Avoid Foot and Mouth Disease

By Barbara Bartlein

As an outgoing and gregarious person, I have had the unfortunate experience of putting my foot deeply down my gullet on many occasions. You know what I am referring to, the actual choking on the base of your fibula and tibia after hastily saying something that now hangs in the air in an otherwise silent room.

While personally knowing the embarrassment, humiliation, and regret of hasty comments, I also know that loose lips sink corporate ships. That is, office gossip promotes an institutional pathology that keeps energy focused internally in the organization rather than externally on the customer. The gossip becomes a disease, robbing the company of valuable energy, creativity, and time and is very hurtful to the participants.

To avoid food and mouth disease, I have found these guidelines helpful:

• Is it kind? If the comment isn’t kind, do you really have to share it? Evaluate each remark as to whether it reflects positively on the subject and you. Does it focus on the important characteristics of the person or his/her faults? It’s like a golf swing. I can easily find the problems with other people’s golf swings, but darned if I can diagnose my own problems. Is it the stance, the address or the follow through (probably all three)? When we focus on the negative with people, we become the negative person. Limit your comments to kind remarks.
  
  
• Is it true? Nothing travels faster than bad news and information that is totally false. Many a person has been deeply hurt when untrue comments are passed person to person until the truth is lost in the muck. And truth in all areas is important, even if the false information is more interesting and provocative. The misinformation becomes difficult to undo because it takes on a life of its own and passes quickly among the employees who don’t have enough to do. Even when the information is clarified later, people aren’t interested because the original false news broadcast was so much more enticing.
  
  
• Is it important? While the trivia of life makes for good copy for the tabloids at the super market, it does not have a role in the workplace. It takes a lot of energy to follow to stay on top of all the muck and make sure that everyone “has heard” the news. Time is much better spent on understanding the customer, developing new products, or giving better service. If there is any extra energy, it can be directed toward enhancing your personal creativity or finding a better balance. Ignore the trivia and focus on making a difference.
  

Two more quick rules: Never ask anyone about their pregnancy unless you are actually observing the birth, and don’t comment on someone’s age unless you are at his or her funeral.

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Barbara Bartlein is the PeoplePro™. She helps businesses sell more goods and services by developing people. She can be reached at 888-747-9953, by email at: barb@barbbartlein.com or visit her Web site at www.ThePeoplePro.com.

Published in Networking Today, September 2002.