employees

lately i'm learning a lot about what i value in an employee. sure, there are the easy ones that i knew were important. being good at your job, being reliable, being on time, etc. i've recently discovered a couple more that were not so immediately apparent.

one of these is sense of humor/attitude. when a certain employee of mine opens his mouth to a customer, half of the time, i just shake my head and wonder. but 99% of all customers he interacts with end up smiling. my favorite line: "i don't say this to just anyone, but *you* are my favorite customer"...he says that to almost all of them in a very dramatic tone. they both know he's full of shit but the customer gets a kick out of it anyways. they leave with a smile which is about the best that i can hope for.

another trait that is becoming increasingly valuable the ability to modify behavior having only been told once. one of my girls is the poster child for this. I have never had to correct her more than once. mistakes happen, sure. everybody makes them. but she will only make them once. and anything that i want done differently, is done that way from the second i ask for it. it's not an ability i have and to me, it's amazing.

the last, but certainly not least, is foresight. in my business, you regularly have to be thinking at least 1 week down the road and in some cases 9 months (ordering christmas stuff in march is wierd). it was a very hard adaptation for me to make but i'm getting better at it. on a smaller scale, i get giddy when an employee walks in the door for their shift on the weekend, sees that we only have 20 strawberries left (knowing that lead time is about 1 hour to make more) and starts to rush around to be sure we have more before we run out. i love it!

and the education of mike continues.