Mandi Fleiser If esprit de corps in your office is so fantastic that you are looking for ways to suppress it, then skip this post. However if you want to see a brilliant, simple and time efficient way of enhancing it, then treat this as a mini case study. (Esprit de corps is “a feeling of pride, fellowship, and common loyalty…”) Mandi Fleiser is a partner in Grant Thornton’s Johannesburg office — she transformed an abstract thought into action… she breathed life into her idea. The Misty Hills Country Hotel outside of Johannesburg During a recent retreat that my Edge International partner, Robert Millard, and I facilitated for her partnership at The Misty Hills Country Hotel outside of Johannesburg, South Africa, as part of a more comprehensive strategy process, we encouraged participants to describe specific actions that might move the firm closer to its objectives. Grant Thornton is in great demand but with everyone working so hard, predictable challenges arise. This is further exacerbated by greater regulation and more rigorous processes in the accounting profession. The bottom line is a palpable strain on the firm’s most precious resource, its people. Partner Mandi Fleiser suggested that all the firm’s personnel needed an upbeat frequent reminder of what they could be “proud of” and “pleased about” and she conceived Mandi’s Monday Memo, the first installment of which I am honoured to replicate here (with permission). I know the print will be too small for you to read it and I have x’d out sensitive information but you get the idea. I have extracted her chosen Zig Ziglar quote:

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing-that’s why we recommend it daily.” Zig Ziglar American Sales Trainer, Author, Motivational Speaker

Mandi’s headings include Marvelous Moments (firm accomplishments including jobs well done and clients attracted) What I love about GT (excerpts from a five minute exercise at the retreat when we asked partners to write on a slip of paper and submit what they loved best about the firm) and Quote of the Week (this week’s highlighted above). FASTFORWARD: THANK YOU Mandi for the inspiration to partners in all professional firms. Here is what every partner can emulate: Mandy:

a) conceived the idea, b) converted the idea on her own initiative, c) did not delegate it but rather preserved the gravitas that comes from a partner doing this herself.

This post was published with Grant Thornton’s permission.