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MINDING OUR OWN BUSINESS July 26, 2003 by Linda Hirvonen Delta County Economic Development Alliance Positivity in the Summer Workplace Summertime, and the living is…well, beautiful if not easy. We have been enjoying a beautiful stretch of weather lately. But Yoopers have a hard time stopping at the end of that sentence. We often run right through it and add “but” or “except.” But we sure need some rain. Except for the bugs. But it was cold at the beginning. Except tourism is down so far. But we’re just hanging on month-to-month because our customers just aren’t visiting or aren’t holding any inventory. Except my water and electric bill’s going to be too high. But we’re working so hard, that it’s the end of July and we haven’t even taken out the hammock! If you or your employees are on the front line, it’s important to start noticing whether some of those negative inclinations come out when dealing with customers. What are we telling our already short supply of visitors when we answer their flattering observation “What a beautiful day” with “Guess you haven’t seen the blackflies yet” or “Just wait until winter” or even “Just wait.” Wouldn’t it be better to have our knee-jerk response be “Yup, just another day in Paradise!” If it would make us feel better to include a Yooperism, let’s add “-eh?” Or how about something related positively to your business. The Chamber could say, for example, “Yes, our perfection is a well-kept secret, but we wouldn’t mind if you shared it with your friends!” The Chamber made a proactive stance against one old “automatic negative Yooperism” last year when they started faxing weekly updates of what’s going on in our community to tourist related businesses (if you’d like to be added to the fax, call Andrea at 786-2192). This gives front-line employees something much better to say to the inevitable “What’s there to do around here?” instead of the previous stock answer of “not much.” They also have table tents out this year highlighting some of the summer events so many visitors don’t even have to ask. For the rest of this season, I challenge every business owner to be watchful for those negative “Yooperisms” in the workplace. Such negativity even among fellow employees can quickly deflate a good mood, and we want to encourage our workforce to think and behave positively! It wouldn’t hurt to examine our own responses as well to see what message we’re sending. We live here because we choose to. Even if business is down, it will come back up. And summer is just too precious to waste when the seasons will change no matter what the state of our businesses or our minds. Let’s make our choice count for something…and let’s make sure we share with others our pleasure at getting to work where we want to live. Come Grow with Us in Delta County! Linda A Hirvonen, Executive Director Delta County Economic Development Alliance 230 Ludington Street Escanaba MI 49829 (906) 786-2192 or fax (906) 786-8830 |
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