It’s Wednesday again if you can believe it!  This week’s Wednesday Wisdom comes courtesy of former FirstBank & Trust executive and now TAJ Hospitality Management President, Matt Graves.  While at FirstBank & Trust, Graves coached employees and junior lenders on their career development, and he always told them “Make your penny shiny.”

Make your penny shiny…what does that mean?  Imagine you see a couple pennies on the ground or in the cup of your hand—which one do you pick up?  The shiny one, of course! The pennies are the same value, the same item, but we intrinsically choose the shiny one.  Applying it to work-life, the employees at the bank were coached to make their pennies shiny not in a literal sense, but in a metaphorical sense—they were encouraged to polish their work and presentations, critical thinking skills, organization, and attitudes such that they become that shiny penny.

I think this applies really well to the hotel industry in particular—hotels are like pennies in that they all offer the same basic value, but people are more likely to choose the shiny ones.  In addition, we can each polish and refine our own personal penny so that we are making strong impressions and contributions.  What are some ways to make your penny shiny?