Page 81 - Everything I Know About Business I Learned

Relationships

tionships ran deep, and my coworkers and I actually had a
deeply felt respect and admiration for each other. And besides,
we truly enjoyed working together.
Yet relationships went deeper than spreading happy cheer at
Christmas. Take Kathy May. Kathy recalled working in New
York City and, while out on the road with a manager, getting
into a car accident in the company car on the East River Drive:
“My [human resources] manager came from Long Island and
sat in the waiting room at Bellevue Hospital for five or six hours
to drive me back. She picked me up the next day. We’re very
much family, you just do that.”
Kathy has that same sense in the Oak Brook, Illinois, home
office, where a lot of the workers are transplants who are miles
away from their blood relatives. “I have someone out on short-
term disability,” she said. “Every other week we chip in for a
cleaning service for her because she’s not supposed to do any
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heavy lifting.” And then, echoing the spirit of Ray Kroc, who
believed in the power of what people can accomplish together, she
added, “None of us can afford it. But all of us can afford it.”

Food for Thought
How Can You Determine Which Relationships in
Business Are Good Ones?

In working with leadership classes, I like to share this ques-
tion, which I think perfectly sums up the essence of a good
relationship . . . and that is to ask myself, “Do I learn from
and enjoy being around this person?” I think it’s the sim-
plest form of evaluation. And, of course, it makes you
reciprocate and look at yourself through others’ eyes . . .
do I make it enjoyable for people to be around me?