I sat at the bar of our local pub the other night and watched one of the bartenders pull everything out of every cooler shelf, wipe every bottle and container, towel down the floor of each cooler, clean the droppers, then one-by-one wipe down every well bottle

I’ve watched her do it every Sunday. I know for a fact the manager had not asked her to do it.

During the week, she works with ‘hoarders,’ helping them clean up, re-arrange their homes, and convince them to throw out a newspaper or two. She says she knows how successful she is by how much floor she can see when she leaves. Fewer newspapers, cat poop, and junk.

She works with these poor folks so they can live a more organized, healthy life, often hand-in-hand with a social worker.

When she’s not bartending or helping hoarders, she is getting a masters in psychology.

Watching her every Sunday, I know this work is part of her DNA. At least at this point in her life and training, she is doing it automatically.

I asked her if she’d come into one of our retail stores to re-organize our retail product shelves.

“If I can find the time. But my hourly for doing this kind of thing has gone up recently.”

She mentioned an hourly rate that was considerably below what I was expecting.

“Of course, we’ll come up with a fair price,” I said, knowing the fair price would be higher than her quote.

She was excited. She does this because she wants to, and is happy to do something for a profit, while still having time to pursue her school and the folks she counsels and organizes.

Kismet like that doesn’t come around very often, but it happens a lot more if you watch people do what they do. It’s not hard to see pleasure and excitement.

Catching someone doing something well that they enjoy doing—often without even getting paid to do it—is the DNA of a good manager.