The Power of Smile: Never Leave Home Without One

"Today's customers want and expect to be "positively, emotionally and memorably impacted at every relationship touchpoint."

Good Morning Folks,

A smile is a universal gesture of hospitality. A warm, genuine, and sincere smile can never be misunderstood. A smile is of the most emotional signals of all. It has an almost irresistible power to make other people smile in return. Smiling primes positive feelings.

So from the first infectious smile and happy face that greets you by name in the morning, we offer an enormous opportunity to (re) imagine and reinvigorate your workplace with People + Solutions + Technology from FSO.

Emotional connections are about capturing the hearts and minds - It’s how FSO makes our clients feel about us. Emotional connections can determine the strength and length of a customer relationship. They drive passion, loyalty and advocacy. 

Clients become engaged in a "personal" way. And, they make a compelling case that today's customers want and expect to be "positively, emotionally and memorably impacted at every level of their commercial existence."

The more connected customers are to your brand and employees, the more likely they are to seek out your brand, and recommend it to others.

Over the years I’ve come across two groups of people. Those that are thankful and appreciative of others and those that aren’t. Having an attitude of gratitude is one of the keys to business as well as life.

I was talking to a person the other day and they were moaning and groaning about how they hated their job. To cut a long story short, I politely listened and then said, “Is this the same job that puts food on your table?” They went quiet and then said, “I suppose so.” I then suggested that they be grateful for their job as there are many people that don’t have one.

I saw the same person the next week and they had a smile on their face. I asked them what had changed and they said, “Their attitude.” After talking to each other the previous week they decided to be positive about their job and bring a good attitude to work. Amazingly, the job magically improved and they had a great time each day. They learned to be thankful for what they have.

Not everyone is suited for every job but it’s incredible how a task can become more enjoyable if you stop grumbling and starting thanking those around you for the opportunity. 

We, the employees of FSO, are committed to ensuring that every client interaction we have is personal, friendly and delivered with a smile, where the experience of FSO is felt by all.

Our job in hospitality is to make our clients feel as if they are at home and create memories and experiences that want to make clients “return.” It is also our job to make sure that we supply our clients with that “WOW” factor that makes them feel special. As important as it is to take care of our clients, it is equally important to take care of all of our team members. The more enthusiastic and happy our employees are at work the more productive they will be. Without the support of each team member that “WOW” factor will never be given to our clients.”\

And that all starts with a smile. A smile is the light in your window that tells others that there is a caring, sharing person inside. Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.

Smile in the mirror. Do that every morning and you'll start to see a big difference in your life.

Then try it on someone today at work and experience its power to make everything that happens, happen better.

Have a GREAT Monday and a wonderful week!

Love Life!

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

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“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, 
but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.” 
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Happy or Grumpy: Your Mood Impacts Your Organization’s Performance

“When my customers have pain, it pains me.”

Good Morning Folks,

How are my readers this beautiful Monday morning?  Are you all awesome?  Inspired? Pumped? Excited and charged up? I hope so as I am. 

Your attitude can have a tremendous impact. At FSO we choose Happiness. Everybody. Every day. 

So you look forward to coming to work every day and a peaceful sleep when you don't have to take worries home with you at night.

Consistent through all my pursuits has been a “Happiness-Centric” perspective on business in the service sector. The model delivers on three key differentiators. First, customers receive service they’ve never before come to expect. In a world of behemoth organizations that seeks to instill into employees their dogmatic, formulaic and unyielding protocols for customer engagement, we instead hire for attitude. 

I call it hiring for “the twinkle in their eye, a skip in their step, the fire in their belly.” Any manager can train off the company manual, but you cannot train for the right attitude, one where an employee means it when she says, “How are you doing today?”

Second, we are returning a personal touch to business that has been lost in the customer service experience. Consumers – whether business or personal – have come to accept, even expect, a lackadaisical – even lousy - interaction with customer service representatives. So when an organization delivers outstanding, over-the-top customer engagement, it’s like some golden nugget delivered each day to those customers by a partner – not a vendor – who connects culturally, strategically and who truly cares about their success. “When my customers have pain,it pains me.”

Hospitality is our future and getting out of our box (thinking differently and creatively) will be key to our success. The love for our staff and clients has never been higher and am so happy and pleased to see we are making strides in this area every day. CARE is who we are. 

