By Chip Bell
Sunflowers face east before sunrise. Its face also looks bright yellow and cheery, just like the sun it faces. And, during the day, that face of the flower constantly turns to follow the sun with its flower ending the day facing west. Sunflowers symbolize loyalty in most countries, thanks to the myth of Clytie and Apollo (Google it). In China, sunflowers symbolize vitality and good luck. And to Native Americans, sunflowers symbolized a good harvest. These symbols make the sunflower a powerful metaphor for a great customer experience. I entered a small restaurant. The hostess told me to take any seat. As I moved toward a booth in the back left side of the restaurant, out of the corner of my eye I watched a waitress with menu in hand, moving with me from the other side of the room. By the time my bottom hit the seat, she was standing beside me, with her Steinway smile ready to take my order. It was sunshine service. My wife and I entered the retail area of a Cracker Barrel restaurant. My wife spotted a nightlight that changed colors and made sparkles like a snow glow toy as the heat of the nightlight warmed the liquid inside. But she needed an electric outlet to see what it looked like plugged in. The checkout clerk left the cash register and told her, “Follow me.” On the other side of restaurant store was a receptacle. My wife bought two. It was sunshine service. Sunshine service involves making the customer the center of your attention like the sunflower does the sun. It means channeling your service energy to best respond to the customer’s needs and expectations. It means not being distracted while maintaining your laser-like focus. And customers are so warmed by the special attention they gladly give you their loyalty and their funds. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success!
0 Comments
By Steve Gilliland
Work, relationships, family, health, friendships, and more. Don’t sacrifice any of these things, even if it feels impossible to have them all at once. All you need is a little perspective, an honest set of priorities, and some insight into your inner magic, and you’ll find every facet of your life coming together like a very wholesome jigsaw. Too often, people look at themselves and see problems, which is understandable because we all face obstacles. Then again, maybe you’ve overcome every obstacle you’ve ever faced. When it comes to finding inspiration in life’s little challenges, nobody’s better equipped to face your hurdles than you. The proof? Any question or doubt that arises within you comes from the inner wisdom that something’s not right. Not with you, but with the direction you’re moving in. Remember, you build your life for yourself, not the other way around. When your mind and body give you the signal, don’t hesitate. Begin steering the wheel of change according to your compass. Here’s how to find yours: 1. Recognize What You Do For Yourself And What You Do For Others Doing things for others is an amazing deed and not something you need to put an end to. If helping people, loved ones, or strangers brings you joy, don’t let anyone stop you. However, know where the boundary between “for me” and “for others” lies. Helping someone out when they need it will bring happiness to you both, but if you’re going above and beyond for someone who doesn’t realize the difference, it’s time to reconsider. For example, if you’re the go-to person in your workplace or household for anything that needs handling, you’re entitled to due credit. Completing tasks brings joy, but when your efforts aren’t recognized, let alone commended, not so much. The answer isn’t to drop the extra work. Check in with yourself instead. Are you picking up extra work because you feel like you’re expected to or as an attempt at recognition? Or are you sharpening your skillset and multitasking abilities in the name of personal growth? Both are noble endeavors, but if neither goal is met, it’s time to find a different route. If you’re looking to build a name, then it’s time to speak up. Ask your manager for more responsibility so you can showcase your talents visibly. If you want to hone your skills, then perhaps it’s time to start finding time for personal growth outside of the office. Many forget that what you learn outside of the classroom and workplace is the foundation for what you do with your career. Motivational speaker companies help people take control of their narratives, not by giving them a particular skillset or instruction, but by reminding them that time is of the essence and wising up and doing more for yourself is always a good move. In fact, it’s a trump card. 2. Ask Yourself What Life Is Giving You, Here And Now You are a success story every day that you wake up and conquer the day. Some days, it might feel like the day conquered you, but that’s a success as well. It’s proof that you’re nurturing your skills and abilities. To nourish your soul and ambitions, you need the 3 Ps of positivity. They also happen to be 3 ways to retain great practices. They are purpose, passion, and pride. If your days feel more challenging than you’d like, identify what’s going wrong in your life. Ideally, your professional and personal life should be driven by passion. The results of your hard work should be something you can take pride in, and the driving factor that gets you going should be your inner purpose. That purpose is different from your practical needs. To an extent, we all do a little for society and the bottom tier of Maslow’s pyramid, but you deserve more. When you make choices, look for the three Ps. If you don’t find them, then think twice about your direction. Positivity is food for the spirit. When you act with spirit, the difference is visible. 