Mark Horstman and Mike Auzenne are co-founders of Manager Tools LLC, a management consulting firm. I have been listening to their podcasts and reading their posts for more than a year. While I am in the nonprofit field, I find their wisdom invaluable as a manager. As a former pastor, who directly managed six, and oversaw several dozen paid and volunteer staff members, I admit that I wish I had had their wisdom a decade ago. Their most recent newsletter is simply entitled Smile Etiquette. This newsletter is for those who prefer not to smile and those who work with people who choose not to smile.
I recently landed the position of Annual Giving Coordinator at World Neighbors in Oklahoma City, and on our way to the interview, my wife, Cindy, reminded me several times to smile throughout the interview. Smiling, as one recruiter reminded me, lets people know that you have a personality behind all that intellect, knowledge, skill and expertise. My interviewers may not remember, but I smiled throughout that interview more than I ever smiled for one. There are other reasons I landed the position, but smiling, I am sure, did not hurt.
Mike Rowe smiles all the time when performing dirty jobs. On pig farms, in grease pits and everywhere else imaginable, he smiles. And come to think of the years I worked cleaning sooty air-conditioning filters in steel mill cranes and power-washing greasy scale pits at Babcock & Wilcox 30 years ago, there were many times when smiling made our jobs easier.
Take a minute to read Smile Etiquette, and after a month see how much the workplace changes for all those around you.
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