The Golden Guano

Have you ever heard the poker phrase, “If you can’t spot the sucker at the table in the first half hour then you are the sucker?” At Eisbrenner Public Relations, it’s easy to spot “the sucker” because that person has a gold toilet seat, known as The Golden Guano, hanging from his cubicle. Right now, I’m “the sucker.”

If The Golden Guano had a Wikipedia page, it might say:

“The Golden Guano, literally translated, ‘golden bat droppings,’ is an internal award at Eisbrenner PR given to the teammate who deserves recognition for taking a risk. Started by Tom Eisbrenner, president of Eisbrenner PR, The Golden Guano is passed from one employee to the next. The recipient often fails miserably in taking the risk, but occasionally, celebrates grand success. Currently held by Jamie Maynard for forwarding a career fair email to the entire (already employed) Eisbrenner PR team, The Golden Guano was previously awarded to Kara Yadach in 2010 when she asked Peter Brown, publisher of Automotive News, for a copy of an editorial calendar, which is basically like emailing Mike Ilitch, owner of the Detroit Tigers, to request the team’s schedule.”

The reason I received “The Golden Guano” was more of a laugh than anything else. People make silly mistakes all the time, but I recently made a much bigger mistake that caused me a lot of anxiety.

Here’s what happened. I took two days off to take my final assessment test for graduation and celebrate my brother’s 21^st birthday. Since this was the first time I had taken time off, I was somewhat eager to finish my work.

Each Thursday, I send out an email reminding my colleagues to pass along any kudos they have for other teammates, days they’re working from home and any events they’re attending for distribution Monday morning. I forgot to send the email Thursday, so Friday morning I woke up in a panic and called Christine to ask her to send it out for me. Of course, Christine had already sent the email because she’s always on top of things. However, since I forgot, Christine had to forward all the kudos to me so I could complete the newsletter on Monday instead of having it done for Friday’s deadline. The newsletter was distributed to my colleagues two hours late Monday.

The timing wasn’t the only problem. I let down my teammate, and it was really getting under my skin. The rest of the week I felt like a loser. It seemed like everyone had forgotten about it but me. If I would’ve made a mistake like that for a client, it would have been a lot worse. I vented to Kara and Holly about feeling inadequate. They told me to learn from it, make sure it never happens again and move on.

After some reassurance, I went back to my desk, took a deep breath and caught a glimpse of “The Golden Guano” hanging inside my cube. I realized it represents more than the silly mistakes we make. It symbolizes what we do when we make them. Instead of moping, “The Golden Guano” reminds us about our core values, “finding the positive in all we do” and “being motivated to discover what’s next.”

I learned my team depends on me, and I need to make sure all my “ducks are in a row” prior to leaving. It was a valuable lesson, and although it seems like the infamous toilet seat has found a permanent home on my cubicle wall, I’ll never write my name on “The Golden Guano” for the same mistake twice.

Have you ever been worthy of receiving The Golden Guano? What did you do?