Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work

by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen

Overview

WORK IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF LIVING, WHETHER YOU WAIT ON CUSTOMERS, BUILD A BUSINESS OR COOK FOR YOUR FAMILY. AS SUCH, WE ALL HAVE IMPORTANT STORIES TO TELL ABOUT OUR WORK. FROM THIS RICH TREASURE CHEST OF EXPERIENCES, CANFIELD, HANSEN AND COMPANY HAVE GATHERED A SPECIAL COLLECTION OF INSPIRING TALES THAT SHARE THE DAILY COURAGE, COMPASSION AND CREATIVITY THAT TAKE PLACE IN WORKPLACES EVERYWHERE. CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL AT WORK WILL NOURISH YOUR SPIRIT WITH STORIES OF COURAGEOUS LEADERS AND WILL FOSTER YOUR CREATIVITY WITH EXAMPLES OF INSPIRING BREAKTHROUGHS. IT WILL ALSO TEACH YOU HOW TO ENRICH YOURSELF AND YOUR COWORKERS THROUGH HEARTFELT ACKNOWLEDGMENT. THIS POWERFUL BOOK GIVES YOU NEW OPTIONS, NEW WAYS TO SUCCEED AND, ABOVE ALL, A NEW LOVE AND APPRECIATION FOR YOURSELF, YOUR JOB AND THOSE AROUND YOU. SHARE IT WITH YOUR MENTOR, COWORKERS OR STAFF, AND ENJOY RENEWED JOY AND PLEASURE IN YOUR CHOSEN VOCATION. SPECIAL STORIES BY DILBERT S SCOTT ADAMS, BEVERLY SILLS, DAVE THOMAS AND MANY MORE MAKE THIS COLLECTION COMPLETE. माणसं काम करताना पाट्या टाकतात असं जरी दिसत असलं तरी सर्वसामान्य माणूस प्रसंगी प्राणही पणाला लावून अंत करणपूर्वक, सेवावृत्तीनं काम करतो. त्या कामाचं कार्यात रूपांतर होतं. त्याचा आदर, गौरव अभिनव पद्धतीनं करणं ही उदात्त कार्यसंस्कृती. अनुभवांच्या खजिन्यातून इथे उलगडत जाते अनोखी कार्यप्रणाली. साहस, करुणा आणि प्रेरणा देणाया, मनाला तरतरी आणि जगायला बळ देणाया त्या अनुभवांना सलाम!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9788184980639
Publisher:	Mehta Publishing House
Publication date:	01/12/2013
Pages:	234
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.59(d)
Language:	Marathi

About the Author

Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, have dedicated their lives to the personal and professional growth of others.

Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, have dedicated their lives to the personal and professional growth of others.

Hometown:

Santa Barbara, California

Date of Birth:

August 19, 1944

Place of Birth:

Fort Worth, Texas

Education:

B.A. in History, Harvard University, 1966; M.A.T. Program, University of Chicago, 1968; M.Ed., U. of Massachusetts, 1973

Website:

http://www.jackcanfield.com

Read an Excerpt

1
Love At Work

Work is love made visible.

Kahlil Gibran

Jessie's Glove

A kind and compassionate act is often its own reward.

William J. Bennett

I do a lot of management training each year for the Circle K Corporation, a national chain of convenience stores. Among the topics we address in our seminars is the retention of quality employees—a real challenge to managers when you consider the pay scale in the service industry. During these discussions, I ask the participants, 'What has caused you to stay long enough to become a manager?' Some time back a new manager took the question and slowly, with her voice almost breaking, said, 'It was a $19 baseball glove.'

Cynthia told the group that she originally took a Circle K clerk job as an interim position while she looked for something better. On her second or third day behind the counter, she received a phone call from her nine-year-old son, Jessie. He needed a baseball glove for Little League. She explained that as a single mother, money was very tight, and her first check would have to go for paying bills. Perhaps she could buy his baseball glove with her second or third check.
When Cynthia arrived for work the next morning, Patricia, the store manager, asked her to come to the small room in back of the store that served as an office. Cynthia wondered if she had done something wrong or left some part of her job incomplete from the day before. She was concerned and confused.

Patricia handed her a box. 'I overheard you talking to your son yesterday,' she said, 'and I know that it is hard to explain things to kids. This is a baseballglove for Jessie because he may not understand how important he is, even though you have to pay bills before you can buy gloves. You know we can't pay good people like you as much as we would like to; but we do care, and I want you to know you are important to us.'

The thoughtfulness, empathy and love of this convenience store manager demonstrates vividly that people remember more how much an employer cares than how much the employer pays. An important lesson for the price of a Little League baseball glove.

Rick Phillips

Climbing the Stairway to Heaven

No one can deal with the hearts of men unless he has the sympathy which is given by love.

Henry Ward Beecher

Throughout my career in sales, I've wondered about difficult customers. What makes them so mean? How can they be so unkind? How can a perfectly rational person suddenly lose all sense of human decency?

One day, I had an insight into their thinking. It happened while visiting my husband's music store. He was working with a customer and we were short-handed. So I did what every good wife would do: I tried to wait on customers.

'I'm looking for music,' said a gnarled man, a soiled John Deere cap pulled down tightly over his thinning gray hair. 'The name of the song is . . .' and he uncrumpled a grimy sheet of mimeographed paper from his jeans pocket, ''Stairway to Heaven.' Do you have it?'

I stepped to the wall displays of sheet music and scanned for the name. On a good day, the music filled slots in alphabetical order. On this day, the alphabet skipped around. I searched for several minutes, conscious of his growing restlessness.

