The Richwood Report

The English author Samuel Johnson said that the true measure of a man was how he treated somebody who could do him absolutely no good. Every successful person has his own ways to learn the character of another person quickly by observing the small interactions of everyday life. Now a modern CEO has observed the same thing as part of a collection of simple and effective management tools. Bill Swanson, CEO of Raytheon Corporation(one of our customers, by the way!) calls it the waiter rule, or, "A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter, or to others, is not a nice person." An article about the waiter rule, with a list of the 33 rules in Swanson's book, is here. I was impressed to read how many leaders of business had been impressed with the kindness of customers in their early careers and who had also learned about their associates from how they treated subordinates. A further assessment is here. Swanson never published the book but distributes it free on request from the Raytheon website.