Managing for success (Part 7) – Thanking people with thought when they help you
On Friday I presented on my consulting work to the 2IC of the Commonwealth Bank. For those of you who don’t know, it’s the biggest bank in Australia and amongst the top 3 largest listed companies by market cap.
The meeting was with the 2IC, his direct team and peer team members. This was the elite of the Bank and it wasn’t just a little intimidating – it was very intimidating.
And one person in the room took it upon himself to say ‘Good morning, Craig’. Making a point of being friendly and acknowledging that we knew each other. He basically said to me ‘there’s at least one friendy in the room’.
Michael didn’t need to to this. There was nothing in it for him. If you read one of my other recent posts, you’ll see how important it is to do things because they should be done, not because you do it for some material gain.
My responsibility in this interaction is to ensure I thank him for doing it. And not just a quick ‘Thanks, Michael’ email, but one that describes that I knew what he was doing to help.
My email was essentially ‘thanks for making a friendly gesture in an intimidating meeting’. Being precise like that shows him that I put as much thought into my ‘thanks’ as he did in his initial gesture.
People like to be acknowledged for the things they do, especially when they don’t have to do what they did.
Managing for success | Craig Errey | 
May 27, 2007 8:23 am
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