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In this podcast, Katie and Carol discuss four tips from their book Skirt Strategies: 249 Success Tips for Women in Leadership. Taken together these tips provide a great framework for how to make sure your business or organization has a climate where people want to come to work and do a good job. Listen to this podcast for inspiration on how to implement organizational climate change in your office.
Tip 56: Say “hello” first to others in passing.
Look people in the eye when greeting others and ask your staff to do the same.
Tip 57: Keep a spare umbrella at work for someone in need.
Tip 58: Say “Thank You” when passing the janitorial staff in the hall. You may even add a comment about how great the office is when it is clean. Test this one out on a city employee working somewhere in public, like picking up litter in the park or sweeping a sidewalk. The typical response – complete shock because they have clearly not received adequate positive feedback.
Tip 59: Surprise your employees with unexpected treats, preferably brain food and not doughnuts. IF you decide to indulge, make it worth the calories. A homemade cake from a coveted recipe is distinctive. Offer something special, after all, people EXPECT women to be able to cook. (wink wink) They LOVE that about us! So let’s say you don’t bake, you are certainly capable of picking out great pastries. Remember, boxed brownies are almost as good as homemade.
PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION
Hello and welcome to the Skirt Strategies podcast! The podcast for tips and techniques you can use to increase your confidence and project a powerful image to get the job with a client, the raise or the promotion you deserve.
Katie: Katie Snapp in the house!
Carol: And Carol Wight here with her.
Katie: In the white house. It kind of is the white house because it’s the recording studio…
Carol: At the white house.
Katie: I want to talk today about your philosophy of what it’s like where you work.
Carol: So what if I don’t want to talk about that?
Katie: Well, I’m just going to drag you into it. I want to talk about the climate. Not necessarily the culture, but the environment.
Carol: Like what temperature is it?
Katie: Kind of.
Carol: Okay.
Katie: Comfort. If I were to walk in, would people be warm to one another and are there small things that say, “Here, have some M&M’s.”
Carol: Oh, my God! Somebody put girl-scout cookies on top of the water cooler. We actually have a water cooler. I think that’s funny.
Katie: Ha-ha!
Carol: But girl-scout cookies on top of the water cooler today and I can’t have them because I just started a diet on Monday.
Katie: There’s no such thing as diets. You shouldn’t diet.
Carol: Well, whatever. Ha-ha!
Katie: Anyway, your philosophy.
Carol: Yes.
Katie: Since you’re torturing yourself with no girl-scout cookies.
Carol: I know!
Katie: I don’t do well if I keep myself from having a little bit, if I feel deprived.
Carol: It’s okay. Well, I started into this diet thing with a weekend of depravity – overeating, overdrinking, over everything.
Katie: Oh! Okay.
Carol: So now I’m ready. I’m cleansing.
Katie: Well, it’s okay. So maybe that feels like that’s right.
Carol: Yeah.
Katie: Well, my question was really about different things that make a workplace pleasant. And why is this even a Skirt Strategies topic?
Carol: People really need to like work.
Katie: You bet ya! In fact, one of the main reasons why people leave their job – is they don’t like who they work for. It doesn’t have to do with the job description or the product or service they’re delivering. It has to do with relationships.
Carol: Yes. And it is so critical now. This workforce we’re in right now – they can go out and find another job.
Katie: They can work at home.
Carol: They can work at home. There’s lot of options for them. So we want to make sure that they’re having a good experience at our workplace and we’re keeping the good folks with us.
Katie: Well, the next couple of podcast we’re going to talk about – have to do more with some of those extracurricular type things, some factors that are extraneous to actual real work.
Carol: Yeah.
Katie: And they add to the culture or the climate.
Carol: So there’s quite a few tips in a row here. Do you want to read them all and then just talk generally about what they are so that we’re not keeping people in the dark?
Katie: Yeah, sure.
Carol: Alright.
Katie: Let’s do these next four. These next four are somewhat of a group by themselves. So we’ll talk about those during this.
This is for your ideas – for reminders. If you don’t know some of the basics about workplace etiquette, expectations, how to add a little flare – these are great free to know. If you already know them, these are a nice reminder.
Carol: These are four tips from Skirt Strategies: 249 Success Tips for Women in Leadership. And the first one is Tip Number 56: Say “Hello” first to others in passing.
Katie: Okay. That’s the one we’ll talk about. Tip Number 57: Keep a spare umbrella at work for someone in need. Oh! Nice thought!
Carol: Very nice. Tip Number 58: Say “Thank you” when passing the janitorial staff in the hall.
Katie: And Tip Number 59: Surprise your employees with unexpected treats, preferably brain food and not doughnuts or girl-scout cookies.
Carol: Or girl scout cookies!
Katie: We’re going [Inaudible][0:04:23.5] with that.
Carol: There you go.
