I was having lunch with a client at the Morton’s on Connecticut Avenue in DC.  We were celebrating the end of a nasty audit that I helped her resolve and I wanted to get her blessing to start a sales tax refund project.  Her company was ripe for this project, so I started laying out my ideas.

“Nah!  Screw them.”

Picture those scenes in movies where a shocking statement makes someone spit their drink out suddenly.  That would’ve been me if I had been taking a sip of my iced tea at that very moment.  (Thankfully it didn’t happen because I wouldn’t want to get tossed out onto the mean streets of DC!)

Her knee-jerk response didn’t make sense.  The upside for her company was substantial.  Why did she shoot this opportunity down without even blinking an eye?

“I got passed up again for a director-level promotion, so who cares.”

Whoa!  Hell hath no fury like a tax manager scorned.

Are your employees stepping over opportunities each day that can bring value to your organization, and possibly money in the door?

(Are you curious to know how that story ended?  A free lunch at Morton’s might jog my memory!)