Living our Core Values: Monkey Troubles
As you scroll through our blog, or visit our Facebook page, you’ll notice we talk about our core values a lot. It’s not just online either; we produce videos, send out emails, make posters, and talk about these values at meetings often. We live these values every day; they guide our company, our actions, and our decisions. Sometimes, however, the best examples we have of living our core values come from the most mundane, nay ridiculous, occurrences. This is a (kind of long) story about how a pink monkey, named Cherry Blossom, reminded me how committed everyone at FinishMaster is to be a family.
In mid-January, I traveled to Orlando for our annual Winter Leadership Meeting. Now, travelling for work is typically a rewarding experience. I get the chance to meet our field folks, visit branches, and see some of my work in the real world. However, as a parent to two young children, travel can also be hard.
My daughter, Julia, is 4 years old and as a way to help her deal with my being away, she always packs me a stuffed animal to take along on the trip. She loves it when I take pictures of her stuffed friends helping me work. This time was no different, and she packed me her favorite, a pink stuffed monkey named Cherry Blossom
During the week I took pictures of Cherry Blossom helping me adjust audio levels, check the podium setup, eat lunch, and more. Throughout the meeting, several FinishMaster team members noticed me posing a stuffed animal and asked me about the monkey, and I would always, somewhat embarrassingly, explain the situation to them. I was surprised at how many people completely understood.
Midway through the week, we had a golf outing. My job was to drive around the course and take action shots and candid photos of everyone while they played. Of course, I got Cherry Blossom out and had her ride shotgun as I drove around, because you never know when an opportunity to take a fun picture of your daughter’s stuffed monkey will present itself. You have to be ready.
Truth time: I had never driven a golf cart. In fact, I had never been on a golf course. So for those of you who, like me, don’t really know about golf carts, here’s something they don’t tell you: there are no sides and the seats are really slick. So, as I was driving around the course taking pictures of FinishMaster team members, I lost Cherry Blossom. And since I’m not used to keeping track of a pink monkey, I didn’t realize she was gone for a long time. When I did, it was pure panic. I drove around the course trying to retrace my steps, but couldn’t find the monkey anywhere. Julia was going to be heartbroken.
After coming to terms with the fact I would have to return my #1 Dad mug in disgrace, I stopped to take more pictures of our folks playing golf, and as I did I mentioned to them I had lost Cherry Blossom. The reaction was not at all what I expected. Instead of laughing at the grown man who lost a stuffed monkey, they promised to help me look. The next group not only did the same, but they also texted dozens of fellow team members on the golf course and told them to look. Before I knew it, there were over a hundred grown men and women on a golf course looking for a child's stuffed pink monkey.
No one laughed at my loss or complained about putting their golf game on hold, they completely understood. And that’s when I realized most of them knew exactly what I was going through. They had kids, they had to travel, and they knew if I came home without the stuffed pink monkey in my bag I was going to be in for it. Most importantly, they came through, Cherry Blossom came home, and I got to keep my #1 Dad mug.
In our About Us video, Steve Arndt talks about our core values, and how they are more than just words on a piece of paper. To some people, this story might be funny, or ridiculous, but in the moment I was reunited with my child’s toy, it was clear to me just how much FinishMaster is like a family.
If you have a story about your FinishMaster family, or an example of how your team members live their core values, let us know at marketing@finishmaster.com.