Katie: Let’s talk about each of it. And these are not really specific. These are the four must-do’s. But these are nice four reminders of things that add to behavioral enhancement in the workplace. People do nice things.
Carol: Yes. And if you can train your staff on Number 56: Say “Hello” first to others in passing… It’s an important customer service piece that we use in the restaurant and hotel industry. And if people are well trained, they will always say hello to you first. It’s a Hayat…
Katie: Value? Guiding principle?
Carol: Yeah, guiding principle at Hayat. It’s that they don’t care who you are. If you are a janitorial staff or housekeeping staff or whatever – you say hello to the customer when they get within 30 feet of you.
Katie: Might I say that that is so basic, yet it is not universal.
Carol: Well, and the interesting thing is giving service personnel the permission to speak with customers. They might not feel like that’s appropriate.
Katie: Yeah, yeah. Beyond the boundary?
Carol: Right – until given permission. And then once given permission, it works!
Katie: Well, then depending on what type of a workplace you have. Think of how this can impact how your customer is touched. If it’s what you practice intro staff…
Carol: Sure.
Katie: So we talk to each to each other, we’re talking days, you know, we greet each other in the hall, we’re in a generally positive mood and we’re cordial to one another.
Carol: Yes.
Katie: That flows downhill – I promise you. When I go into any sort of a workplace, a business where I might be a customer, I notice what people’s attitude is towards me and I assume that it’s a reflection of what came from above in the way that they’re treated. Right?
Carol: Yeah. Well, and I said this before, but a fish stinks from the head down.
Katie: Ha-ha!
Carol: And that’s a restaurant saying and it just has to do with leadership. And if your leader is sour and stinky, then the rest of it – that will flow downhill. And if not, the other will flow downhill.
Katie: I know what some listeners might be saying. “Well, what if I work in that stinky environment, but I don’t want to be that way?”
Carol: Then you’d be the one in the hall that says hello first. And you just stay above the fray. You know, if other people aren’t going to do it, it’s interesting. I work a lot at the legislator and about this… you know, you get into it for a couple of months and it’s everybody’s sour and nasty and I stay above it.
Katie: Can you tell…
Carol: I say hello to anybody I know. I give them a big smile. “How are you today?” And I just don’t let it drag me down.
Katie: So in the halls of the capital – or you feel that?
Carol: Oh, yeah. I mean, everybody is just kind of sour and eyes down and frowning and all of that. So I want to read the rest of this tip. “Say “Hello” first to others in passing. Look people in the eye when greeting others and ask your staff to do the same.”
So it makes a difference. And this is one of the values at the Hayat and I’m probably putting that wrong, but somebody can correct this on the website. It’s one of their values that you look the person in the eye, you have eye contact, you say hello and then you can move on from there. But it makes such a difference. And you’ll notice it if you ever…
Katie: I notice it when we go to…
Carol: To a Hayat near here. Yeah, you do notice it. You notice that all of the personnel – they feel like you know them.
Katie: So if you equate how you feel when you walk into a hotel for example or a resort, maybe a bigger – that has an environment and it has a whole feeling to it. The difference between the one that you walk into where you are relatively unnoticed, you just don’t come in contact with anyone that’s necessarily there and it’s almost as if they forget that you’ve just floated in from somewhere else. You’re not grounded in this environment. You don’t know necessarily. You might know where you’re going. You want to go over to that lobby over there or you want to go check out over there. But you’re not anchored there like they are.
Carol: Right. I had an experience and I’ll tell you a story. In a restaurant the other day – we walked in and this person came walking towards us in a very matter effect manner. She looked like a hostess, it looked like she was walking towards us, she walked right by us without acknowledging us at all and walked to another part of the restaurant.
Katie: Oh gosh!
Carol: And I was floored. I was just absolutely floored. All she had to do would be – look up and say, “Someone will be right with you.” And move on and do whatever she had to do.
Katie: Exactly.
Carol: But she didn’t do that. She walked. I mean, and I thought she was looking right at us, but she was looking right beyond us.
Katie: She was looking through you.
Carol: And I think that’s a real important thing. Customer should never feel invisible. And really, neither should employees.
Katie: No. So if you practice it internally with your own staff, it will roll down.
Carol: Yes.
Katie: It will stink down – as you say.
Carol: Ha-ha!
Katie: The next tip is Tip Number 57: Keep a spare umbrella at work for someone in need. This is symbolic. This is not – “Oh, my God! That’s the greatest idea in the world!” This is simply a – “What is it that you might have that you think of – in order to help others?”
Carol: Uh-hmm.
Katie: If you have that service mentality, you’re going to want to help others. You see yourself as not in isolation, not living in a vacuum, not working in a vacuum, not touching each other (figuratively speaking).
Carol: Ha-ha! For harassment sake.
Katie: Having something that others might need is very nice. It’s thoughtful.
