By Rieva Lesonsky
Are you or your staff feeling stressed out? Then you could benefit from reading The Napkin, the Melon & the Monkey: How to be Happy and Successful at Work and in Life by Simply Changing Your Mind. Author Barbara Burke is a consultant who specializes in the “people side” of customer service. This short fable tells the story of an employee struggling with a stressful job in customer service who learns some valuable lessons from an older employee.
Told in a series of 22 “aha” moments, The Napkin, the Melon & the Monkey is a quick read that will help you and your employees get better at dealing with difficult people and situations. The simple-to-follow advice covers subjects like reducing stress, handling complaints, improving customer service, getting teams to work together effectively and more.
Engaging in its fiction format, this would be a great book for any small-business owner to have the team read and discuss as a group. While many of the concepts it contains aren’t new, they’re ones we could all stand to be reminded of now and again.
