4 Keys to Amaze Your Customer

    Last week, Jen "asked"  me to donate it. The time had come.  I had to say goodbye to my old friend.  The 98 Lincoln.  It had 260,000 miles on it.  And it had a few issues.  Some larger than others.  The Lincoln had sit in front of the house for a month.  I hate to say goodbye. I called the Dallas CAN Academy.  They support education for students who struggle in traditional learning settings.  One way they do this is by taking donated cars. They provided one of the … [Read more...]

Ask, Don’t Tell?

  My friend's team was filled with some ridiculously smart people.  They were smart with technology. They just weren't people smart.  He was telling me about the challenges they had working together. I had lunch with another friend a couple of months ago.  He told me how he had learned to make people be part of the plan.  The people make the plan happen.  They might be inconvenient to work with.  But nothing happens with out them. The team with the smart people struggle mightily … [Read more...]

How much is pain worth?

  He said, "You know how we have to protect the foundation.  Sometime we have to be aggressive."  I was talking to a friend I used to work with.  He worked on a team that had an us vs. them mentality.  It created issues sometimes. They didn't always ask the questions they needed answered when they're customers approached them with a project.  Then their customer would surprise them with a last minute requirement ... one that might have been revealed with the questions that didn't get … [Read more...]

Service or Serve Us

Some companies charge money to perform a service they once performed for free.   Other companies create new offerings that cost more but provide value in return. Both seek the customers money.  That's what businesses do. One values the customer. Some teams, departments or individuals create processes to service their customers (inside and outside the company). They make their customers do more work to get the same result. Others create processes to better serve their customers. The … [Read more...]

Who do you relate to?

The word relationship is built on the root:  relate.  So a relationship is based up how we relate to others. When you build relationships do you relate to the other person or do you relate to yourself while talking to another person? You can't meet someone where they are when you don't relate to them for who they are.   How do expect to sell them, support them, lead them or love them when you aren't even talking to them? Stop talking to yourself.   Build a relationship instead.  It will … [Read more...]

Would you rather be needed or wanted?

The exercise started.  I was getting up to work the room.   A thought struck me.  "They don't need me."  I was hit with a sense of deflation.  It was a "What's the point?" moment.   I was at Boot Camp.   The irony, or hypocrisy, I'm working at a program built to help people find purpose and meaning.  And I'm struggling with my purpose and meaning.  We're human.  It happens. I spent a few moments looking at the situation.  The conversation with myself went like this:  "You're right.  They … [Read more...]

Don’t be an idiot!

The second I touched it, my heart sank.  I selected the 'Settings' icon.  The app hiccuped.  It looked like it might work.  Then it froze. I'm frustrated.  I wrote my post today.  I wrote it on my phone.  It's convenient that there's a Wordpress app for the iPhone.  There is an inconvenience - I have to copy the text of what I write to the clipboard before I save the draft.  If I don't the app might blow up.  I'll lose what I wrote. I forgot to copy the text today.  I lost what I … [Read more...]