Carol: Yeah, it is thoughtful.
Katie: That builds on itself and creates a workplace where people want to live and thrive.
Carol: Yes, and do good things to make it profitable.
Katie: And do good things for profit.
Carol: Alright, so enough said about that.
Katie: Yeah, there’s not a lot more to that.
Carol: Okay. Tip Number 58: Say “Thank you” when passing the janitorial staff in the hall.
Katie: Any support staff is easily overlooked because they don’t have touch points with the customer. They often get treated like the red-headed stepchild.
Carol: Right.
Katie: And this includes Administrative staff, Accounting staff, HR, you know, people that… And where I come from in the technical world, it was really easy for the Engineers to get super conceited about the worlds or vibes around them because we have the technical expertise, we’ve got something very unique, we are what the product is about.
Carol: Right.
Katie: And so, everyone else…
Carol: We don’t need anybody else to get this done.
Katie: Right.
Carol: It’s a fact.
Katie: Yes, exactly. And we knew better. But it’s easy for the rest of the world to feel like they’re in orbit around us. Now, think about what your own mainstream delivery product is and who are the ones that are the mainstream providers or experts in that – leadership included? It’s very hard for anybody else to recognize that they have an important role. We know they do.
Carol: Sure. And acknowledging that every once in a while is wonderful and it gives them the positive feedback they need – maybe to go on for another day.
Katie: Yeah.
Carol: And I’ll just say I want to give kudos to my office manager because she is consistently thinking about the cleaning lady.
The cleaning lady comes after office hours. I’ve never even met her. But my office manager will leave things for her and say thank you on birthdays and things like that. And it’s like – “Oh! Thank God I’ve got somebody doing that thinking for me.”
Katie: Thinking of it.
Carol: And it is nice. So we’re all in this together. And who’s doing that for you as well is nice.
Katie: Amen, amen sister.
Carol: Yeah.
Katie: I say in the book to test this one out on the city employee working somewhere in public. (It’s actually one of my favorite things to do.) And out on the bike trail where I ride quite a bit – there’s the same guy for the city that manages that bike trail.
Now that’s nice because that’s open space and it’s more like a park type area. But he drives the dirt road that goes right along the paved path for several miles up and down near the bosky – it’s an area of…
Carol: Next to the reo ground.
Katie: A nice area. So it’s a good gig. But he’s a city worker and he’s a cowboy. He’s got a cowboy hat like so many of our city workers. A lot of them are really cowboys.
And when I see him on the side of the road – if he’s not in his truck tootling along, I say “Thank you,” give him a wave and he always just a big smile across his face.
Carol: Nice!
Katie: I thought this is nice.
Carol: Yeah.
Katie: Think about those guys that have to do harder duty like trash duty or street duty.
Carol: Yeah.
Katie: I don’t know how they do it.
Carol: But say “Thank you” when they do.
Katie: Yeah. It’s kind of fun to do. Did your kids ever play sweet or sour?
Carol: No. What is that?
Katie: Do you know what sweet and sour is?
Carol: No.
Katie: When you’re at a stoplight and there’s a car next to you – you wave vigorously and the kids on the backseat would wave to the driver of that car like – “Oh! Hi! Hi!” And it never failed. They got one of two different reactions. Either someone just waved back like – “Oh! Look at how cute those kids!” And then my kids will go – “Sweet!” Or it would just be somebody that would kind of stare back and…
Carol: [Inaudible][0:14:51.5]
Katie: Yeah. And then they go – “Oh! Sour!”
Carol: That’s good. We used to do that in the back of the [Inaudible][0:14:56.5] – wave to people and ask the truckers to honk their horns and things.
Katie: Honk their horns.
Carol: Yeah, fun.
Katie: I like doing those sorts of social experiments because when people get feedback from the outside world and you’ve initiated it – you’re the outside world, especially a “Thank you.” It’s always nice to see gratitude.
Carol: Well, one of the things that is not in our tips, but I think is very important – is to smile on the phone.
Katie: Oh! Definitely you can see it.
Carol: You can hear it.
Katie: That’s right.
Carol: Yeah. So it’s something that I’ve always practiced because I’ve been in a service business and I’ve always taught it. The minute you get onto the phone, you smile and you can tell you’re smiling and it just feels better.
And sometimes you and I do this when we’re starting to podcast. It’s just you know, let’s get some energy into this and okay, we’ll get the energy as soon as we turn on the recording. But part of that is smiling and being happy to be with you, Katie.
Katie: That’s so nice of you. I’m going to say that’s so nice of you in two ways. Tell me if I’m smiling or not. “That’s so nice of you.”
Carol: I can see you. Or…
Katie: “That’s so nice of you!”
Carol: See? There’s a little tenure voice when you have a smile.
Katie: I have a smile. I’m with grandma’s manner on my face.
