Exceptions to the rule...(these) are in fact emphasising the same rule. But what about the exceptions themselves?

Exceptions and incidents require more than a common response. When business is "as usual," it is normally not difficult to manage. But now the exception. That is when you can make a difference. That is where you can show who you are, and what the value is of your approach.

The anecdote published recently in USATODAY serves as a fine example.

“Office Depot CEO Steve Odland remembers like it was yesterday working in an upscale French restaurant in Denver,” reads USATODAY (http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2006-04-14-ceos-waiter-rule_x.htm). It is a story about the CEO in his earlier days working in a restaurant and the incident where he tumbled a sorbet “onto the expensive white gown of an obviously rich and important woman.”

Thirty years later “Odland can't get the stain out of his mind, nor the woman's kind reaction. She was startled, regained composure and, in a reassuring voice, told the teenage Odland, "It's OK. It wasn't your fault." When she left the restaurant, she also left the future Fortune 500 CEO with a life lesson: You can tell a lot about a person by the way he or she treats the waiter.

The newsstory in USATODAY explains that this [waiter] rule landed in “a booklet of 33 short leadership observations called Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management. Among those 33 rules is only one that Swanson says never fails: "A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter, or to others, is not a nice person."

Later in the story Steve warns for "...people who have a situational value system, who can turn the charm on and off depending on the status of the person they are interacting with," Swanson writes. "Be especially wary of those who are rude to people perceived to be in subordinate roles."

A manager may do nothing in eighty percent of his time. Yet when there is an incident, a real exception, than he can make a difference. Search of those exceptions and evaluate afterwards what your action has been. Did you really make a difference or was it business as usual?

© 2006 Hans Bool

Hans Bool is the founder of Astor White a traditional management consulting company that offers online management advice. Astor Online solves issues in hours what normally would take days. You can apply for a free demo account

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