GarthBox

If your website is a headache to journey through, they’ll find another way to get what they want. (Hint: it’s likely with a competitor)

If your parking fee is absurd, they’ll find another more cost-effective way to park.

Two takeaways.

The first is that your job is two-fold: make it as easy for your customer as possible and make it as valuable for them (read: they should feel like they got more than they paid for, be it with their time, money or attention).

The second is that those that are smart enough to find an alternative around you are also the ones that will share that alternative with others.

The last thing you want is word of mouth working against you.

That means you don’t go keeping things status quo when someone finds an alternative (faster and/or cheaper) path.

Stay Positive & Find Ways To Make It Easier + More Valuable, Always

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By all means, plan for success.

But don’t stop planning there.

The adage “failure to plan is planning to fail” holds weight, but it’s missing a piece: planning for failure can minimize the hurt the same way planning for success can elevate it.

What does your team communicate when the power goes out? What design shows up when your website goes down? What’s your back up plan if you get stuck in traffic and miss your meeting? What’s the plan if you get sick next week?

Thinking through what you’ll do if things (or you!) are down and out achieves two meaningful results.

The first is it decreases your own stress and frustration levels. You’ll be able to approach the situation with a much more level head. Of course it sucks to be sick, but you save all your files to the server so your coworker can easily keep things moving while you recover.

The second is that it ensures that you receive grace by those for whom your down and out situation impact. When you can respond to someone with empathy about how the ferris wheel is temporarily out of order, you can actually make a fan out of them rather than leave them frustrated.

Stay Positive & Flip The Impact Of Down Time

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Misery loves company. Misery loves to sulk. Misery also loves to fuel you for the better if you choose it to.

Seth Godin once wrote about an agonist, which is a person that provokes your best work, often by forcing the not-best work to happen. They bring about the agony of rejection or candor to you. Of course, they don’t do it to berate you into nonexistence; they do it to push you to the next level.

The nice thing about an agonist is that anyone can be one without updating their LinkedIn profile to it.

Every rejection letter you get, the author could be the agonist. Every editor of your work. Any Google review can be.

An Agonist is a title you give to someone.

Stay Positive & Find Your Fuel

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Share an idea that you’re jazzed about with a friend and there’s no doubt they’ll be excited, too.

Share an idea with a person for whom that idea was made for and there’s no doubt going to be raw reactions you can use.

Maybe they say the idea isn’t great. Maybe they say how it could be better. Maybe they say it’s a good idea but not for them.

Their response is infinitely more helpful than the responses from your friends.

If you need the ego-stroke to become motivated enough to share with your real target market, then by all means share with your friends. Don’t, however, let their excitement be the idea’s end-all-be-all.

Stay Positive & Targeted Feedback Is Important

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Those are your options when it comes to team members. You have to communicate that they are responsible for one or the other.

Are they there to fight the status quo or maintain it? Are they there to elevate standards you already have or to add new ones?

It’s important to be crystal clear about what role you want someone to have.

Even more important is to be crystal clear about what role you want your brand to have.

Stay Positive & Pick Then Communicate It

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The adage goes that if you’re going to hire, hire for attitude and train for skill.

But I’d argue attitude is as much a skill as the job you’re hiring for.

And even when you hire someone with a great attitude, it’s on you to nurture it the same as you grow the actual skills required for the tasks they’re doing.

Great leaders train their team members on both accounts.

Stay Positive & Grow The ‘Tude

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How can you make it easier to read or consume?

How can you make it easier to share?

How can you make it easier for someone else to do next time?

How can you make it easier for your editor to review?

How can you make it easier for your boss to pitch it?

How can you make it easier for next time?

Things don’t become easy because we do them well; they become easy when we design them to become that way.

Stay Positive & Intention First

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