HAPPY IS OUR ENTIRE COMPANY.

Finally, if hiring FSO doesn’t save you money, then I've failed to serve you. 


Here's an excerpt on Workplace Happiness you might enjoy from: Leadership Styles: Pinpoint Leadership Skill Development Training Series (Majorium Business Press, Stevens Point, WI 2011) $ 18.95 USD


Numerous studies have shown that when leaders are in a happy mood, the individuals around them tend to view everything in a much more positive light. The resulting atmosphere provides for an optimistic workplace, which in turn facilitates higher overall productivity, more creative reasoning and more efficient decision-making. The converse is often true when a leader’s negative moods prevail: they have detrimental effects for the leader, his or her employees and the organization’s performance.

In 2000, Caroline Bartel of New York University and Richard Saavedra of the University of Michigan studied 70 workgroups across diverse industries. Their research found that people who gather within normal meeting settings end up sharing their good or bad moods within two hours. Other research has corroborated the fact that people who work together share their moods.

It is significant for leaders to understand that within most organizations, moods that originate at the top have a tendency to spread quickly throughout the workplace. The reason for this diffusion is that nearly everyone in the company observes these moods and is thus directly influenced by them. Leader’s that are not cognizant of this process fail to understand the personal impact they, and their moods, have on organizational performance.

A large body of research indicates that a majority of leaders are unaware that their emotional intelligence levels, their moods and their behaviors have a definite impact on employees and the organization. Leaders can remain clueless as to how these factors have the power to resonate throughout an organization.

In many instances the repercussions of unwatched and uncontrolled negative behaviors are immediate. Employees can be reluctant to communicate accurate and realistic data and information for fear of the leader’s emotional reaction and potential rage.

The consequences of negative emotional reactions are damaging to the point that the leader becomes emotionally disconnected from the organization; as a result, he or she will not have a realistic sense of what is occurring in the workplace. These circumstances are especially troubling when employees actively work to hide failures, mistakes and potentially troubling trends.

While an emotionally disconnected leader can often sense something is amiss in the workplace, the exact cause remains elusive and their personal effectiveness is thus undermined. The perceived uncertainty of the situation also forces leaders to second-guess their employees. Other serious organizational problems can be caused by the following reasons:

==> Lack of Awareness
When leaders demonstrate a lack of personal awareness, they cannot objectively gauge their own personal moods let alone the impact those moods have on the organization. In some instances, a lack of awareness is the result of the leader’s ignorance, but more often it is a reflection of older leadership styles being used.

Many leaders who fall victim to a lack of awareness feel their personal moods are nobody’s business. Because these leaders do not see the need to force themselves to accommodate their employees, it becomes their employees’ responsibility to deal with the moods. Whatever the cause and reason, a lack of personal awareness undermines not only the leader’s effectiveness, but also the bottom-line performance of their organization.

==> Lack of Self-Management
When leaders possess a lack of self-management skills, it can be toxic to an organization. Mood swings, highly emotional responses, rages and outbursts have a dramatic and negative impact on all employees. In all these instances, leaders allow their emotions to control them. These uncontrolled emotions serve to undermine employee motivation and morale, which produces immediate and negative consequences on organizational productivity.

When leaders allow themselves to be emotionally unstable, their organization will experience higher rates of absenteeism and employee turnover due to increased stress levels. This tangible impact on an organization can be directly analyzed, quantified and demonstrated.

==> Lack of Social Awareness
Leaders clearly lack social awareness when they fail to empathize with employees and other individuals. Those who lack social awareness are either unaware a problem in this area exists or they don’t care about the impact their words and actions have on employees and the organization. Leaders who only focus on results while neglecting personal contributions, actively demonstrate this social deficiency.

Such leaders are unconcerned about motivation, morale or personal issues. Consequently, they will often find themselves surrounded by incompetent or fearful employees. The competent individuals or those with better employment options will quickly leave. The subsequent impact on the company’s productivity and profitability will be serious and obvious.

==> Poor Relationship Management
Leaders who possess poor relationship management skills are unable to communicate effectively, which results in misunderstandings, confusion and conflict. Employees in this situation can feel leaderless and uncommitted, as their work is often criticized and second-guessed by the leader. The leader’s poor relationships with employees subsequently lower morale and motivation. Employees don’t know where they stand with these leaders. And this feeling often results in high employee turnover and lower productivity.

