Donuts and Dignity

I love donuts, but I really love Eddie’s Southtown Donuts in St. Louis. We used to live down the street and would walk or ride our bikes there every weekend. There’s even a cold-pressed juice spot next door for a healthy drink to wash down our not-so-healthy treat. 

But what makes Eddie’s so great is we get to talk to Eddie himself when we visit. He treats us with respect. We talk about football, business, and more. He calls us the “blueberry family” because I always get his blueberry-glazed donut—it’s the best one I’ve ever had—and we walk out with a couple of extra donuts Eddie slipped in our bag without us noticing.

There’s something special about walking into Eddie’s. It’s like we take a step back in time, before the world of shallow social media “likes” and robot cashiers. It reminds me of our humanity, and it’s one of the few moments when my boys get a glimpse of a simpler time.

We no longer live down the street, so we don’t visit Eddie’s quite as often as we used to. But Eddie still treats us like regulars. We still walk in to see a familiar face, and we still walk out with a couple of extra donuts. 

Seeing how Eddie runs his donut shop has taught me a lot about respect and dignity, and it can be applied at work too. You might only interact with the janitor once a month, or the parking-lot attendant for a few seconds a day, but that’s no reason to treat them as any less of a human.

Don’t be a stranger to the people you interact with.

Leader Assistants treat everyone with dignity.

P.S. - Eddie's has been struggling as many small, local businesses have during the COVID-19 lockdown, so please remember to support your local businesses!

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The above snippet is from my new book, The Leader Assistant: Four Pillars of a Confident, Game-Changing Assistant.

Download the first 3 chapters FREE here!