Carol: Ha-ha! That’s a little fake.
Katie: It feels a little stiff.
Carol: Alright. So smile into phone and teach your employees to smile into the phone.
Katie: “Smile and the world is…” Okay. Let’s add one more tip here.
Carol: Yeah.
Katie: Okay. Work back to workplace environments. What makes it nice? How do you affect the climate? Surprise your employees with unexpected treats, preferably brain food and not doughnut.
I’m just saying that when it’s a workplace, that there’s nice little snacky foods or fresh coffee. Isn’t it kind of nice?
Carol: Yes.
Katie: I mean, I’ve worked at home now for so long, but I have a lot of client offices where I go into. There’s one that I went into yesterday and this is a membership association. They have a whole little kitchenette and their members can stop by anytime. And the kitchenette is stocked and they have little snacks and schuby(?) snacks and an area to sit down and a café. They call it a café because you can actually bring your computer. And if you’re a member, the association can sit and work for a little while and kind of use their space.
Carol: Oh, fun!
Katie: And it’s lovely.
Carol: Nice!
Katie: It’s nicely lit, it’s stocked, it’s got a full refrigerator. And you know, when I was on my way over there yesterday, I thought – “Oh! I’m kind of looking forward to go over there because I think I’m going to make myself a fresh cup of coffee and dig through their stash of goodies.”
Carol: Very nice. Yeah, yeah.
Katie: Silly, but true.
Carol: Sure.
Katie: A lot of times these silly but true things are what drive us. Now I would say that if it’s the kind of workplace where – “Oh, my God! There’s always junk! Oh, my God! I feel crappy about myself! My body just feels like one big blob of…”
Carol: Right. “I sit all day and everybody brings cookies and cakes and…”
Katie: “Processed food.” Well, I would advocate that when it’s homemade stuff. If I’m going to waste my calories, I’m going to do it on the homemade stuff or maybe on the stuff from whole food that’s pretty well made – we’d like to assume.
Carol: I’ve got a friend and he just told me this week – one of his staff brings in food that she’s cooked. And she’s like, “Oh! We have leftovers so I brought it in.” And she leaves it on the counter like from breakfast till lunch.
So the sanitation part – and he and I had been in the restaurant industry so we’re very interested in sanitation. And leaving it out like that just is not what you do. And he can’t quite get that across through so it’s funny. Sorry. It doesn’t have to do with this.
Katie: Oh, okay.
Carol: To a degree.
Katie: But that’s okay. Was it a mayonnaise based item?
Carol: Yeah. He doesn’t know quite what’s in it.
Katie: Oh, I see. I’ll eat anything that’s been sitting out for days.
Carol: You shouldn’t.
Katie: It’s not that big of a deal.
Carol: No, it’s a huge deal.
Katie: If enough – the people are paying me for my food and I’m liable, I’m not going to give it to them.
Carol: Here’s the thing. This is what happens. It’s that people leave stuff out on the counters, they eat it and they’re like – “I got sick at that restaurant!” “No, you didn’t! You got sick at your own home!”
Katie: Ha-ha! They blame the restaurants?
Carol: Yeah, always. Always you blame the restaurant when it was probably something you did at home.
Katie: Oh, maybe. I don’t know. Sorry. I don’t think so.
Carol: That was editorializing on my part.
Katie: It really was.
Carol: Yes, it was.
Katie: Okay. Well, let’s wrap this up. I will say there’s a comment I’ll make about the difference between organizational culture and organizational climate. I do a lot with the organizations on there – developing their culture, you write and create values, guiding principles, expected behaviors, all sort of things. And those help form what you like your culture to be. It’s kind of fuzzy and hard to get your hands around.
But whereas culture is something big and little fuzzier, organizational climate is much more specific to what it’s like in your own nearby area based on the daily moods of the people. So whereas culture might be – What is the meteorological climate, the meteorological tendencies for the company? Climate is the…
Carol: Yeah, culture is kind of the big picture mission vision blah, blah.
Katie: Yes. But it’s really the way we do things around here.
Carol: Right, values.
Katie: Right.
Carol: And the climate is more – Is there laughter?
Katie: Climate is more – What it’s like here today? And you can affect the climate on the fly.
[MUSIC PLAYS]
Katie: In fact, there’s many companies that when the boss walks in – if she’s in a good mood, the climate goes up immediately. So it’s very affected by that and the opposite perhaps is true as well. So these are items that affect the climate.
Carol: Right.
Katie: Which then affects long term people’s morale and sooner or later, the culture.
Carol: Interesting. Thank you, Katie.
Katie: You’re welcome.
We’re so glad you joined us for this episode of the Skirt Strategies podcast. We’d love to hear from you with questions or comments. Email us at info@skirtstrategies.com or interact with us on Facebook. Now more than ever, the world needs powerful, confident female leaders – and that’s what we are.
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