3. Detach Yourself From Previously Set Goals Discover your personal superpower of vision, and use it wisely and often – partly because it’s a secret stash of solutions and partly because, as you grow, your destination changes. It doesn’t have to be a dramatic change. It could be that you always wanted to be a chef, but you ultimately find your true calling writing cookbooks. Or, later in life, you may stumble upon a newfound passion for architecture. It might always feel like the right time to change your life was yesterday, but think again. There’s no such thing as wasted time. We all have our own timelines. Sure, you could’ve pursued your passion sooner, but who says you can only have one passion? Follow your passions, but also give them room to grow and change. It might not be traditional to switch careers midway, but why not? When you feel your inner purpose respond, follow it no matter how unprecedented the path may be. After all, who says you weren’t born to be a trailblazer? Especially with your career, don’t make the mistake of thinking your efforts are entirely for your employer. You’re contributing, of course, but the skills you create and the work ethics you gain are yours forever, no matter what your industry. These are the tools you need to win in unpredictable circumstances. Whether you move to an all-new country, pivot your career, or decide to rebuild your way of life from scratch, you’re right on time. Maybe you’d have liked to have found the passions earlier, but maybe you needed to get a little stronger to be able to take them by the horns – because look at you now! If you’re embarking on a road less traveled with full faith in your vision and enough purpose, the life you’ve lived is what brought you here. 4. Get A New Comfort Zone So how do we come upon these wild and thrilling moments that bring such joy, clarity, and awe? We search for them, of course! Your comfort zone is bigger than you think. Venture out in search of something that makes your blood pump. If you’ve ever seen a five-year-old walk into a candy store, then let that level of wonder be the benchmark. It doesn’t matter if you do this professionally or casually, so long as you do it. There are things on this earth that have the potential to change your life. You never know when and where they’re waiting for you. There’s a reason people find inspirational motivational speakers so helpful. Sometimes, you just need a little perspective to see the colors in your life, and once you start seeing them clearly, it’s easier to be honest with yourself about where you are and where you’d like to be. Taking control of your life when it feels like the course is already set is just about the bravest thing you can do. It’s also the most rewarding. Make sure you’re leading with heart, and you’ll find the rest will come together just as it was meant to. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Kenneth Kaufman
For hospital providers across the country, the year 2022 was a big mess. A Kaufman Hall report prepared for the American Hospital Association predicts that 55% of hospitals will lose money from operations in 2022. And hospital margins have fallen by 31% from 2019 pre-pandemic levels. A very common question from hospital executives and board members alike is, “What happened? How and why did we fall from financial grace?” The most obvious answer is that the critical relationship between revenue and expenses is unexpectedly broken. Inpatient revenue is flat, leading to year-over-year increase of net operating revenue of only 3%. Expenses, on the other hand, have increased by 8% in the past year, with labor expenses up, since 2019, by a remarkable 23%. As usual, statistics tell the story, but they don’t tell the entire story. The hospital industry is, for sure, bedeviled by a revenue-statement problem, but the range of operating and strategic problems within hospitals is much more nuanced. One particular problem worth focusing on is what I call the “productization” of healthcare. Historically hospitals offered what was loosely referred to as “healthcare,” which meant a series of diagnostic and treatment services for which there was sufficient patient demand from an associated market area. Those services could be occasionally connected into a “center” concept, with mammograms, breast surgery, and oncology being one example. In other situations, hospital services could be discrete and disconnected, and often developed from a particular physician’s unique expertise. But in no case were these connected or disconnected services referred to as products or operated as products. Fast forward to now, and pretty much everything in healthcare has been organized into what is commercially known as products. The healthcare product list is long and comprehensive. Some services that are now products include urgent care, mammography, dermatology, ambulatory surgery, imaging centers, Walmart primary care, Walgreens primary care, and CVS primary care. That list is off the top of my head, but I am sure my reading audience can add many others to the “product” list. Given the unsettled hospital environment, both financially and clinically, it is abundantly clear that hospitals struggle in a “productized” marketplace. Products require careful construction, and they require sophisticated and very close management. Products tend to operate as their own brand or under the aegis of a larger brand. Products tend to have close and individual financial management, because they tend to financially succeed or fail on their own. All of this is counter-intuitive to many hospitals. Hospitals lean toward managing