Please use my name

When we are born we are all provided with a name, carefully chosen by our parents or guardians. A considerable amount of thought and discussion goes into what you will be called. Most of us love our name and are very happy to continue to use it throughout our lives. Sometimes for reasons we may not know or understand our name gets changed by others, it is either shortened for example from William to Bill or from Desmond to Des. We are given a nickname or called by our family name for some other reason, again as an example like “Doyler” or “Harris”. One example of a nickname I came across was this man called “leaky Doyle” who was a local Plummer”

When we were children and we met someone for the first time we would nearly always ask them “what is your name”. Yet when we get older in life we seem to loose this quality of interest. Once while working with a very senior team of executives I asked the question about the type of culture they believed they had within their organisation. Various response came back but one of the agreed response they all said was that they were very employee focused and they cared for their people because this would reflect onto their clients. Each of these executives passed the receptionist nearly every morning and when I asked them what was her name less then 10% of the room could tell me her name.

How many people do you pass each and every day in your workplace or maybe where you buy your morning, coffee or newspaper or purchase a weekly/monthly transport ticket or pay for your petrol or someone who empties your rubbish bins bin at home or in work – do you ask them their name? Most people working in retail shops or customer services areas have name badges – do you use their name to say thank you or just hello? Never loose that child quality within you so from today ask and use my name

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3. Dad’s Revenge
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