Thursday, August 12, 2004

Footprints and Inspiration Cmdr. Connie Mariano





A.L.T.  VP MELBA LIKES mailing me articles
of great importance for she knows I don't like to read. 
People
with ADD and dyslexia are more visualThis time it's not the group favorite star of the moment, Jennifer Garner of ALIAS and 13
GOING ON 30, but about great moments in management.  She has a master in
management you know.  The following excerpts from the page
Firsthand Views of CAP TODAY publication was
written by innovation consultant, speaker and famous author Dale Dauten.  It is of particular importance to me
and others in the group for it focused and highlighted the life and momentous
career of Rear Admiral Connie
Mariano - one of the outstanding
people in the A.L.T. web Philippines
Shining.  She was the President's
doctor from 1992 with the first Bush, the Bill Clinton years and the first
year of the second Bush.  Reading into the page it proves once again how
and what an employee becomes is how your boss believe in you (remember Bela
Karoli of not so long ago Olympic Games the shove it words 'You
can do it?') and how the chain of command is pass on from boss to
employee and from old to new.


GREAT MOMENTS IN MANAGEMENT By Dale
Dauten 
dale@dauten.com


     Here's a tidy comment I'm adding to my list of Things I Wish
Someone Had Said About Me.  "The organization got better the day he
started.


"How you look back on your time here will depend on
one thing: whether you're here to give or to get.  Those who give the most,
leave with the most." 


     Dr. Connie Mariano was speaking of one of her employees, the man
who eventually replaced her, Dr. Richard Tubb.  On his first day on the
job, Tubb would have gotten the same speech Mariano gave everyone who came to
work for her....


     White
House physicians are chosen through nominations from the branches of the
military.  Mariano was in San Diego, working for Dr. John Mitas, chairman
of the Department of Medicine at the Naval Hospital.  He called her in one
day and said: "I've just been reading the requirements for the job at the White
House.  I think you could do that job."


     Her reaction was surprise and
doubt.  Her hesitant reply was simply, "Well, I'm not so sure." Her boss
reacted emphatically: "I'm going to nominate you because I believe you can do
it.  I know you can."


     That's a simple conversation,
but a rare one, ranking as a Great Moment in Management.  Bad bosses don't
believe any of their employees are especially valuable and don't mind high
turnover.  Good bosses recognize talent and hold on to it fiercely, trying
to eliminate turnover.  Gifted bosses are willing to shove the best
employees along, thus encouraging employee turnover and gaining loyalty in
return - not just the usual stay-together loyalty, but the lifelong loyalty of a
true ally.  Even so, being willing to help a great employee leave takes
courage and selfishness.


      And so it was that
Cmdr. Connie Mariano went to the White House.  While she was there, she was
promoted to rear admiral.  Connie Mariano grew up around admirals, entering
their homes through the back, via the kitchen door, where the help came and
went.  Picture her father (He was a Navy man), standing in the State Dining
Room, with friends and relatives looking on, as well as Bill and Hillary
Clinton, watching his daughter become the first admiral of Filipino
descent.  No coming in the back door as an admiral's steward.  No, he
strode into the main entrance of the White House, and when he walked out, he
left as an admiral's father.


       Isn't that a
beautiful mental picture? It calls to the American soul.  It's a
reminder of the real American Dream.  The Dream has shrunk through the
years to a tawdry materialism.  That's not the American Dream, merely to
get rich.  No, it's the freedom to take a shot at a different life than the
one you were born into.  It isn't about wealth; it's about the wealth of
possibilities.


       And by the
way, Connie Mariano's old boss, Dr. Mitas, was also there that day she
became an admiral, no doubt smiling at what his understanding of the wealth of
possibilities has led to.  That's Great Moment in Management.
   


2 comments:

  1. Dear B*U*S*T*:   I love to see more of Footprints & Inspiration.  Please tell ALTPresident1 to send more.  Thanks.

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  2. ONE OF THESE DAYS

    A friend of mine opened his
    wife's underwear drawer and picked up a silk paper wrapped
    package:

    "This, - he said - isn't any ordinary package."  He
    unwrapped the box and stared at both the silk paper and the box.

    "She got
    this the first time we went to New York, 8 or 9 years ago.  She has never
    put it on, was saving it for a special occasion. Well, I guess this is it. He
    got near the bed and placed the gift box next to the other clothing he was
    taking to the funeral house, his wife had just died. He turned to me and
    said:

    "Never save something for a special occasion. Every day in your
    life is a special occasion."

    I still think those words changed my
    life.

    Now I read more and clean less.

    I sit on the porch without
    worrying about anything.

    I spend more time with my family, and less at
    work.

    I understood that life should be a source of experience to be lived
    up to, not survived through. I no longer keep anything. I use crystal glasses
    everyday.  I'll wear new clothes to go to the supermarket, if I feel like
    it.

    I don't save my special perfume for special occasions, I use it
    whenever I want to. The words "Someday..." and "One Day..." are fading away from
    my dictionary. If it's worth seeing, listening or doing, I want to see, listen
    or do it now. I don't know what my friend's wife would have done if she knew she
    wouldn't be there the next morning, this nobody can tell. I think she might have
    called her relatives and closest friends. She might call old friends to make
    peace over past quarrels. I'd like to think she would go out for Chinese, her
    favorite food. It's these small things that I would regret not doing, if I knew
    my time had come.

    I would regret it, because I would no longer see the
    friends I would meet, letters... that I wanted to write "One of these
    days".

    I would regret and feel sad, because I didn't say to my brother
    and sisters, son and daughters, not times enough at least, how much I love
    them.

    Now, I try not to delay, postpone or keep anything that could bring
    laughter and joy into our lives.  And, on each morning, I say to myself
    that this could be a special day.

    Each day, each hour, each minute, is
    special.

    If you got this, it's because someone cares for you and because,
    probably, there's someone you care about.

    If you're too busy to send this
    out to other people and you say to yourself that you will send it "One of these
    days", remember that "One day" is far away... or might never come...

    No
    matter if you're superstitious or not, spend some time reading it.  It
    holds useful messages for the soul.
     
     

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