“If you can believe in the Canucks, you can believe in anything.”

What a face. Mr. Stereotypically unhappy, doom and gloom employee guy took me aside for a confidential earful, “the inside scoop Wolf, you know what I mean? You need to know what really goes on in this company!”

I can’t count how many times I’ve been down this road with the myopic disenchanted few. Their line always goes like this; “Our executives are morons, the company doesn’t know what it’s doing, we make overpriced garbage for customers who don’t appreciate it, my boss is a jerk and I’m surrounded by incompetents.”

I asked him, “are you a Canucks fan?”

He burst into a smile. “Absolutely, the Canucks are going to win the Stanley Cup this year, I’m betting on it.”

These people make this so easy. I looked him square in the face and told him; “If you can believe in the Canucks, you can believe in your company. The Canucks have never ever won a Stanley Cup, they lose constantly. Your company has been around for 30 years, employs over fifty people, pays it’s bills and taxes, has employed you for over ten years. Seems to me your company is on a winning streak. If you can believe in the Canucks, you can most certainly believe in your company. It’s not about your company, it’s about you. What you have to decide is, - are you going to be a fan of your company or not?”

And that’s really what it’s all about isn’t it? It’s not about the company being good or bad. It’s about each employee deciding in their heart whether they want to be a fan or not. Are you a fan of your company?

Nov. 17th I’m going to show you how to do a performance review in less than ten minutes using one sheet of paper. I’m also going to give you the counter points to all the pushback people are used to giving you about the company. You will make a raving fan out of everyone who goes through your review process!

We already know you will back a loser. The question is, will you back our company? Will you back a winner?

See you for breakfast,
Wolfgang,


P.s. What do you say to someone who hates the Canucks but keeps attending their games? My guess is we’re free to call them fools. And what about people who keep badmouthing the company but keep showing up? Same thing I think.