Note from Mary...

As you may know by now, my husband, Craig, and I travel around with 3 "I Make A Difference" wristbands on our arms. We were out running errands recently when we stopped at Wendy's for a late afternoon protein fix.

As we walked in, the server greeted us from the center of the room, as she was cleaning off tables and said, "I'll be with you right away to take your order." I thought to myself, "Now that is really, really nice that she has acknowledged us and has stated her intention to serve us."

Very often, servers have difficulty with my order, because I don't want all of the additional condiments added. For some reason, saying "ketchup only" goofs everybody up, because fast food companies have a system in how they categorize things on their cash register. The conversation generally goes like this:

"I want a hamburger with ketchup only."
"You want that with ketchup and cheese."
"No, ketchup only."
"Just ketchup, no cheese."
"That's correct. Just ketchup."

She struggled too, but very calmly - with great patience - repeated everything back to me and re-entered the order "with ketchup only." Then she went above and beyond, walking over to the trainee preparing the sandwich and repeating the instructions. Craig and I looked at each other with a smile, relief and appreciation that she got it entered correctly without being crabby at us and then followed through to make sure it was done correctly.

As we were eating, she came back out to the main room and chatted with some of the customers as she did her work. She came by our table twice, asking if she could get us some more ketchup, napkins, refills. WOWZA what service - what a difference that makes when you are traveling around.

It was Craig this time who popped up and walked over to her and acknowledged her for her service and how much of a difference she was making, from the moment she gracefully handled his wife's "ketchup only" order to all of the additional service she'd offered while we were eating. He asked her if she would accept our "I Make A Difference" wristband as a gift of our appreciation for the difference she made today in our travels?

She was SO SURPRISED ... she accepted the wristband beaming, and you could see her entire physiology change up a notch or two. Then he handed her the additional 2 "I Make A Difference" wristbands and explained that the idea behind acknowledging each other was to pay it forward to anyone who makes a difference in her life.

I also quickly shared with her that if she wanted to make acknowledging others a regular thing, she could order her own wristbands from the website address imprinted on the inside of the wristband.

The unexpected gift in all of this was that, even as we were leaving, she was trying to give us additional service...

INSIGHT: A smidgen of acknowledgment inspires even MORE service. Who do you know that you could acknowledge today?

Reaching out...

Co-Creator of the Acknowledgment Movie
makeadifference.com/Acknowledgment

Mary Robinson Reynolds' Column This Week

Acknowledgment Dissolves Organizational Negativity
Excerpt from Make A Difference with the Power of Acknowledgment UTRAIN™ Program for Business

Staff Meetings Give the gift that gives back: acknowledgment. Whether you are leading your own company or team, running for mayor of your town, or just trying to conduct a conversation with your teenage child, the power of acknowledgment will help you break through the negating undercurrents that may be deterring your success.

Making the time to acknowledge your employees and other members of your staff or organization keeps energy up and productivity flowing.

Extended Family: Your employees' families have a vested interest in the success of your business. Acknowledgment most certainly must include spouses when they are invited to company events and celebrations.

Clients, Patients, Customers: Showing them gratitude and acknowledgment for their decision to give you their patronage is KEY. Give them an "I Make A Difference®" wristband every chance you get. Then give them three more to pass on to someone important to them.

*Give additional gifts throughout the year: Posters, Make A Difference gift books and movies on DVD.

*If you have a waiting room, place "Make A Difference" collateral material surrounding your customers. Have the DVD movies playing on a television for everyone to enjoy.

Immerse your employees and customers in acknowledgment of their importance and show them this business/ office's dedication to making a difference.

Reports will come back from referring doctors, family members, co-workers and on and on about the significant shift the "I Make A Difference®" Wristband /Sticker Acknowledgment provides and continues to provide.

Never underestimate the power of one person to have an impact in this world, by simply acknowledging one person at a time.

Mary Robinson Reynolds, M.S., Educational Psychologist, Author and Producer of the world renowned videos - MakeADifferenceMovie.com and AcknowledgmentMovie.com - both amassing over 10 million views within a few short months of their releases - spent many years as a classroom teacher K-8 and then as a counselor K-12. She parlayed her phenomenal success with youth at-risk into her programs for business leaders, entrepreneurs and managers on how to be energetically effective in leading improvement in their organizations through the power of Team Synergy and MasterMinding. She has written six books, developed UTrain Programs that anyone can take into their place of work to build organization wide Team Synergy, and has presented to over 20,000 people in two year period in every major city in the U.S. To learn more go to: makeadifference.com