By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to curb vandalism. Reading time: 2:56.

Vandalism had been increasing at the county jail until the new Sheriff came to town. He not only curtailed vandalism by 80 percent the following year but he also taught his staff a valuable lesson in leadership.

How? The Sheriff stopped treating his inmates equally. Instead he started awarding more perks to inmates who were charged with lesser crimes.

The new Sheriff gave them regular smoking breaks. He gave one bald prisoner a baseball cap to help him keep warm. He allowed another to work part time as a mechanic in the the sheriff’s garage. The net result? Vandalism by disgruntled prisoners subsided so much that maintenance costs that year were only 10 percent of the previous year. That’s a golden egg that the Sheriff helped to lay now and regularly in the future.

Showing you care has such an impact on the bottom line — on laying even more golden eggs. That’s why some companies have appointed a corporate concierge who assist employees in conducting their personal chores. Those leaders realize that personal chores add stress to an already busy day for an employee and may undermine an employee’s ability to perform his or her professional responsibilities.

The concierge does those personal chores for the employee: finding just that perfect gift for one employee to take to a wedding this coming weekend, picking up a cake for another employee for his son’s birthday party that evening or getting another employee’s car oil changed —-all while those employees are hard at work, laying golden eggs for the company.

Likewise even those in jail can still maintain their sense of dignity with the help of a leader. As David Kelley, the founder of IDEO the leading industrial design firm says “If we were to measure what makes a leader here it would be to measure how nurturing people are.”

Yet too many would-be leaders turn a page out of Charlie Brown’s on wanna-be leaders. “They love mankind. it’s the people they can’t stand.”

Leadership is in the details –one ball cap at a time.

Today’s ImproveMINT

Treat others with respect to keep your leadership thinking in mint condition.

SUBSCRIBE: Have a Leadership Mint delivered to your E-mail every business day.
It’s free. Just click the SIGN ME UP box in the upper left column.