a patient population, and then selected services are enlisted for the benefit of those patients. Hospitals have “brands,” but their services generally don’t. Management is very sophisticated within the hospital ecosystem, but that management approach is generally operated with the entire enterprise in mind. And finally, while more and more hospitals have capable cost accounting systems in place, hospital financial management tends to operate as a complex web of cross-subsidies based on profitable and unprofitable services, all operating on top of an ever changing payer mix. Such a financial structure was never designed to compete within a corporate or entrepreneurial product-centered market. Hospitals are suffering in a “productized” world. As more and more so-called services are segregated into discrete products by larger corporations, by start-ups, and by private equity and venture capital, it seems inevitable that hospitals are losing traditional utilization and the financial rewards of that utilization. The statistics are not yet available to definitively prove this point, but the financial chaos of 2022 certainly suggests that hospitals find themselves at a significant competitive disadvantage in our fast changing “productized” healthcare world. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Mary Kelly
I have a friend who is really sensitive to any kind criticism or feedback. She gets defensive and mad, and she reacts by attacking the other person. As a result, she has “trained” the people around her not to give her advice, ideas, or in fact, any guidance at all. And she wonders why she is not selected for promotions and team projects. Everyone knows that feedback can be painful. It can feel like an attack, and our natural reaction is to be defensive. Most people find criticism hard to deal with. But learning how not to take criticism personally can make our lives and our careers a whole lot easier. Here are few ways to make the best of feedback, even if we do not want to hear it: 1. Choose to see feedback as an opportunity – It can be easier not to react emotionally to criticism if you reframe it as feedback. It was not intended as a personal attack, so do not interpret as one. Try to see critiques as an opportunity to learn how to do things better next time. Think of it as a prompt to grow and use it to course correct. 2. Remember you only have your perspective – Before you react to a terse email or a grouchy response from your boss, try to remember that you do not know where they are coming from. You might be reaping the effect of a difficult day, a string of frustrations, or even their reaction to their own bad feedback. Try to objectively see events from their point of view instead of your own. 3. Pause – I always liked part of the show, How I Met Your Mother, when Marshall and Lilly could be in an argument and either one of them could say “pause” to allow emotions to calm down or to deal with something more pressing. Pause means stop and shift. Our immediate reaction to being criticized is often to become defensive. Instead, take a breath (or three), pause, and think about how your actions or words could have been misinterpreted before you respond. Take another look at what your critic is saying and see what you can learn once you have allowed some time for your initial emotions to dissipate. 4. Objectively reframe your response – Reacting to criticism is a habit like any other behavior, and you have the capacity to change it. Take yourself out of the equation. Try to look at the situation like a football referee and see all sides. Ask yourself what you can learn or how you can help. Maybe they misunderstood. Perhaps your communication was not clear enough. Practice processing feedback in a constructive way. 5. Be kind to yourself, but do not wallow in self-pity – There is no getting around it – being criticized can feel pretty rotten. Be kind to yourself, especially while you are learning to handle criticism differently. Acknowledge the emotions that have been evoked. Accept that feedback can hurt. Then distance yourself from those feelings. Give yourself a timeline to process those emotions, “After 2 PM I will stop feeling sorry for myself and be proactive with this information.” Make a calendar commitment to be in a different brain space so you can move forward in a healthy way. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Kristin Baird
Patient experience literature is loaded with information about best practices. It’s tempting to dive right in and start implementing these tactics but without a supportive culture, even the best, best practices will fail. We see it all the time. Leaders from various healthcare organizations will tell us, “We tried [insert best practice here] and it didn’t work.” That comment always gets to me. Was it the tactic or the execution of the tactic in an unreceptive culture? When a faulty piece of equipment breaks down, we can point at the machine, but when we’re talking about best practices like executive rounding or hourly rounding, it’s the execution that fails. Why? The culture wasn’t aligned with connection to the bigger why. SUCCEED WITH ACCOUNTABILITY When we delve a bit deeper, into why the “best practices” didn’t work for them, we inevitably find that the best practice tactic failed due to a lack of accountability and ownership. If your culture lacks accountability and ownership, no best practices will stick. When it comes to improving the patient experience, I find that there is never a shortage of tactics. There is, however, a shortage of leadership and commitment to fostering best practices. Not long ago, my team and I were doing a culture assessment that helped reveal valuable insights. During focus groups with employees, we heard over and over, “Nothing sticks here. There’s no follow-through and no consequences.” Even the executives shared the same sentiment which was astounding to me. It was a culture that lacked accountability and ownership. Being passionate about service without follow-through won’t achieve your goals. HOW’S YOUR CULTURE? If you find that you are spinning your wheels trying to implement best practices that don’t stick, it’s time to look deeper at your culture. What are the beliefs and attitudes among staff and managers that may be holding you back? What are the leadership practices that help or hinder your progress? Delve deeper and you may find that it’s your culture that is preventing progress. Before implementing a best practice tactic ask yourself:
Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Josh Linkner
Ever get stuck on a problem, only to realize you’re solving for the wrong thing? That’s exactly what happened when the rocket scientists at NASA were trying to make astronauts’ pens to work in the zero-gravity environment of space. According to Scientific American, “During the height of the space race in the 1960s, NASA scientists realized that pens could not function in zero gravity. They therefore spent years and millions of taxpayer dollars developing a ballpoint pen that could put ink to paper without needing gravitational force to pull on the fluid.” The Soviets, on the other hand, delivered us a nuclear warhead of embarrassment…they simply gave their astronauts pencils. NASA was focused on the wrong problem – making a pen work in space. The real issue at hand wasn’t a pen at all; it was providing astronauts a tool for writing. When reframing the challenge, the soviets solved a multi-million dollar problem for the cost of a #2 pencil. Innovation scholars refer to this as “jobs-to-be-done” theory. The classic example: when hanging a picture above your living room couch, the thing you need isn’t a 1/4″ drill bit but rather a 1/4″ hole. Too often, we get caught up in the nuances and complexities of a specific solution rather than deeply connecting to the job-to-be-done. Once we zero in on the right problem, we can more easily apply inventive thinking to achieve the desired outcome. If the brainiac rocket scientists at NASA can fall into this trap, so can we. As we approach our own challenges – big and small – let’s direct our attention to the job-to-be-done and proceed unencumbered with conventional wisdom. Instead of blowing 38 months on a pen that defies gravity, let’s push our creative boundaries to discover simple, efficient, and inventive solutions instead. Now that’s something to write home about. With your #2 pencil, of course. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By John O'Leary. This was originally posted on JohnOLearyInspires.com. When John O'Leary was 9 years old, he suffered burns over 100% of his body and was expected to die. He is now an inspirational speaker and bestselling author, teaching more than 50,000 people around the world each year how to live inspired. John's first book, ON FIRE: The 7 Choices to Ignite a Radically Inspired Life was published March 15, 2016. John is a contributing writer for Huff Post and Parade.com. John is a proud husband and father of four and resides in St. Louis, MO. Order John’s book today anywhere books are sold.
For many, the start of school ushers in a welcome shift from summer. It means reunion with friends, the return of routine and the familiar sights, sounds and smells of the school building. Yes, we may miss the freedom of summer, but it’s certainly a joy to be surrounded by others and in places we feel welcome, are encouraged to learn, and fit in with others. For many this is a wonderful transition. For many. But not for all. Some children, families and teachers are navigating a whole different range of emotions. Back-to-school for some brings back feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, fear, loneliness and dread. These are arduous emotions many of us remember experiencing. I wrote about struggling with these feelings in the book IN AWE, and those memories briefly return each time I send my own kids out the door this time of year. 35 years ago, I left school on a Friday afternoon in January as an athletic, popular, mischievous fourth-grade boy. 15 months later I returned to school on a March morning as a fifth grader radically different. After being burned, I was seated in a wheelchair, without my fingers, scarred over my entire body, scared about how others would perceive me, and unsure of what school would be like. Would I still have any friends? Would I be able to get from class to class? How would I get my books from my backpack to my locker? Ultimately, deep down, I wondered: Would I still belong? After an early morning physical therapy appointment, Mom drove me in our old Mercury station wagon. Leaning back against the red vinyl seat, I sat quietly next to her, terrified about the day ahead of me. I’d never been wild about going to school. Even before being burned, I had welcomed any excuse to miss school and stay home. Snow day? Check. Water-main break at school? Check. National or religious holiday? Check. Illness? Check. Potential illness? Check! On that March day, I took a deep breath. The school was around the corner. Could I come up with an excuse to postpone my return? It was too late. Mom made the turn, school was within sight, my fate of returning to school was sealed. And that’s when I heard the shouts and screams from up the road. Hundreds of students lined both sides of the streets. Mom slowed down the