Happy New Year!!!

I suspect many of you will be taking a long holiday weekend to prepare for the New Year’s holiday: before you go let me send this year end message.

Thanks for allowing me to share my daily messages with you this year: I hope you’ve enjoyed reading them as much as I have enjoyed writing them.  For me they are a regular reminder of the things I aspire to and my first resolution for 2018 is to try harder to live the values I write about.

I hope you have a Happy and Healthy New Year: may it be all you wish for.

All the best,

arte

Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809 –1892): Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland during much of Queen Victoria's reign

Try to be as good as you can be....

Everybody loves good service: but it’s not as easy as it looks. It takes commitment, a good attitude, flexibility, and a desire to work with others. The best service employees I know are clear about their own strengths and weaknesses and effectively perform their role on the team that makes that service happen. At Wynn we recognized the overlap of service efforts – we called them ‘intersections’ – and made sure that everyone involved in that effort understood where, why, and how those happened.  Employees learned they didn’t have to be perfect; only that they had to be excellent at the part they were responsible for. That’s how people work together effectively to make good service happen. Learn your part and understand what others do; be a team player and support the overall efforts of your service team; and do what it takes to make sure customers get exactly what they need and expect: that’s how good service happens every day.

Anthony Robbins (born 1960): Self Help Writer, and Speaker

Give in order to get....

Society is filled with metaphors about teams: our weekends and holidays are filled with games between teams, companies regularly refer to employees as Team Members, and many of us got cards this past week signed by a family referring to themselves as “team so and so”. As we gathered this past weekend (and will do so again next weekend) for good cheer, fun and food, the lives we lead are knitted into a quilt that’s based on people doing things together, in concert, for the greater good of all. Knute Rockne, the legendary coach, is reputed to have said (or maybe it was Ronald Reagan playing Knute): “Win one for the Gipper”. No matter how cliché it might sound, you will never be all you can be until you learn to give beyond yourself. That’s certainly the message of these holidays, and also the foundation of most successful efforts. Giving to others is surely the best way to get the most for yourself everyday.

Will Ferrell (b. 1967): American actor, comedian, producer, and writer.

Let the holiday spirit linger....

I hope everyone had a wonderful and meaningful holiday celebration with family and friends. This is a time when people gather together to be part of a tradition that is bigger than themselves, take part in a celebration of life and all that we cherish, and to remember that it is better to give than to receive. We anticipate these holidays for a long time – planning and buying and preparing; then they come and are suddenly over.  This year let’s try not to let that spirit and feeling stop when the holidays pass. That’s the best present we can give to those we love today.

Andy Rooney (1919 –2011): American radio and television writer best known for his weekly broadcast on the CBS News program 60 Minutes