Published October 2002

Stand out at work by adding a personal touch
to your job

Q. I manage a small operations department whose work, frankly, borders on the mundane. My employees and I handle everything that’s presented to us and meet our deadlines, but we fight against becoming bored with what we do. Most of our contact with other company employees is by e-mail or phone. I’m afraid my department and I are taken for granted, which is not a good feeling and may be holding me back from earning a promotion.

A. You and your department have obviously succeeded in one important part of the success quotient — mastering the all-important systems approach. A second, equally important aspect of achieving success is cultivating your personal touch.

There are several approaches to becoming a standout among your peers and clients. One of the best comes from Barbara Glanz, a Chicago-based business consultant and corporate trainer, who discovered it when an attendant handed her a handwritten note during a cross-country flight.

Noting that her name was carefully handwritten on the front, inside she found a personal message from the captain. It simply thanked her for entrusting her safety and comfort to him, his crew and the airline’s support staff. He closed by wishing her “a wonderful and personally satisfying trip.”

Turns out that as soon as he brought the aircraft to cruising altitude, this captain’s practice was to personally write a half-dozen thank-you notes that he then sent to passengers chosen randomly from the aircraft manifest. “It’s his personal signature,” the flight attendant said.

Personal signing work isn’t a new idea. Artists, photographers and writers long have personally endorsed their work. Remember the days when a new pair of jeans or a new blouse would have the signature of the inspector tucked in one of the pockets? Glanz researched the practice and found several examples of work-related signatures:

• Johnny, a bagger at the grocery store near her suburban Chicago home, surfs the Internet to find a new and uplifting “thought for the day.” He prints several hundred copies, cuts them into small strips and adds his signature. Johnny’s customers find his personally chosen message when they unpack their grocery bags. Not surprisingly, Johnny’s checkout line is three times longer than the other lines because customers say getting his “personal signature” is worth the extra wait.
• Joe, a United Airlines baggage handler in Chicago, collects luggage identification cards that fall off in the baggage-loading process. Once a month, he mails them back to the customers with a short note of explanation and his signature.
• Bill, a graphic artist, includes a piece of sugarless gum with every delivery, whether it’s a completed job, a correspondence or even a bill. “I love to get his packages because I know there’s something waiting for me there,” says Glanz.

You need to find a way for you and your staff to personally “sign” your work.

• Start with the seemingly mundane. Check your voice-mail message. Sound like Hal the computer? Give your message a little individual twist.
• Is the back of your business card blank? Consider adding a personal motto or scan in a picture of your dog, your boat or the logo of your favorite sports team. Explain your passion in a short sentence (“I love the Seahawks”).
• Paste a small cartoon on every fax or e-mail you send.

Signing your work won’t cost a fortune or much time, but it may just bring a large amount of joyous goodwill, personal recognition and perhaps that promotion.

Eric Zoeckler operates a marketing communications firm, The Scribe, and writes “Taming the Workplace,” a column that appears Mondays in The Herald. He encourages your questions or comments by e-mail to mrscribe@aol.com.

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