When we bring on a new team member at our restaurant, I spend about an hour and a half with them doing what I call my “vision and values” session. My goal, by the end of our time together, is to help them see that working at Macland Crossing is so much more than about selling chicken and that it is an opportunity to make a difference in peoples lives. I recently added the following mental exercise to our time together: (blog readers, I encourage you to go find a note card and pen/pencil before you continue reading and image you are a new team member for a moment)
I would like for you to draw a tombstone on your notecard. On this tombstone, I would like for you to write your name on the top of it as if it were engraved. Now I would like for you to write the year you were born on this tombstone at the bottom with a dash to the right of the year. Leave enough room to write a quote below the year. Now just for a moment, before you write anything else, look at this and imagine this is your tombstone. Now I don’t want you to write in the year of your death because we don’t want to predict anything, but think about the fact that your entire life is summed up in this little thing called a “dash” between the two years. That’s all we get…a “dash.” If your lucky, you might get a small quote or phrase below that. Think how you would want to be remembered. I jokingly say, would you want it to say something like “S/he made good chicken sandwiches”? I hope not, that has absolutely no meaning….I know I want to be remembered as a good man, that “loved God, his family and others that crossed his path.” Now let’s transition to thinking about the end of your time here at Macland Crossing, I would be disillusioned to think that you will work here for the rest of your life, the reality is that you will be here for a season…a couple of years, 10 years, or maybe only 6 months. The question is how do you want to be remembered when you leave? What if people said… “S/he was a jerk and treated everyone like a door mat” or “S/he was lazy and I’m glad they are gone, I had to work extra hard when they were here, doing my job and theirs.” Or what if people said… “S/he treated everyone with honor, dignity and respect.” or “S/he was a hard worker and I’m going to really miss them when they are gone, s/he made a difference!” I encourage them to put this tombstone drawing on their bathroom mirror, to remind them every morning and every night to think about how they want to be remembered. How do you want to be remembered? In life? In your current role at work?
