doing good work, they have applied for a different job. This is compared with 12% of employees who do feel recognized. Moreover, studies indicate that greater appreciation from their bosses would make them happier at work and that they prefer thankyous — whether written or oral — to extra time off or gifts.
So if it is as simple as this, why do organizations not simply encourage individuals, especially managers, to be nicer to their colleagues and show greater appreciation? It would appear that, in most cases, they are simply stuck in the old ways of doing things. Often, says McGovern, managers forget how happy just saying thank you can make people. "If you have happy employees, you'll have satisfied employees," she said in a recent interview.
Nor is it just employees who can be affected this way. McGovern, author of the book Every Job Is A Sales Job: How To Use The Art Of Selling To Win At Work, firmly believes that serving customers and working with other people in business is essentially about providing them with a service and in so doing, hopefully, making them happy. To those who feel there is something a bit distasteful about selling or believe that it is not their forte, she says she was once one of them. But she says: "I realised I could sell just by helping people. It's really finding needs in other people and being able to deliver them. I can't think of anybody in a customer-facing role who isn't doing that." Indeed, as the title of her book suggests, she goes further, saying: "If you are employed you've already done selling."
She argues that "everybody at your organization is a walking advertisement." The issue is whether they are doing that in a good way or a bad way. So, for example, customers might choose one coffee shop over another (after all, most places these days have plenty from which to choose) at least in part because of the welcome they receive from the staff. On the other hand, if a sales assistant ignores you while finishing with another customer you might think twice about returning to the store in question.
To turn the latter into the former requires leadership. Senior executives need to get away from the idea that sales is something that a particular department does and acknowledge that in the most successful organisations all the employees are selling all the time. Think of those hotels where the concierge or porter seems to know your name almost from the off and where the reception staff appear to be generally interested in your day rather than just going through the motions according to a script. McGovern suggests that other businesses can replicate this by empowering their employees to realise that they can sell even if that is not their job title just by how they go about their jobs.
The advantage of this — if it is done right — is that not only do the customers feel more valued the employees do, too.
