The Magic Words in Supplier Performance

As an impetuous small child (and some say adult) I often demanded things from my mother. When I didn’t meet her requirements of polite speech, she would say “What are the magic words”? I would then say the customary ‘please and thank-you’ and I would get the piece of fruit, cookie, change for the pinball arcade or keys to the car. And not much has changed, really.

I was teaching a seminar yesterday about managing and improving supplier performance and the class and I had a discussion on politeness and courtesy in the workplace. We agreed, and lamented, that please and thank you were hardly heard these days. Now when it comes to improving supplier performance, we went over all kinds of strategies, including understanding the levels of the supply chain, negotiation, e-commerce, and all methods of internal and external communication.

These were all good solutions. But, I reminded them that in my 30 years of experience, the words of please and thank you, uttered with sincerity, most often worked the best for me. My mother taught me well.