Carilu joined my global advertising team at the Director level. She was smart, enthusiastic and terribly earnest.
On her first day, I swung by her office and gave her a welcome gift — a small money tree in a square pot. Years later, she told me how good it felt that her new boss was sensitive enough to make this kind of a gesture.
She placed her little money tree in pride of place on the corner of her desk next to the window. And being very earnest, she watered it thoroughly once a week and let the soil dry completely before watering deeply again.
The little tree exploded upwards in mere weeks. After two months, it had leaned outward toward the sun and Carilu rotated the pot 90 degrees to balance the growth. She continued to water religiously.
After another two months, the tree was once again growing off balance, so she rotated it another 90 degrees. And that’s when she saw the label on the side of the pot:
“Grow Your Business with TechTarget.com”
Only then did she realize that I had re-gifted a marketing promo from a tech-centric publisher. Years later, she told me how completely deflated she felt.
Now, in my defense, I will say that I re-gifted almost every promo or token gift that I received from publishers or agencies. No matter the value, it always felt unscrupulous to accept a gift. But I also realized that somewhere in my work orbit would be a person totally over the moon to receive, say, a Liverpool Football Club scarf.
The lesson? Two actually.
First, don’t underestimate the impact of a small gift… especially when it is completely unexpected.
Second, don’t get caught regifting. OR be totally open about it if you do so.
P.S. Carilu went on to lead corporate marketing at Atlassian as they went public, has built deep experience as a fractional CMO, an advisor to CEOs, and traveled Southeast Asia for months with two small children, a husband and just tiny daypacks. She’s a total rock star — and still terribly, terribly earnest.