Separation From Crowd
Filed under: Core Values, Customer Service, Leadership Callling, Personal Development
I really don’t like average, maintainence, mediocere, or status quo. I like over the top, excellence and the absolute best that can be done. Simply reason for me I am a Christian what else can I do in response to all that He has done for me.
The last place you normally look for greatness is at a fast food business. Most of the time the core values are price and speed without any serious thought for high end customer service. The one major exception for me is Chic-Fil-A where I always see a culture that values people over pricing and not a common get you out the door mentality.
I have been a regular customer at one fast food place lately and about once a week I have interaction with this one person who is always very friendly and makes sure to call you by your name as you leave with big thank you. Now that was all just nice because he was reading my name right off my debit card and that was more than usually get but still not really big deal.
That was until yesterday when I pulled up and he was in parking lot going home and I spoke to him about leaving so early. Then he did it, a major nice response with my name right where it has always been and no debit card in his hand. Wow, now I am impressed and big fan because he was going way beyond what is expected and taking it to max not at Ritz Carlton but at a hamburger stand.
In the impersonal high tech fast paced world we live in today you can really make a major impression by simply being nice to people and going the extra step to personally connect. It always has been about giving that last 10% of effort that separates greatness from simply good.
Next time I go back I am going to get his name and remember it. He has really inspired me and set the bar where it needs to be and I really hate just being one of the crowd. I want to be like Him!!!!!!!!!!
Don’t Shoot The Messenger
Filed under: Leadership Callling, Personnel Development, Servant Leader
Every leader likes to hear good news. We all want to be positive people who inspire others through our can do attitude. If we are not careful though we will surround ourselves with team members who will start to tell us what we want to hear and not what we need to know.
When you create a culture within your organization where the truth can be told you must not make the mistake of reacting every time you hear bad news or something negative. If you do, you are shutting yourself off from critical information that you must know and you have created an environment where your best people will eventually leave.
Jack Welch calls the lack of candor the biggest dirty secret in business. Avoiding conflict and hoping things will get better is the formula for failure especially in the realities of the new economy.
I am not talking about chronic negative whining people who never really want to solve the problem. They should not be tolerated within any organization because they are a cancer to your creativity and morale.
So the next time that person walks into your office who you know is drop dead loyal and they need to talk about a problem that must be addressed be grateful and listen they have got your back.
Busyness
Filed under: Family Ministry, Leadership Callling, Life Balance, Personal Development, Time Management
I always recieve the highest evaluation scores when I speek on the subject of how to set personal priorities for own life. The major point of my presentation is that we are all overscheduled because of the wireless connected culture we live in today and we must find a way to say no to many of the things that are robbing us of the priorities we care about the most.
I use a time matrix diagram developed by Stephen Covey that divides all of our daily lives into four quadrants that are based on the two variables of urgency and importance. Everything that is urgent demands some action immediately and the things that are important may not.
If something is urgent and important then it should be done. It could be a doctor’s appointment personally or a major project at work that is due this week. Hopefully for most of us at least the majority of our day should be spent in this category.
The next area is all the things that are urgent but not important. The blackberry is screaming for attention, the inbox is full and there are meetings on the schedule. The problem here is that we have assumed that because something is urgent it must be important.
Another very unproductive area includes the things that are not urgent but they are not important either. The danger here is that when we get home in the evening we want to run away and hide with hours of meaningless T.V. or surfing the net.
The single most important category is the things that are not urgent but very important. This is where family, friends, faith and all of our important relationships reside. Most of the time our family and our friends will not demand our immediate attention but if we neglect them long enough they will move into the urgent category and we will all suffer the consequences.
The only way to find time for the things that really matter is to stop doing so many of the things that really don’t.