Page 163 - The Voice of Authority

stories that have created the rich cultures and legendary
CEOs. There’s the story about the employee who made a
costly mistake at IBM that cost the company $10,000 who
walked into CEO Tom Watson’s office to offer his resig-
nation. Watson’s famous line: “Why would I want your
resignation? I just paid $10,000 for your education.”
Then there’s the Disney story of Walt himself walking
through the theme park, picking up trash. There’s the story
of Sam Walton driving to work every day with his lunch
in a brown bag. There’s the story of the Marriott bell cap-
tain giving a hotel guest his own shoes to wear for an early
morning job interview.
As a teenager in my first job at Six Flags over Texas
theme parks, I heard stories about hosts and hostesses be-
ing sent home from work if they got a drip of chocolate ice
cream on their white tennis shoes. You can be sure we
didn’t show up with dirty shoes and disheveled hair if we
wanted to be issued a uniform for the day and keep a sum-
mer job.
Such culture-creating stories still surface during my
consulting projects. Perry, a financial advisor and now re-
gional manager of a large brokerage house, encourages his
trainees to use more stories in their sales presentations
with clients by telling his own story of an earlier lost ac-
count. He was competing with another brokerage house
for the 401(k) funds at a large hospital system in the North-
east. The hospital invited him and a competitor in to make
a presentation to the group of employees, after which the
employees could choose where to invest their 401(k) funds.
Perry walked in with all the facts on his side—better
yields, better customer service ratings, wider fund choices,
more flexibility in the plans. His competitor walked in
with a better presentation. She focused on a few stories of
how her company got involved in the lives of their clients,

Does Your Communication Make You Look Competent? 151