If You Don't Have Big Breasts, Put Ribbons on Your Pigtails by Barbara Corcoran, Bruce Littlefield

kitchen table.
    3. Please Do Disturb
    In a real estate office, the agent at the next desk is as much a competitor as a colleague. John Bachman used his do not disturb sign to keep people out of his business and away from his desk, preventing any exchange of information and ideas. My early redirection of John with my "everyone can disturb everyone" philosophy became a cornerstone of our company's commitment to teamwork. It was also the beginning of our

    company's open-door policy. Today at our Corcoran Group offices there are no locked doors or drawers, and the only walls are made of glass.
    4. Pick a Number
    Fair is fair. From the first day of business, I made sure not to pick favorites. Everyone needs to know what the rules are and that everyone is playing by them. In our first office, everyone was given the same opportunity to pick the "best" desk, and in subsequent offices, sales desks were picked in order of sales production, the biggest producer picking first.
    Fair play is the best way in every situation. In the spring of 1998, I chaired and was host to twelve hundred corporate presidents from around the world for a business conference at the elegant Plaza Hotel. My guests were to stay at the hotel for a week and had booked their rooms at the same, although very expensive, room rate. Some of the suites had better views, some were on better floors, and some were better appointed. Instead of allowing the hotel staff to assign the rooms to the guests as they normally did, I insisted the attendees randomly pick a plastic ball out of three-foot silver goblets. Each ball was marked with a room number.
    Not everyone staved in the penthouse, but everyone slept well. And as the host, I averted a week of complaints because the presidents had all picked their own rooms within the context of fair play.
    5. Color Code
    People misread labels and misfile the alphabet, but very few people are color-blind. The new colored listing cards and floor plan files made missing information easier to find and more difficult to hide. By 1980, the colored listing cards would become New York City's first real estate database, and by 1994 would convert again into our corcoran.com Web site, which today is the city's

    leading real estate Web site, selling more than $700 million in real estate annually.
    6. Write Notes/Give Flowers
    Little things pave the road to loyalty.
    No one is too sophisticated to appreciate a small individual expression of affection. To employees, it's money in the bank with interest. To employers, the gift is truly in the giving.
    7. Make a "Good Idea" Box
    My little shoebox with the yellow lightbulb drawn on top became my best source of bright ideas. Although many ideas were downright impossible, the ideas poured in and among them I found nuggets of gold.
    In business, the clerical people are rarely solicited for their opinions and ideas. But our Good Idea Box was an equal-opportunity listener, giving everyone the assurance they would be heard. It allowed every individual to be a contributor, feel a part of the team, and make live bucks.
    The best creative ideas often came from the clerical staff, and the best operational ideas usually came from the salespeople. The box also gave me an early "heads up" on what was about to go awry, well before it matured into a big problem.
    I didn't just preach the Good Idea Box, I used it. And it guaranteed success.
    The simple systems I introduced at our first Monday meeting gave The Corcoran Group the footing it needed to start building a solid company. And those good ideas can all be attributed to the simple genius of my mother's good planning.

    Saturday night. The front steps.
    "Who wants to go to the Dairy Queen?" Dad asked us as we gathered on the front steps.
    "Me! Me!" we raised our hands and chimed in unison.
    "Who wants to get a cold, chocolate Dilly Bar?" Dad continued. "Or maybe an extra-thick frozen strawberry milk shake in a big white cup with a straw to suck it all up?"
    "Me!