'No, I'm sorry but it doesn't look like it's here.'
His back arched and his watery blue eyes narrowed. Almost imperceptibly, his wife touched his sleeve as if to draw him back. His narrow mouth twisted in anger.
'Well, ain't that just grand. You call yourself a music store? What kind of a store doesn't have music like that? All the kids know that song!' he spluttered.
'Yes, but we don't carry every piece of music ever . . .'

'Oh, easy for you! Easy to give excuses!' Now his wife was pawing at his sleeve, murmuring, trying to calm him the way a groom talks to a horse gone wild.
He leaned in to me, pointing a knotty finger at my face. 'I guess you wouldn't understand, would you? You don't care about my boy dying! About him smashing up his Camaro into that old tree. About them playing his favorite song at his funeral, and he's dead! He's gone! Only 18 and he's gone!'

The paper he waved at me came into focus. It was the program for a memorial service.
'I guess you wouldn't understand,' he mumbled. He bent his head. His wife put her arm around him and stood quietly by his side.
'I can't understand your loss,' I said quietly, 'but we buried my four-year-old nephew last month, and I know how bad that hurts.'
He looked up at me. The anger slid from his face, and he sighed. 'It's a shame, ain't it? A dirty shame.' We stood in silence for a long moment. Then he fished around in his back pocket and pulled out a worn billfold. 'Would you like to see a picture of our boy?'

Joanna Slan

©2008. Rick Phillips and Joanna Slan. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the written permission of the publisher. Publisher: Health Communications, Inc., 3201 SW 15th Street , Deerfield Beach , FL 33442.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	xv
	Introduction	xxi
1.	Love at Work
	Jessie's Glove	2
	Climbing the Stairway to Heaven	5
	"Whatever You Need"	8
	All in a Day's Work	11
	I Heard a Little Voice	14
	The Christmas Man	16
	His Life's Work	20
	For the Love of My Father	23
2.	On Caring
	A Lesson from My Father	30
	Bringing Your Heart to Work	33
	A Pebble in the Water	39
	I Just Can't Believe It	44
	Angel on a Doorstep	47
	Santa Comes to Joan	52
	The Arc Angels	55
	The Homecoming	59
	Putting People First	64
	Justice That Heals	67
	"Thank You for Believing Me Well"	70
	An Act of Kindness	73
	The Power of Being Human	75
	A Kind Word	80
	The Youngest Cop in Arizona	85
3.	The Power of Acknowledgment
	The Whale Story	91
	Rich Beyond Measure	95
	Managing from the Heart	98
	Trucks and Trust	99
	A Lady Named Lill	103
	"Your Work Is Recognized!"	107
	Two Ripe Bananas	110
	The Scrapbook	113
	A Coach with Soul	118
4.	Service: Setting New Standards
	Banking at Its Best	122
	A Passionate Flight Attendant	125
	The Massage Is the Message	128
	Not on the Menu	131
	"Let's Start Over"	135
	"Ah, Bambini!"	138
	Beyond Order-Taking	141
	"Welcome to Venetia"	145
	Customer Service Is Not a Mickey Mouse Affair	149
	Pass It On	151
	Wednesday Mornings with Elvis	156
	Holy Cow	160
	A Million-Dollar Lesson	163
	Speak the Customer's Language	165
	How to Keep Clients ... Even When It Hurts	168
	Have You Received Our Letter Yet?	172
	Someone Was Listening	175
	Beyond Expectations	180
5.	Follow Your Heart
	To Have Succeeded	190
	Making Bright Memories for Tomorrow	191
	I Found Myself Saying Yes	197
	The Professor and Me	200
	I Never Write Right	208
	When Dreams Won't Die	214
	Debbie Fields Gets "Oriented"	220
	A Walk in the "Woulds"	224
	A Sign for Our Times	228
	Sacred Stalls	233
	A Hug from a Teenage Boy	239
6.	Creativity At Work
	The Adjustment	244
	Doing Good and Doing Well	248
	Managing the Space Program	252
	Attention to Detail	257
	"Move Over!"	259
	Search for a Smile and Share It	262
	Getting the Garbage Out	265
	Time Out	267
	Poetic Vision	269
7.	Overcoming Obstacles
	How to Get Their Attention	275
	Attitude Is Everything	278
	Leading the Charge!	282
	The Phantom	284
	Staying Motivated	290
	We Will Survive	295
	Credit, Not Charity	298
	The Question	303
	Tony Trivisonno's American Dream	305
	The Great Dill Deal	311
	A Journey of Friendship	315
8.	On Courage
	Billy	320
	"If I Were Really Important..."	326
	That One Moment	329
	A Little Courage Goes a Long Way	333
	It Takes Chuzpah!	338
	A Captive Audience	341
	A True Leader	346
	The Scoutmaster and the Gunslinger	349
	Showdown at Pebble Beach	356
	Take a Stand	360
9.	Lessons & Insights
	The Blind Man	365
	Dave Thomas Serves Up Advice for Graduates of All Ages	372
	The Uncommon Professional	376
	Stressbusters	380
	A Lesson in Leadership	388
	Mother Knows Best	393
	Why Coaches Really Coach	397
	Let Your Light Shine	402
	Spiritual Unfoldment at the World Bank	406
	It Is Later Than You Think	410
	How Much Is Enough?	416
	More Chicken Soup?	419
	Who Is Jack Canfield?	421
	Who Is Mark Victor Hansen?	423
	Who Is Maida Rogerson?	425
	Who Is Martin Rutte?	427
	Who Is Tim Clauss?	429
	Contributors	431
	Permissions	447