“To be disrespected means to not be looked at; to not be tended to, to not notice. You know the way we walk through airports and we walk through and we see lots of people, but we have, usually, vacant stares? We don't get them. Well, do you realize how much at the workplace, how much in organizations this goes on? One out of five U.S. workers feel disrespected at least once a week. . . This is all connected to Frances, but I've got to be—I want to—this is such a powerful notion about respect that is overlooked, and which Frances never had to look it up; it's part of her.
When my son Will was only three, I was then president of The University of Cincinnati, and my PR guy—very good man—would often interrupt us in the middle of dinner, come with some breaking news, you know, and it's always—and I noticed my son Will was very fond of Mr. Kentner. And one day I said, ‘Will,’ he was again, three—I said, ‘Will, you seem to like Mr. Kentner.’ ‘I do.’ ‘So why?’ And without a moment's thought he said, ‘Cuz he always says “hi” to me.’. . . Isn't that something? That being recognized, understood, listened to. And that's Frances.”