Roosevelt is exhorting us to applaud those who actually serve the customer. Our business world today requires a lot of support to bring something to market and permit a customer to be served, and these visionaries, planners and organizers cannot be ignored. But for a moment, let’s consider the people who most directly determine the customer’s satisfaction: those who interact daily and directly with the customer
These are the production people: the people who cause money to change hands. These are the sales people and the service people who deliver the refrigerators, mow the grass, take the loan application, answer the telephone, unlock the front doors and explain the product features and benefits. These are the doers.
The doers serve our customers and if served well, sales can be made, profits can be made, people can be employed (and paid) and shareholder value increased. The doers lie between customer satisfaction and shareholder value and cause both, to suffer or soar.
To improve customer satisfaction and shareholder value, look to the doers. The keystone to business is how well the doers, each and every one, do.
What separates the great ones?
Why do some excel and others not?
A large part of this answer may be the following three elements.
[1] Vocation affirmation ---- are we happy doing what we do?
“We are at our very best, and we are happiest, when we are fully engaged in work we enjoy on the journey toward the goal we've established for ourselves. It gives meaning to our time off and comfort to our sleep. It makes everything else in life so wonderful, so worthwhile."
“Select work that suits your strengths. Doing work for which we are ill-suited, is so stressful that it borders on the immoral. Your life is a "do it yourself project." Create the life you truly want!”
Success in life requires that we face and answer the great questions of life. Why do we live as we do? What do I value and why? What gives my life meaning and purpose and fulfillment? Who am I and where am I going in life?
Those who do what they love to do, invariably do it well.
[2] Coaching, mentoring, counseling, training --- are we learning more?
To "work less and earn more" you've got to know more than your competitors. Learn and keep learning or else prepare to work 24/7.
Surround yourself with people and books and activities and events that move you toward your ultimate goals.
It is a privilege to be of service to others. Employment is an honor and an opportunity to participate in the creation of a better world and self. Be prepared to serve.
To increase sales and profits, you must increase the value of your services: that which we do today, will have to be better tomorrow.
If you are standing still, you are being passed.
[3] Leadership --- are our leaders doing what they love to do and learning more?
Successful leaders don't just spoon feed information. When working with managers, they 'lead them out' in the true Socratic method by asking them to find their own answers. And then they empower their people by 'letting them be,' giving them the autonomy to find their own effective management style.
Strategic planning and preparation are the most important of all management skills. Deciding where you're going and how you'll get there is entirely up to leadership. Leaders must make decisions, and it's an awesome responsibility.
The fundamental relationship in business is between the business and the customer. It is this relationship, set forth by leadership that creates the revenues that everyone – employers, employees, customers, owners, shareholders, suppliers and neighbors -- enjoys.
In the long run, life gets better and easier when there are more people pushing for you than against you.
Review and Renew: take time to lead. Design the future you want for your business, and in your personal life. Choose the course, develop a strategy, and then, be sure your personal development program equips you to be the leader your company will need down the road.
And so the bottom line, literally and figuratively, is --- are we, and our leaders, individually and together, doing what we love to do, and are we continuing to improve? What kind of players are we putting on the field and are they motivated to play well today, and also, to play better tomorrow?
Are we asking, and seeking answers to, these questions about our doers? Do we know our doers? Do we trust our doers? Do our doers trust their leaders? Do we have systems and structures to manage this our most critical asset --- our doers?
We have hiring and training functions, and some managers might do so, some of the time. But are we really exploring the true talents and skills of our doers, and allowing them to play to their full potential? Conversely, have we given too much, to some, too soon?
Large business entities are more challenged in this area than smaller ones, but it is easy to believe that few doers are being deployed at their full value.
There is a new area of enterprise emerging today … coaching, and it may be an answer to this challenge. At present it carries a long and varied definition including the terms therapy, consulting, teaching, mentoring and others. But the objective is individual betterment: helping doers to find their callings, their passions and the answers to life’s big questions.
As varied as the definition is, so are the areas into which coaches are specializing. There is already almost a coach for any circumstance and focus. There are coaching franchises being sold. There are various methods by which to become a certified coach and there are several associations of coaches, and internationally, too.
There is a growing number of individuals seeking this one-on-one help, and there is a growing supply of coaches to meet this demand.
What if coaching were to become part of our organizational structure? What if we re-tooled our HR, training and personnel functions, added coaching to it, and created a human asset management department? What if we started to build internal trust? What if we started to treat our employees as we treat (or want to treat) our customers? What if we really got to know our employees? Could we perhaps have employees who enjoy working to their full potential?
More thought and input are encouraged and welcome, but for starters, let’s consider …
[1] Coaches, within the organizational structure, to work with managers at all levels, regarding
such topics as:
Skill set assessment and performance improvement: many possibilities, but consider these three: Communication, Decision making, leadership
Ethics & compliance
Sales & marketing: Everything a doer does affects sales.
Identify and groom future leaders
[2] To teach managers how to coach their teams
Culture creation
Work-life balance … personal happiness
Positive work environment
[] Cooperative, supportive
[] Beautiful --- not just clean and attractive, but beautiful…and manners matter, too. In fact, good manners are essential to a civil society.
[] Create Alumni --- have an exit strategy. Some people may not make the new grade, but once they did. Keep them close. Try to make them goodwill ambassadors. (there is never, ever a good reason to be disloyal to someone who has been loyal to you.)
Cooperation & Trust-building
Better practices (let’s not call them “best”…let’s leave the door open for improvement)
Goals & planning
Systems & Methods
People skills
[3] To be a trusted role model, adviser, guide and mentor
An example to all.
The objective is to know better and treat better our teammates … and to have teammates who want to succeed with us … and to empower each of us to play to our full potential.
Here’s to the doers of deeds, those who are actually in the arena, striving for worthy cause. May they enjoy their labor, their leaders and their never-ending learning.
*** This paper is largely based and contains many concepts and quotes from Earl Nightingale, Michael Masterson, Phil Humbert and Joe Gibbs.