station wagon, and we crawled toward the school. As we did, kids on both sides of the road shouted welcomes, waved signs and smiled excitedly at me. They were trying to make the little boy who felt he didn’t belong recognize he did. As we rolled into the parking lot and Mom stopped the car, the cheering got louder. Mom got out, opened my door and helped me out. Being a cool fifth grader, I’m not sure I even looked up or waved to acknowledge the cheers. But I heard them. I was profoundly moved by them. I will never forget them. As our principal propped open the door into the school, I saw that my classmates lined both sides of the hallway. These were my friends I worried might not accept me back. Being rolled through the welcoming tunnel that formed, tears sprung from my eyes. I felt accepted, embraced, enveloped by love. Maybe, just maybe, everything was going to be okay. The welcome didn’t end with that carefully orchestrated morning. It lasted all year as I carefully navigated a new reality. My classmates didn’t look away. They didn’t avoid me. The other kids didn’t mock me; they engaged with me. They said hello, helped me with my books, fought over who got to push my wheelchair, and sat with me at lunch. I was burned, scarred, broken, and different. But I was back. And they let me know it was okay. That I was okay. Now here’s the thing: we all know some students will show up terrified this year because they have scars and hurts. Some will wear those scars externally, but most will be hidden. They’ll be concerned about acceptance, about friendships and about simply getting through the year. They’ll be dealing with stuff at home that they don’t talk about and no one even knows about. And it’s not just students who might struggle. New families and new teachers will arrive with anxiety wondering how they fit in, wrestling with self-doubt. That’s when you and I show up. We don’t need a formal parade to make our new students, families and teachers feel welcomed and loved. We just need a heart that remembers what it was like to struggle, what it was like when someone reached out and what it was like to experience that profound impact in our lives. We have a chance daily to make others feel welcomed and loved. We have an opportunity to remind them that they matter and that their life is a gift. It might, in fact, be the most important thing they learn this school year. Don’t miss the chance to teach it to them today. Today is your day. Live Inspired. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Ron Culberson. With a master’s degree in social work, Ron Culberson spent the first part of his career working in a large hospice organization as a clinical social worker, middle manager, and senior leader. As a speaker, humorist, and author of "Do it Well. Make it Fun.The Key to Success in Life, Death, and Almost Everything in Between", he has delivered more than 1,000 presentations to associations, government agencies, non-profit organizations, and corporations. His mission is to change the workplace culture so that organizations are more productive and staff are more content. He was also the 2012-2013 president of the National Speakers Association and is a recognized expert on the benefits of humor and laughter.
Someone once said that “common sense” is really “uncommon sense” because it seems to be in such short supply. This very well may be true. I remember attending my first Boy Scout camp and a group of older scouts convinced me to go ask the camp director for a “left-handed smoke grinder.” Needless to say, left-handed smoke grinders do not exist. Neither do right-handed ones. Ultimately, my quest led to a thirty-minute lecture from the director during which he explained that I had been duped and that I really should be more careful. He then suggested that I join some of the other young scouts on a snipe hunt later that night. Geez. Anyway, now that COVID has become a bit less threatening, in-person conferences have returned and my travel schedule looks like it did in 2019. And while I find myself dealing with a new world of cancelled flights, understaffed hotels, and closed restaurants, it’s the situations where I encounter uncommon sense that frustrate me the most. Every time something inane happens, I think to myself, Who thought that was a good idea? Let me illustrate. I recently attended a conference at what might be called a “rustic” resort. I say “rustic” because it wasn’t really designed for upscale vacationing. The resort has several water parks, a dozen arcades, and a few fast food kiosks. But it doesn’t have upscale dining options or stylish rooms. From what I could tell, the goal is to get people out of their rooms and into the water parks, arcades, and fast food kiosks. However, one slight flaw in the resort’s design is that it also has a conference center. This means that business people like me stay there as well. And to be clear, we aren’t particularly interested in the water parks, arcades, or fast food. So, as I typically do when I travel for speaking engagements, I work in my hotel room. I check emails, review proposals, write pithy blogs like the one you’re currently reading, and doze off at my desk around 1:00 p.m. just like when I’m back at my home office. At this rustic resort, however, they don’t want people to stay in their rooms, much less doze off at their desk. So, a technique they have employed to encourage their guests to engage in other activities is to furnish the rooms with a tiny rustic table and two rustic chairs that seemed to have been constructed by someone without access to professional carpentry tools. The arms, backs, and legs of these chairs looked like tree limbs manufacture