HONOR
On my honor, I will
do my best to do my duty
to God and my country
… Honor Guard… Honor
thy Father and Mother…
Military Honors...Honor
the memory…Yes,Your
Honor…No, Your Honor
…Honors Student …Oh,
yes, and:
“Honor among thieves.”
Barbara Ann Kipfer’s FLIP DICTIONARY (a wonderful Writer’s Digest resource book) shows the following under “HONOR”:
“Accolade, adore, award, celebrate, character, commendation, courage, credit, decoration, deference, dignify, dignity, distinction, ennoble, esteem. exalt, fame, fete, glorify, glory, homage, honesty, integrity, kudos, laud, laurels, obeisance, praise, recognition, regard, reputation, respect, revere, reverence, tribute, trust, worship.”
WHAT DOES “HONOR” MEAN TO YOU?
Business and personal reputations are made or broken by the treatment of and attention to honoring commitments, delivering what’s promised.
When your leadership can inspire others –employees and suppliers– to go the extra mile, to deliver more than what’s expected, you can count yourself among the truly great captains of industry.
Surely you will never be at a loss for customers, unless you think you’ve inherited and deserve a badge of honor because you’re part of some aristocratic family birthright (in which case, you’re not reading this anyway), honor is in reality something that’s both learned and earned. And it’s never to late for either.
As with all other behaviors that lead to various forms of good and bad and positive and negative recognition, the pathway to receiving honor is to choose to deliver it consistently first.
Those who rise to the occasion to make certain that what they promise others is in fact the minimum of what they deliver, and that they in fact deliver when they say they will deliver, and who follow through on commitments win honorable reputations. Honorable reputations sell. But only when they are continuously evidenced.
In other words, one good deed does not a respectable character make. Put another way, one business owner I know tells employees:
I don’t care that the rest of the world always wants to know the answer to the question: ‘what have you done for me lately?’
I care about what you do consistently –day after day– to demonstrate commitment to yourself, your fellow employees, our customers, and company outsiders.
Because that’s the kind of honorability that makes businesses thrive.”
How prevalent is this thinking and behavior in your organization? What will it take to punch it up?(By the way, if you’re into the “Honor Among Thieves” mindset, consider that the punishment payoff will catch up with you somewhere; do you really always want to be looking back over your shoulder?)
Thank you, dear visitors; it’s been, well, an honor to have you visit. Please return soon.
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302.933.0116 Hal@BusinessWorks.US
Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.
“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]
[…] There’s risk involved in all of this, but as with the mark of true entrepreneurship, the risk is always a reasonable one. We’re not talking about harnessing creative spirit here. In fact, if anything, the suggestion is to set it free, and to recognize that the results produced by an honest free spirit outperform those born of smoke and mirrors. […]