Page 233 - Everything I Know About Business I Learned

Recognition

Verbal Praise from the Top Trumps All
In most instances, the bigger the organization, the better it can
deliver the “wow” factor. But here, too, you can make an
impact without a big cash outlay. I will never forget, for
instance, my promotion to assistant vice president, when Ray
Kroc personally called to offer his congratulations on speaker-
phone as I stood in a roomful of McDonald’s officers. Think
about it. A congratulatory phone call from the man who rev-
olutionized the food service industry. That perhaps is recogni-
tion in its highest form. The company also treated my wife,
Maureen, and me to a weekend in picturesque Lake Geneva,
not far from McDonald’s Oak Brook, Illinois, home office.
Recognition. Done with class.

Spontaneous Recognition
203
Recognition was so pervasive throughout McDonald’s that lead-
ership seemingly seized any opportunity to make a dedicated
worker feel valued. Back when I was an assistant manager, for
example, I took my future wife to a restaurant for a dinner I
could barely afford on my modest salary. Whom do I see over
at the corner table, but my owner/operator and his wife. Uncom-
fortable with what to do, I waved to him sheepishly. We finished
our dinner, and as we went to pay the check, the waiter informed
me that the “gentleman at the corner table had taken care of it.”
That was a very impressionable event in my young life. My
feelings about the company and my relationship were trans-
formed yet again. It was a moment (and as I’ve said, there were
many) where I felt that I would do anything for the company. It
was one more example of the value McDonald’s places on the
importance of spousal support. Spouses play a big role in the
success of owner/operators and management, and they deserve
recognition too.