What You Should Do

The following are my tips regarding yesterday’s post:

  • Talk to the receiver (employee/associate).  Hopefully, you’ve built up the kind of rapport that will enable a conversation.
  • Watch them and pay attention.
  • Make sure your trusted advisers know what’s going on.
  • Talk to the receiver again and let him/her know what you’ve observed.
  • Probe for the commitment to change…this is the crossroads.
  • Provide the tools needed for change.
  • Watch.

If you see positive change after the last bullet, then congratulate and spur them on.  If status quo or worsened performance, then it may be time for a trade.

We Really Didn’t Want You to Respond

I am always struck by businesses/organizations who are unresponsive.  My experience with a Washington State winery is a perfect example.  I’ll leave the name out and tell you I used to be a consumer of their product (if you’re interested in the health benefits of red wine check out Roger Corda’s book The Red Wine Diet). 

After reading Mr. Corda’s book I wanted to ask the winery about their production processes.  Specifically, the maceration period during the making of the wine.  It was and is an important question as I choose what I will buy. 

Here’s a flash; I’m a customer looking to make a buying decision-educated decision.  I emailed their "info@______.com link.  Do you think I heard back from them?  Nope!  Why create the link if you’re not going to do anything with it.  Name it "noresponse@_____.com.  At least then we’d have some honesty.

Every customer matters.  Not responding to them sends a message that you do not care. 

I have only one tip today:

  • Respond to your customers!  They’re the only reason your organization exists.

What’s Number One?

Have you ordered your priorities?  Are you allegiant to them?  Are you working them out like a runner training for a marathon?

The answers for the above will tell you a lot about how bright or dim your light is in your area of influence (God, family, friends, work, health, etc.).  Penelope Trunk has a great post on the subject of one woman’s priorities.  Sallie Krawcheck is an executive at Citigroup and sheds some telling light on her choices (good or bad).   

So is family your number one priority (defined as the thing/engagement you pay most attention to)?  If it is, how much of your calendar, thoughts and practice do they get of you?  If the answer leaves you embarrassed, family really isn’t what you tell yourself it is.  I don’t write this post to throw judgment at you.  I just want you to wake up before you find you have no more time.  Often the violence of tough questions creates an opportunity for a change/learning.

The following will give you some help on staying aligned with your priorities:

  • Stop what you’re doing and decide.  What’s number one, number two, etc.
  • After the decisions (don’t make these in a NY minute…think them through) be subject to the priorities.
  • Seek a great life, which is made up of many ingredients.  Don’t fall into the trap of worshiping your career when it is only an ingredient.
  • Remember life is a motion picture unfolding before your eyes.  Don’t be aimless.
  • If you’re thinking that money, position, power and prestige say anything about your worth, stop.  Steve Jobs was fired from Apple almost two decades ago.  He was one of the founders and even he was considered dispensable.

Tough Questions and Blackwater

You’ve probably already heard about the private security firm Blackwater.  They’ve been in the news about their practices in Iraq.  I’m not here to judge what’s truth vs. fiction.  However, who decided they were the right company for the job?  What was the interview like when Blackwater was hired by our beloved bureaucrats in the State Department?  See this article from the NY Times for more.

Wonder if any of the following questions were asked:

  1. Is it ever ok to do something outside of the law?
  2. What’s the accountability line (up and down) in your organization?
  3. What’s the profile of your field workers?  Have they been tested from a leadership perspective.
  4. Are you just looking for another big contract?
  5. Do you really care about doing the right thing?

The above are good questions for any organization that is being considered for a contract.  How often do you think tough questions (ethics/heart) are asked?

What’s the Customer For?

Never forget that customers are not a means to an end (your profits).  Customers are there to be served and given what they are willing to pay for.

Our corporate culture has gotten the cart before the horse on this one.  Is it any wonder to you that service is just a word for so many organizations?

Start serving and you’ll make all the money you need.

Seth Godin’s post on It (almost) always happens this way speaks to what happens when organizations forget.

Waiting for Death

Are you waiting for death to begin to live.  There are many stories out there on people who’ve been diagnosed with a terminal illness, and then saw the wisdom of living full.  Any awakening is a good one, but why should you wait?

The following outlines what is essential in combating inaction before eternity calls:

  1. Are you thinking you should should start that business?  Then write it down, get some insight and begin.
  2. Is having fun important?  Then start, resume or increase what is fun.
  3. Should you start taking better care of your body?  Then start exercising, eating healthy, etc.
  4. Have you forgotten to tell somebody what they mean to you?  Then pick up the phone, send the email or go visit them.
  5. Are you thinking you’ve got time?  Then stop, because no one has as much time as they think they do.

This article in today’s Wall Street Journal (subscription required for the entire article) is a tragic example of why now is the time to live.  The young girl’s perspective is understandable…she was a child.  If you’re an adult you have no excuse.