Dear CEO,
This may surprise you. But, we wanted to thank you for our meeting yesterday.
We know you’re busy in any economy. And, now in this economy we know your schedule is intense.
That’s why we appreciated you taking the time to meet with us.
We also wanted to recognize specific ways you made this meeting with us more enjoyable, more productive, and even more inspiring.
- We were prepared. We had received the meetings agenda before the meeting. You took the time to prepare it and send it to us so that we had the time to review and discuss and prepare our thoughts, questions, areas we wanted to pay attention to.
- You greeted us. You smiled and greeted each of us as we came into the conference room. I know that added 10-15 more minutes to your schedule. But, it showed how important this meeting was and how important each of us were to you and the company. Thank you.
- You started on time. You respected our time with a prompt start to the meeting. That helped with the focus and it sets the tone for other meetings, also.
- Trusted us to be adults. This was refreshing. You trusted us to react, respond, as adults. You shared confidential information, you brought us into the conversation and asked for our suggestions. Thank you. You may have noticed the excitement as we left. You’ve stirred lots of ideas and renewed energy. That turned our challenge into an exciting opportunity for us to be even stronger.
- Your measured responses. There was some anger and frustration shared during the meeting. And your patience and listening and acceptance showed your respect for them, compassion for them and now’s the time to move forward. You diffused it.
- You ended the meeting on time. Thank you.
- Created a wiki to continue the conversation. There were so many good ideas shared. And so many more will come up before the next meeting. And some problems will emerge. And we can capture them all, continue the thinking process, with everyone at any and all times now with the wiki you set up for us to join.
Thank you.
Before the meeting there was maybe doubts and fears. People were withdrawing. And now, there’s excitement, energy, a little fear, still. But that fear is minimal now; it’s more like the tingling you have on your first bungee cord jump or skydive. And, we’re turning back to being enthusiastic, hopeful, motivated.
Best regards,
All of us, including you now.
QUESTIONS for READERS:
- What would you do to inspire this sentiment?
- What would it do for your company if you did?
- What would it do for those in your company, your community, your partners and vendors, your customers?
- Would it be worth it?
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About the author: Zane Safrit’s passion is small business and the operations excellence required to deliver a product that creates word-of-mouth, customer referrals and instills pride in those whose passion created it. He previously served as CEO of a small business. Zane’s blog can be found at Zane Safrit.
