When I was in high school, which my children mercilessly remind me was a “long, long time ago,” I had a basketball coach that constantly challenged me to “move without the ball.” His exhortation in essence was to stay active even when the main activity was taking place away from me.
That concept has stayed with me for years and it is a principle worthy of reinforcing in challenging economic times. Rather than becoming lost in a sea of negative headlines, over which most of us have little control, we can continue to keep driving our legs to generate forward movement and possibilities.
As a consultant and speaker on customer experience, I often hear things like: “Why should I care about elevating service when customers just want the cheapest products?” Recent studies show 50 percent of customers still make tradeoffs to pay more for a better service experience, and 50 percent still leave businesses because of bad service. Despite these results, some business owners have become frozen in place. They are not looking for opportunities to move into cost effective zones of customer service that increase their customers’ level of engagement.
It isn’t only leadership that is challenged to keep moving in these times. I was in a restaurant recently where there were only three customers and eight staff members. Three staff members were serving the three customers (to continue the metaphor – those staff members had the ball) while the other five staff members were glued to their cell phones, text messaging friends and talking about sales or matters of the heart. Granted the service of the three people engaged in the game was good, but how much better could it have been if some of the others were fully present?
For those of you who think this is a Generation Y or technology driven phenomena, I simply ask for honest self-reflection. I know I frequently miss chances to render lateral service to others who are in the heat of the action. Thoughts like “it’s not my job” cross my mind at times. Both at work and home, we can offer the gift of “moving without the ball” whether that is in extra efforts for our loved ones, through community service, or lending an extra hand so our colleagues can more effectively achieve their objectives. When we’re not in need of rest or on the bench, I suspect many of us can redouble our efforts to support the actions of all who we can serve.
In essence, human service is nothing more than delivering a flawless product, in the time and manner it is desired - while assuring that the product or service is provided in an environment of caring. In a world where products are not flawless, and service delivery is less than perfect, the environment of caring becomes more critical. Our opportunities to serve far exceed the times that “we have the ball” and ultimately require us to demonstrate our environment of caring by looking for opportunities to fill the stated and unstated needs of those around us – and never stop moving. |
