Who You Are Speaks Louder Than What You Do

You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who [he thinks] can do nothing for him."
- Goethe

Time for a quick, personal story:

I remember when my company was looking to hire a new CEO. The hiring group brought in an individual for an interview and some question-and-answer time with us. Following that, some of us went out to eat for a more informal conversation. One of the first things I noticed about this individual was how he interacted with our server at the restaurant.

At first we thought he was just trying to be funny. But he only ended up coming across as pompous and rude. He had a demeaning tone as he spoke to her. What was interesting to me as I watched him was that he seemed to be oblivious to how he was coming across, both to the server and to us. He kept trying to be humorous, but at the expense of the one who was working so hard to take care of us at the table.

By the end of the meal it was clear - this guy wouldn't work in our organization. While he had such things as experience, skills, and a substantial resume, he didn't have the one thing that meant the most: character.

We cannot lead by simply stating what we can do and refuse to acknowledge who we are.

Comments

[Mike Rohde]

Amen! I think it truly is a test of character how you treat those who serve and are often invisible. Thanks for the reminder Tim. :-)

[Cody Robert]

You're absolutely right. I used to work at Fry's Electronics, which lasted all of one month. Co-workers and customers in general were terrible to work with.

No one wants to be around someone that treats others terribly. Show some humanity people and treat each other like kin!