from some sort of imitation wood presumably harvested from an imitation forest. Suffice it to say, the chairs were neither ergo nor nomic (and I’m not even sure what that means). To give you a sense of the way these chairs fit my body, the back of one had a simulated knot that protruded directly into my left kidney. Luckily the back of the other chair did not hit my left kidney but instead, put pressure on a nerve in my spine that eventually led to numbness in three toes on my right foot. There was no other seating option in my room so I folded the duvet from my bed into a cushioned tower that would raise my back above the knots on the chair. After toppling off the duvet several times, I finally gave up and retreated to the lobby where I sat on a couch that was covered in what looked like moose fur. But thankfully, the couch had no knots. That being said, I did discover a few unexplained insect bites on my leg later that night and wondered if the couch had fleas. When I retired for the evening, I wanted to plug my phone into an outlet near the bed so I could use it as my clock. As I was looking for one, I noticed that this resort, like so many hotels, still offers an overly complex clock radio that no one uses. In fact, in one hotel I stayed in last year, the alarm clock went off at 2:00 a.m. I spent an hour the next morning trying to disable it. Finally, I looked up the instructions online and one article suggested that it was easier to throw the clock away than to disable the alarm. So, I simply unplugged it. At 2:00 a.m. the next morning, the alarm went off again. Apparently, there was a backup battery installed which allowed the alarm to work should the power “somehow” be disconnected. Even though the rustic hotel had a clock, I felt more confident using my phone. However, there was only one outlet on the entire wall behind the bed and it was located in the center of the headboard but below the mattress. I’m sure this lack of outlets violates more than one building code but it makes sense for a resort that’s trying to create a rustic Davy Crockett experience. I mean, he had no electricity either. To plug in my phone, I had to pull the mattress back from the wall and feed the cord through a narrow opening in the headboard. Once I did that, I was able to run the cord across the box springs and anchor it over the corner of the bedside table with the hotel phone. After getting all of this situated, I was exhausted and hopped into bed. The weight of my body on the mattress yanked the phone off the table and it landed in between the mattress and the side rails. I had already set my alarm so I just left it there and went to sleep. After a fitful night waiting for the alarm on the clock radio to go off, I got up early and took a shower. As I finished, I looked for a towel and discovered they were located on a shelf under the sink about twenty feet from the shower. I wanted to take picture, just to prove my point, but my phone was still caught in the side of the bed. I couldn’t imagine who thought it was a good idea to put the towels so far from the shower? I did consider walking out into the hallway to let my naked body “air dry,” as a form of protest, but I didn’t want to run into someone I might see at my presentation. I’ve heard it said that speakers should imagine audience members in their underwear as a way to reduce their anxiety. But I suspect that most audiences have no good reason to see their speaker naked. After my program was over, I was relieved to leave the rustic resort and head back home where my chairs, my outlets, and my towels are exactly where they should be. I boarded the plane and soon found out that our departure time was delayed because of a mechanical problem. The pilot told us that he wanted to conserve fuel while we waited so he would not be using the air conditioner. I sat there sweating like Davy Crockett at the Alamo and decided to pass the time by watching a movie that I had downloaded to my phone. I opened the app and got an alert that I my phone only had 2% of its battery left. Apparently, the outlet on the wall behind the headboard and beneath my mattress only worked when the overhead light was on. I couldn’t help thinking, Now, who thought that was a good idea? Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Laurie Guest
When we’re exhausted, there’s little room for joy. Everything is a slog, and it’s hard to find the proverbial silver lining anywhere. Being joyless deprives us of the energetic smiles and laughs that make customer interactions that much more enjoyable for us and them. But what are the actionable steps we can take to bring back the joy that our service fatigue has robbed from us? The single best thing we can do is deceptively simple: we create the joy. (And by the way, if “joy” isn’t the appropriate sentiment for your line of work, feel free to swap in something more suitable: satisfaction, gratitude, fulfillment.) Joy isn’t just waiting around for us to discover it; sometimes we have to make it ourselves in order to get back on track in other aspects of our lives. Creating joy and happiness in life and work isn’t just about mental health, either. It impacts our physical health as well! Neurobiologists have found accumulating evidence that having a positive perspective can lower your cortisol levels and systolic blood pressure. The articles and facts are lengthy so let’s just summarize it to say: Joy=Health. When you’re exhausted and lacking the joy you want to have in your work, it can seem impossible to get it back. Here are three actionable steps you can take today to find more joy immediately. Step 1: When in doubt, Google. This is no joke. Just Google