s associate I’d ever seen. She connected with the customers, she truly understood what superior customer service looks like. Customers loved her.

So we chatted. I explained how valuable she was, how important her contributions to the overall business were and how I enjoyed her bubbly personality. Then I stressed how important it was to be on time and asked if there was anything we could do to help her be successful. She had managed to be on tim

We can all tell stories about the associate, customer, or vendor from hell. Those stories make for great cocktail conversations. Many years ago when I first began work as a manager of a retail store, I had an employee who was the definition of ditsy blonde. Every day she arrived late, breathless and filled with stories of her personal life, her car and every possible reason why she wasn’t on time….AGAIN.

She would proceed to the bathroom, open her purse from which she’d pull a cosmetic treasure trove and spend the first 30 minutes of her shift putting on her makeup.

Well, I have never been big into the makeup scene, probably because I never really felt like I knew what I was doing. The stereotypical female spending hours to get ready was never my modus operandi. I never could figure out what took so long. I remember even TRYING to spend a long time in the bath as I got ready for my boyfriend’s senior prom and the best I could manage was a half hour and that included the shower and drying my waist length hair. A little foundation, two stokes of blush, a smattering of mascara and I’m good to go and yet, here is my employee in the bathroom, on company time, wasting 1/16 of her shift.

Be positive, I’d tell myself. If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.

Okay. That’s sounds dandy, but I have a business to run. I only scheduled two of us to open the store and I’m already waiting on two customers and answering the phone and placing product reorders, etc. I need her out on the floor, now.

So how does the Be Positive attitude come into play? Well, the cynics are saying “Be positive, that you are fired!” That’s one approach. But there are two sides to every story.

You see, once her make-up was on and she was on the sales floor, she was the best sales associate I’d ever seen. She connected with the customers, she truly understood what superior customer service looks like. Customers loved her.

So we chatted. I explained how valuable she was, how important her contributions to the overall business were and how I enjoyed her bubbly personality. Then I stressed how important it was to be on time and asked if there was anything we could do to help her be successful. She had managed to be on time

r purse from which she’d pull a cosmetic treasure trove and spend the first 30 minutes of her shift putting on her makeup.

Well, I have never been big into the makeup scene, probably because I never really felt like I knew what I was doing. The stereotypical female spending hours to get ready was never my modus operandi. I never could figure out what took so long. I remember even TRYING to spend a long time in the bath as I got ready for my boyfriend’s senior prom and the best I could manage was a half hour and that included the shower and drying my waist length hair. A little foundation, two stokes of blush, a smattering of mascara and I’m good to go and yet, here is my employee in the bathroom, on company time, wasting 1/16 of her shift.

Be positive, I’d tell myself. If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.

Okay. That’s sounds dandy, but I have a business to run. I only scheduled two of us to open the store and I’m already waiting on two customers and answering the phone and placing product reorders, etc. I need her out on the floor, now.

So how does the Be Positive attitude come into play? Well, the cynics are saying “Be positive, that you are fired!” That’s one approach. But there are two sides to every story.

You see, once her make-up was on and she was on the sales floor, she was the best sales associate I’d ever seen. She connected with the customers, she truly understood what superior customer service looks like. Customers loved her.

So we chatted. I explained how valuable she was, how important her contributions to the overall business were and how I enjoyed her bubbly personality. Then I stressed how important it was to be on time and asked if there was anything we could do to help her be successful. She had managed to be on tim

end’s senior prom and the best I could manage was a half hour and that included the shower and drying my waist length hair. A little foundation, two stokes of blush, a smattering of mascara and I’m good to go and yet, here is my employee in the bathroom, on company time, wasting 1/16 of her shift.

Be positive, I’d tell myself. If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.

Okay. That’s sounds dandy, but I have a business to run. I only scheduled two of us to open the store and I’m already waiting on two customers and answering the phone and placing product reorders, etc. I need her out on the floor, now.

So how does the Be Positive attitude come into play? Well, the cynics are saying “Be positive, that you are fired!” That’s one approach. But there are two sides to every story.

You see, once her make-up was on and she was on the sales floor, she was the best sales associate I’d ever seen. She connected with the customers, she truly understood what superior customer service looks like. Customers loved her.

So we chatted. I explained how valuable she was, how important her contributions to the overall business were and how I enjoyed her bubbly personality. Then I stressed how important it was to be on time and asked if there was anything we could do to help her be successful. She had managed to be on tim

I only scheduled two of us to open the store and I’m already waiting on two customers and answering the phone and placing product reorders, etc. I need her out on the floor, now.

So how does the Be Positive attitude come into play? Well, the cynics are saying “Be positive, that you are fired!” That’s one approach. But there are two sides to every story.

You see, once her make-up was on and she was on the sales floor, she was the best sales associate I’d ever seen. She connected with the customers, she truly understood what superior customer service looks like. Customers loved her.

So we chatted. I explained how valuable she was, how important her contributions to the overall business were and how I enjoyed her bubbly personality. Then I stressed how important it was to be on time and asked if there was anything we could do to help her be successful. She had managed to be on tim

s associate I’d ever seen. She connected with the customers, she truly understood what superior customer service looks like. Customers loved her.

So we chatted. I explained how valuable she was, how important her contributions to the overall business were and how I enjoyed her bubbly personality. Then I stressed how important it was to be on time and asked if there was anything we could do to help her be successful. She had managed to be on time in the past and I stressed my confidence in her ability to be successful in the future. She agreed to try harder. I know, I know, you are thinking it’s a recipe for failure.

But the next day she was on time and I made a big deal out of it. She still spent time in the bathroom, but it was an improvement.

Each day that she was on time, I complimented her. Pretty soon she was on time everyday and before long it was an issue that was behind us.

Afterwards, she thanked me for my patience, apologized for the issue and told me that it was my belief in her that helped her correct the behavior.

“Be positive” Behavior: Find something positive to say to each associate everyday. Sometimes the ONLY good thing you can say is that they arrived on time. Single it out – re-enforce the positive actions.

As a culture we spend so much time concentrating on the negative that people are surprised when we take the time to say something positive. When was the last time your boss said, “Welcome to work, I’m glad you are here?” Imagine how your associates will feel when you compliment them. They’ll stand a little taller, smile a little bigger and feel better about themselves. They’ll spread that positive attitude to their peers and most importantly to your customers. Pretty soon, your office will be the office EVERYONE wants to work in because it’s such a happy place.

Copyright 2006, Deborah Chaddock Brown