SuperVision

I'm on an airplane. I've just finished reading USA Today and the Harvard Business Review, mining for teaching and blog ideas. Darn. Miles to go and I'm out of reading material. The nice lady next to me tries to help by offering hers. Real Simple. February 2008 edition. I'm not too familiar with this publication, but I'm game. Maybe I'll find inspiration. It could happen.

I learn that the classic shirtdress has been revamped. Not a big leadership breakthrough. I peruse "lessons from first-class flirts." Not my teaching specialty. I review headache triggers and remedies. Well, that's getting closer to management issues.

And then, on page 121, I find it: "Little Things You Can Do to Make Someone's Day." Turns out the "someones" aren't family or friends. They are people in service professions and the article is providing tips on how you can not only show them respect, but keep from making their jobs harder than they already are. You might just make their day.

 

Some of the advice is just common sense and courtesy, but others provides insights into the challenges inherent in their jobs. Examples:

 

Receptionists: Check in and step away. Hovering at their desks, especially when you're chatting on your cell phone, makes it difficult for them to work.

Pizza deliverers: Switch on your outside light and be ready to pay. When you slow them down, they lose time and money.

Bus drivers: Don't chat them up. They don't want to be impolite, but they have to keep focused on the road.

Waitstaff: Don't take the merchant copy of your credit-card receipt; it may have the only record of your waiter's tip.