Pleasant'sImpact

For about half of my professional career I held positions that required me to recruit and hire personnel. Nothing impacts the performance of an organization more than having good people -- "the right" people -- on the team. (The "wrong" ones also have significant negative impact, if we choose to keep them on board.)

As I would engage in the hiring processes, Moe (my lovely bride of 45 years) consistently reminded me to always look for "pleasant." She often noted that "pleasant is WAY underrated." 

Several common ingredients come to mind as I reflect on exemplars of pleasantness with whom I have served over the years:

• They always seemed more grateful than the average bear, and were quite generous in sharing and expressing that appreciation to others.
• They rarely got involved in the political chicanery that goes on in organizations.
• Smiles and laughter were abundant from these folks.
• They avoided participating in gossip and rumor mongering. 
• They carried their portion of the load, consistently and without complaint.
• They were amazingly NON-judgmental.

I loved working with those kinds of folks. Still do.

PLEASANT really is way underrated.