Have you ever arrived at the venue for a meeting or celebration and thought ‘Wow, this is an impressive-looking place. I’m looking forward to this!’

Yesterday afternoon I went to a meeting venue where I was speaking at a celebration party in the evening. I had dropped in during the afternoon to check out the room I was speaking in, so as to prepare myself for delivering my speech. One of the event organisers was with me. He is disabled, so was unable to climb the steps to access the venue through the main door. We went around to the disabled access door at the rear of the building and my friend rang the bell. After a few moments, a friendly guy came and let us in. He was chatty, welcoming and made us feel at home. He turned out to be one of the maintenance team at the venue. I was impressed. My first impressions of the quality of the venue had been
confirmed. Not only did the place look good from the outside, the people had great behaviours too.

Later on, we arrived for the evening event. We had made our way to the disabled access door again – this time there was no reply, so my friend pushed the buzzer again. After a few moments, a guy dressed in a security guard’s uniform appeared. He was obviously disgruntled at having been disturbed and I felt most unwelcome on this occasion. I resolved to put this experience behind me, as I needed to be in a positive frame of mind to deliver my speech.

The venue was excellent, everyone who worked there seemed to want us to have a great evening, apart from this one person, who appeared to have lost the ability to smile. I was beginning to forget my negative experience at the start of the evening. Part way through the celebrations, I noticed that a friend of mine who had said he would be there had not arrived. A little worried, I decided to call him. He told me that he and three other guests had arrived together, a few minutes late, and after the first speaker had commenced speaking.

Our security guard friend had told them that was they were late, so they couldn’t come in until the second half of the meeting, which was an hour away, so they had decided to go home.

Everyone else in that establishment was working as a team to make our evening enjoyable. The quality of the venue itself was excellent, the food and drink was great and the people were welcoming and friendly. Unfortunately, one person spoiled the experience for me. I wanted to write a blog post recommending the venue, but I find myself unwilling to do so, all because of one person’s negative behaviour.

Is there someone in your team who is damaging your reputation with their poor behaviour?