Why Try To Get Out Of Your Box, When You Can Use What's In It?
The best thing you can do for yourself, your customer, and your colleague is give a precise date.
“I’ll have it to you by noon Thursday.”
“We’ll have this podcast wrapped up by 7:20.”
“Someone from our customer service team will get back to you tomorrow, at the latest.”
Setting a date guarantees urgency, shows you care, and holds you accountable.
Stay Positive & No More “You’ll Hear Back Soon” Crud
It’s rare for me to hear an employee say, “how much more can we give?”
It’s a lot more common to hear, “how much can we get away with saving (not giving)?”
Zig, Godin, Marx all talked of the race to the bottom in one way or the other. The bottom is sharp. It’s beyond efficient if you’re defining efficiency as giving as little as possible with an acceptable return. Is that the race we want to win?
I’ve always thought saving to be a funny concept. For some reason people view saving $5 on a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Iscream the same as saving $5 on a muffin for the Boys & Girls Club.
Likewise, in the work place, they see saving $50 on unnecessary banner ads the same as saving $50 on better packaging.
While the Iscream will make you instantly gratified and the banner ads may seem like you’re doing advertising that matters, it’s the donation to something positive that stays with you; it’s the over-delivery of your product that your customer will always remember.
Let’s not confuse saving with not-giving.
Stay Positive & If Anything, Give More
Every day there are more competitors in your market, more people trying to be faster, do better, and give more.
The odds aren’t in your favor.
Doing the same as everyone else won’t put (or keep) you ahead.
Only doing things differently will.
Stay Positive & Being Odd Increases Your Odds
The landscaping service at my dads doesn’t care if you pay them right away. It’s apparent they don’t keep good track of the number of times they’ve taken care of the lawn. Money isn’t a priority for them.
One guy on Shark Tank nearly lost all the investors because he told them he’s not concerned about making money.
A remarkable TV personality spoke at a panel event I held the other week. When she told the audience that details matter, she had to add she was referring to the details of making money.
When it comes down to it, nothing functions without money. Not a business. Not electricity. Not even us.
Stay Positive & Money Always Matters
One cop out of doing a favor now is you never know when it will be returned.
We do it, yes, because we believe it will be returned, but there’s still the tad bit of fear it may never be or it may be repaid too far down the line.
Here’s the thing about favors. They weigh… a lot.
Once you do something for me, and four other people do something for me, that’s a lot of favors to return. It’s heavy. It’s now a priority of mine to return some to lighten the load.
If you noticed, we’re better off giving more favors than waiting for people to return ours because giving is the only way to ensure getting them sooner than later… or worse, not at all.
Stay Positive & Don’t Stand There, Don’t Stop Giving
Are you high status enough that you can interrupt someone’s presentation?
Naturally, that’s the role of a high status person, is it not? To butt in when something needs to be flushed out?
Have you stopped to think of the many ways they got to the status of being able to interrupt a meeting, a presentation, a conversation and everyone is okay with it?
We live a lot of days looking up to people and not realizing how many times they’ve failed, said the wrong thing at the wrong time, and made fools of themselves in front of others before they got the status they have now, the one you admire, the one you wish upon yourself.
Stay Positive & Speak Up
You likely read the title as Leave Your Ego At The Door. It’s a common phrase. I don’t think it works too well.
Leaving your ego at the door might mean you leave a bit of passion outside, you leave some excitement behind, you leave out some grit.
Better to read, “Leave Your Shoes At The Door.”
As in, be prepared to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, prepared to see the business or project or product through someone else’s perspective, perhaps even to adopt a new worldview.
When we enter a room with blinders on, wearing our own shoes, ready to show and tell how we view the world, we miss out on the unique proposition, we miss out on communicating our understanding of clients, of consumers, of anyone else involved in the decision-making process.
Sales happen when empathy is expressed, not when you prove you’ve got a guaranteed idea.
Stay Positive & I Can’t Express How Critical Putting Yourself In Others’ Shoes Is