the phrase “simple ways to find joy in your life” and you will find pages of suggestions that can reminde us what we already know but may have forgotten. Things like appreciating what you DO have, surrounding yourself with positive people, laughing more, or creating a work “bucket list” of the professional achievements you’re excited about. Dance party for one to start your day? Sure! Writing with a colored pen instead of black or blue? Go for it! You may think that these are cliché or just silly suggestions, but ask yourself: are you doing them? Can one of these simple acts maybe make a real difference? Simple is a great place to start when you’ve got nothing to lose and joy to gain. Step 2: Take a Retreat! This can be for your team or just for you, whichever you need more right now. I’ve been advocating for (and personally doing!) both for nearly thirty years. In fact, I love this concept so much that I wrote a whole book about it, a guide to help you get away and get a plan to get back to your joy. For me, the most enlightening moments always come when I realize that the things bothering me the most are actually more in my control than I realize. The key is to break it down, whatever it is that you need to do to find your joy. I’m sharing my whole step-by-step retreat plan in my live virtual event on March 11, and though your plan might look a bit different in practice, the result is always the same: create the environment for joy, because it will never just appear on its own. Step 3: Inventory Your Happy OK…you don’t want to (or can’t) take a retreat right now? No problem. There’s an exercise in my book, Wrapped in Stillness, that you can do to help get an idea of the happiness that already exists in your life. Get the chapter right here and start today. The exercise asks you to inventory the things in your life that make you happy each day for five days, and then asks nine vital questions whose answers may just surprise you . I did it once and thought I knew what the results would be. But was I wrong! The exercise convinced me to completely rethink how I structure my calendar in order to restore a sense of joy in my days, and therefore in my work and personal life. I firmly believe that where we put our time is where we find our joy. Sure, not sweating the small stuff helps, but prioritizing our time and attention is really the secret. So, go ahead and take a moment to consider how you can bring back joy to your life and work. Consider all three steps I shared today. Google some new ideas. Take a retreat, even if you can only spare an hour a week. Do the exercise from Wrapped in Stillness and discover where you really find happiness. And you know what would bring ME joy? Hearing from you after you have done these things and letting me know how it made an impact in your customer service delivery. If you are serious about busting out of service fatigue, it starts with restoring the joy that’s costing you so much energy and attention. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Shep Hyken
When you flip a light switch, you know exactly what to expect. The light comes on – right away. No hesitation. It happens immediately. The human brain loves instant results. Let’s use the TV as an example. It was a number of years ago, but I remember the frustrating feeling like it was yesterday. I switched to a new satellite system for the internet and TV. Before the switch, when I changed TV channels it was instant. Go up, go down or push the number pad to get a specific channel, and it worked instantaneously. But with the new system, it took three or four seconds, sometimes longer depending on the signal, to move from one channel to the next. It might as well have been three minutes! Call me impatient – because I am. I ended up switching back to my old cable and internet company. The point is that people don’t like to wait. They tolerate having to wait, but given the choice, they would rather not do so. Just do a Google search of “How long do we spend waiting in lines?” and you’ll get different answers, ranging from six months to 10 years of our lives. Let’s be conservative and go with six months. That’s still a lot of unproductive time, and you don’t get it back. Customers dislike standing in line so much that some will pay to have someone else stand in line for them. That’s one of the services offered by TaskRabbit – actually hiring someone, referred to as a “Tasker,” to stand in line for you. The point is that people would rather not wait. They want to get information quickly and easily. Consider that when you order an item from Amazon, you are immediately sent confirmation that your order has been placed. Great customer-focused companies make it easy to get information quickly. It might be a Frequently Asked Questions page on the company’s website or a video tutorial that teaches exactly what the customer needs without having to call customer support. The point is that it’s quick, painless, and takes very little effort. Companies that realize the importance of speed are gaining a competitive advantage. One salesperson calls a customer back within an hour, while another salesperson calls back in two days. Who do you think creates more trust and confidence and has a better chance of making the sale? (Obviously, that’s a rhetorical question.) In most cases, we can’t be as instant as a light being switched on and off. But recognizing that people have shorter attention spans, as in a Light Switch Mentality, will remind us to react faster to our customer’s needs, ideally meeting and even exceeding their expectations. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! |
Archives
December 2023
Categories
All
|