As a leader, do you honor and appreciate the power of WE?
Do you stop to thank and recognize the members of your
team? Do you consistently show an attitude of gratitude?
I recently read a great story about Captain Charles Plumb,
a graduate from the Naval Academy, whose plane, after 74
successful combat missions over North Vietnam, was shot
down. He parachuted to safety, but was captured and tortured,
and spent 2,103 days in a small box like cell.
After surviving the ordeal, Captain Plumb received the
Silver Star, Bronze Star, the Legion of Merit, and two Purple
Hearts; he returned to America and spoke to many groups
about his experience, explaining how it compares with the
challenges of everyday life.
Shortly after coming home, Charlie and his wife were sitting
in a restaurant. A man rose from a nearby table, walked
over and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam
from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!"
Surprised that he was recognized, Charlie responded,
"How in the world did you know that?" The man replied, "I
packed your parachute." Charlie looked up with surprise.
The man pumped his hand, gave a thumbs-up, and said, "I
guess it worked!" Charlie stood to shake the man's hand and
assured him, "It most certainly did work. If it had not
worked, I would not be here today."
Charlie could not sleep that night, thinking about the
man. He wondered if he might have seen him and not even
said, "Good morning, how are you?" He thought of the many
hours the sailor had spent bending over a long wooden table
in the bottom of the ship, carefully packing parachutes, each
time holding in his hand the fate of someone he didn't know.
Plumb then began to realize that along with the physical
parachute, he needed mental, emotional, and spiritual parachutes.
He had called on all these supports during his long
and painful ordeal.
As a leader, how many times in a day, a week, a month,
do we pass up the opportunity to thank those people in our
organization who are "packing our parachutes"?
Reinforce Core Values
I was taking a plant tour of a large company with the CEO.
As we walked, I noticed many signs about the company's commitment
to quality. Halfway through the tour, the CEO said,
"We make it impossible for anyone not to know how we feel
about quality. It's a core value that we constantly reinforce."
Many leaders assume that because it is obvious that specific
values benefit the company, workers will automatically
understand. But the stark truth is it won't happen without
relentless focus on hiring the right people and reinforcing
values at every turn.
One company that understands this is the Ritz-Carlton
Hotel Company, the only service company to twice capture
the prestigious Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award.
Whenever possible, employees greet guests by name, they
record details about guest preferences — from favorite
drinks to entertainment — and use the information to custom-
tailor future stays. They also attempt to solve every
problem they encounter, and any Ritz-Carlton employee can
spend up to $2,000 to resolve a problem on the spot.
For the 57-hotel luxury chain, it starts with hiring positive,
empathetic workers who are eager to please. Next comes 20
days of training before they even set foot in the hotel.
Once they start, however, every employee carries a small
card with the company's 20 core values. What happens next
separates Ritz-Carlton from the Ritz-Carlton wannabes.
Every day, all of the company's 25,000 employees partake in
a 15-minute session to discuss (and reinforce) one of those
core values. What Ritz-Carlton has learned is that leadership
doesn't grow out of a prestigious title, but is earned by reinforcing
values and attitudes — on a daily basis! This, in their
opinion, is the only way to ensure that values are transferred
into actions and behavior throughout the organization.
Read more articles by Tom Mathews