A thought for this Friday afternoon - a quote by Bill Strickland from his book Make the Impossible Possible where he describes how he greets the students - both young and old, many of who are "disadvantaged" - who enter his job training center at Manchester Bidwell in Pittsburgh:

"We greet them all with the same basic recipe for success: high standards, stiff challenges, a chance to develop unexplored talents, and a message many of them haven't heard before - that no matter how difficult the circumstances of their lives may be, no matter how many bad assumptions they've made about their chances in life, no matter how well they've been taught to rein in their dreams and narrow their aspirations, they have the right, and the potential, to expect to live rich and satisfying lives." Whether your employees come from difficult backgrounds or not, we all want to be believed in. We all want someone to believe we can be better than who we are. We want to achieve. We want to contribute. We want to be extraordinary.

How do you welcome employees into your four walls?