While possible, it is uncommon for leaders to exhibit symptoms in only one of the above areas: usually they are deficient in multiple emotional intelligence categories. When these factors are combined, their impacts are intensified; a toxic organizational atmosphere is thus created that is saturated with problems and conflicts.

Often these leaders cause extreme chaos and havoc within the entire organization. Not only does this diminish their standing and effectiveness as a leader, but also it can completely undermine and destroy an organization’s effectiveness. Turmoil and damage will remain until a more hopeful and realistic leader replaces the dissonant one. And this change generally becomes the only viable alternative to relieve chaos and repair the organization.

Needless to say I am so pumped up for all of you and the great company we are building. Our future is bright and we have only just begun. 

Have a wonderful day. 

Mitch :-)

Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

Learn more about what DIFFERENTIATES FSO here

Hat tip: International Facilities Management Association on LinkedIn
Photo: http://blog.majoriumbusinesspress.com/

Reduce Costs, Increase Productivity And Retain Your Most Valued Employees

“Creating a Positive Workplace And Good Attitudes Are Contagious.”

Good Morning Folks,

A positive workplace reduces costs, increases productivity and retains your most valued employees. 

You can start building a positive work environment with these ideas:

==> Appreciation
Equip each staff member with thank-you notes to offer to co-workers who have done something special. Create a monthly program that recognizes workers’ accomplishments.

==>Feedback
Create an efficient system for employees to share feedback with management. Respond to each comment. Even if you can’t act on it, thank the worker for the input. Consider whether the idea can be altered to improve the workplace.

==>Tolerance
Don’t allow rude remarks or bullying. In addition to violating basic human decency, intolerance affects the bottom line. Research shows that rude behavior reduces productivity. Instead, encourage direct but professional conversations. Educate those who unintentionally make an offensive remark. 

Final thought: If you still think that the negativity in your workplace is too big a task to take on, consider this: Almost half of employees say they plan to leave their organizations when the economy improves. 

Their drive to find new jobs is propelled by negative workplaces that foster lack of trust and unfair treatment, according to the “Deloitte Ethics and Workplace Survey.” 

Thanks to the Work Place Training Center and to you for sharing this moment with us.

Have a GREAT Day,

Love Life!



Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer  

5 Ways For The Hourly Workforce Worker to Work Better

Good Morning Folks,

If you are among the hourly workforce, there’s always constant pressure to do your best. Whether you’re an intern working in a job you hope will turn into a career, you’re in a temporary position that you hope will turn into full-time employment or if you already are full-time but you’re hoping for a promotion or a raise, your performance at work is always monitored. Here are a few simple tips to stay on top of the game and get yourself noticed.

==> Be on time, or even early
Some jobs will actually take it off your pay if you’re not in your position on time. But if you’re at a company where things are a little more lenient, it might be tempting to sleep in an extra ten minutes, or run one more errand before work. If you find yourself slipping in the back door of the office a few minutes later each day, change your morning routine. It will make a good impression on everyone if you’re at your desk on time.

==> Volunteer for projects
When there’s an extra assignment or a presentation that has to be done and management asks for volunteers to help, raise your hand and join that team. Being proactive in accepting new challenges will go much further than the attitude of “I don’t have time for that, it’s not my job.”

==> Join committees
Almost every company will have some committees made up of employees to help out with extra things that need to be done, whether it’s raising money for United Way or planning birthday parties. If you join up with one of these it will show you’re dedicated to the company as well as your job.

==> Limit personal calls/texts
Years ago, before cell phones and unlimited long distance, there were pretty strict limitations on how many personal calls you could make at work. Now, even though it’s harder for employers to monitor the amount of personal calls you make during work time. But if you’re always on your cell phone or spend much of your day texting, they will know. It’s a good idea to turn off your cell phone during work hours. If that’s not possible, let your friends know that you won’t be communicating until after work, and your phone is on only for emergencies.

==> Leave personal problems at home
Everyone has a busy life outside of work, and sometimes those late nights, fights with the spouse or homework issues with the kids seep into our days at work. Everyone needs to talk about their problems, but it’s a good idea to vent to a friend or your family and not your boss and co-workers. 

For more info, visit: http://fso.co

Have a GREAT day and I look forward to seeing all of you soon.

Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

Learn more about what DIFFERENTIATES FSO here