My daughter is working on a school project. She had to pick someone famous from NC to research and then act as them while giving a presentation. She wanted to report on a Marine and she found General Walter E. Boomer USMC (ret). The General was born in NC, graduated from Duke and was stationed in NC.

After doing a good bit of online research she remarked that it would be great to talk to him. I mentioned that he was still alive and she decided to send him an email with a list of questions. He replied with answers to all her questions and she was overjoyed.

Do you do a good job of answering the mail? Returning phone calls? Of course, we should do this with co-workers but what about others? How good a job do you do?

When NO YELLING was first published I proudly sent it to a number of notable Marines now in business. I still remember the thank-you notes from Jim Lehrer (journalist), Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad/Poor Dad author), General Anthony Zinni (statesman), Mike Ilitch (owner of Detroit Tigers) and others. Such a small thing to send a note or answer an email to a child but what a powerful message of respect and professionalism.

As a blogger and a columnist for Military.Com I get a good bit of communication from people. Some praise, some criticism but I always reply. I often get a reply saying, “I didn’t expect you to write me back!” or something like that.

When my daughter reached out to General Boomer I was silently confident he would reply. That is what professionals and people of character do. Do you?

This entry was posted on Monday, June 1st, 2009 at 4:43 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.