A little thanks goes a long way – and will really get you noticed.

Given my passion for all things relating to employee engagement (see previous posts) I work with organization to ensure that they ‘notice’ what their employees do and we devise programs to make people feel like winners. The challenge of course is that no matter the commitment of the employer many times they are just not there on the day. Many people work ‘in the field’ and there is no one to see the small miracles that they perform every day.

We as customers can impact how some one experiences their job. I often will challenge an audience to consider that on average each of them will experience 10 transactions a day. And then I ask how many were truly memorable? Even in large groups of more than 500 – often there is no one who is prepared to announce one truly memorable customer interaction they had in the past month! Is it that service in Australia is just so bad or is it that we are just numb to it.

I don’t own a car – (a small personal commitment to global warming – and people on Sydney roads are safer) So I regularly catch the bus. Can you imagine the surprise of my bus driver – when I alight the bus and turn to them – look them in the eye and state ‘thank you for getting me here safely and on time’. They are amazed (or think I am crazy) but each of the bus drivers you see their eyes light up – they were noticed. (they probably compare notes at the depot – did you get the crazy woman who thanks you for getting you their safely and on time).

You see it does not hurt to notice what people do in a day. And it is just by noticing that we can make a huge difference to someone else. Then in turn they will notice someone else – then eventually we are all just happier and we don’t know why. Below are two emails that I have received from people who have taken up my cause of just catching people doing things well.

Hi Naomi, I heard you speak recently at Air New Zealand's leadership college at Auckland. I must confess to having never heard of you or your organisation before this. I found you a delight to listen to and lots of what you said made sense to me. I didn't really see how most of the customer contact stuff would relate to me as I work in line maintenance looking after the servicing and repair of aeroplanes before they venture off across the Pacific or Tasman. However a recent event reminded me of what you said about surprising and delighting the customer. I was onboard NZ2 for Los Angeles with 5-10 minutes to go before departure, completing some last minute stuff (refuelling, paperwork, etc) when a flight attendant asked me to check a reading light in the premium economy section. The light needed relamping so I got a spare lamp from the flight deck and replaced the failed one. After I had done this I noticed the passenger seemed really happy and he told me that in all his years of travelling he had never known an airline that would actually fix something for a passenger right before departure as I had done.

This also reminded me of what you said about thanking people because being thanked in this manner made me feel fantastic for the rest of my shift and probably for a good few days after as well.”

Best regards, Shaun Houlahan


“ MESSAGE FOR NAOMI.   this will test your claim that you review all feedback! ;-) Dear Naomi, it was a great pleasure to hear you speak at Tour de Cure DOI yesterday…..I also loved the simple things like thanking a bus driver (as its so easy but we get so caught up in ourselves and our world, that we just don't do it, and its tragic!) so in that vain.

I noticed a particularly happy voice on the end of Telstra 1234 directories this morning and I congratulated her for sounding happy ,advising its not my normal experience and said, good on you, have  great day. there was shocked silence and she responded that she has been working the lines for 14 mths and never had a compliment.....and we hung up and it felt GREAT! have a great day Naomi. I'm sure our paths will cross again soon!

Best, David Lo

It really is easy to make someone elses day – and in this season of giving – what about some heart felt thanks.

Together with Emma Brown (Business Chicks) and Narelle Anderson (CBD Enviro Services) I shared my ‘how did you become and entrepreneur’ story and the American Chamber of Commerce Women in Management evening on 19 July.

What great questions: in fact I’m going to share them separately – rather than trying to lump them all in to one.

What are the three most important factors to success?
I learned from Verne Harnish in Mastering the Rockefeller Habits book, about what causes a successful business and this we have definitely applied to RedBalloon. Personal success is something different for instance the quantity and quality of hangout-do-nothing-play-monopoly family time being one of the success indicators.

1. Purpose:Having a clearly articulated purpose – where are you going, why are you in business, what makes this business special, why are we not like other businesses. Our values are the glue that sticks us all together, to make us not a group of disparate people but a team of great players who wins championships.

2. Know the numbers: I celebrate knowing how many people we send off on great experiences. But as Kirsten head of Business Development regularly reminds me – it is the money that pays our suppliers, our people and keeps the lights on. So knowing what is the right thing to measure is the first place to start.

3. Rhythm: Life runs in cycles, and so do businesses. When I was in corporate life I regularily heard ‘We need to improve our communication’. Imagine knowing where and when you are in communication with whom. We have a clearly defined, daily huddle schedule – the agenda has three items, what is working, not working and where are you stopped. Weekly team meetings, and one on ones. Also monthly company meetings and planning sessions. We gave up communicating by email to large groups – we use blog and wiki all the time – we live by it.

Success is in the eye of the beholder….we still have a lot more to achieve.

Last week I was on a panel at a Women's leadership event. There was a lot of conversation about how women manage conflict in the work place. Then I was asked the specific question 'In your long corporate career how did you make sure that you got noticed to get ahead?'

I think they asked the wrong person this question. For a start I left corporate life more than a decade ago! And I know I was a very challenging employee. I could never sit still. There was always another idea, a better way of doing things, some information I did not yet know and needed to discover.

I would become so passionate about whatever project I was working on - I couldn't necessarily see other peoples point of view about other commercial pressures the organisation might have.

If I was tasked with producing a road show with 52 presentations around Australia in only 2 months, I saw nothing wrong with enlisting the support of every sales manager into the program, dragging them into presentation training and delivering the presentations. Forget about their real job of revenue.

I got noticed for hard work and being very focussed. But really as I recently commented to a fellow entrepreneur. "I'm probably unemployable." I’m too passionate.

Last week I spoke on eMarketing at the Australian Institute of Marketing summit in Brisbane.

I was asked "Why do you give the information away - when you used to be a consultant?"

This made me giggle a bit...we've come so far. When I ran a consulting business it was fee for opinion.

So why not consult... it is different now. We have put in hundreds of corporate programs and with each of them we learn so much. I have found that it is so much easier to share from experience, what is working for others rather than tell people what to do.

By sharing what has worked elsewhere or within my own business means clients are able to choose what they want to do, thus taking responsibility for the outcome rather than saying 'but you said'.

Someone once said to me they buy your product not your information - so why not give information away generously. That inspired me to write a lot of ideas down in 'The little book of answers'. A collection of quotes, statistics and findings on Happy People, & Happy Customers.

Your welcome to a copy either Little Book of Answers Australia or Little Book of Answers NZ