One of our speakers at last week’s Extreme Business Makeovers event, Michael Angier, has a quote in his book, 101 Best Ways to Be Your Best, that I really love. He writes:
“Business is a lot like playing tennis; if you serve well, you’ll usually end up winning.”
I’m personally not a tennis player, but when watching them play on television, I notice that what Michael writes is very true. Those with the “strongest serves” typically win.
And, yes, it’s also true in business, only the words are reversed. In this case, those who “serve strongest” typically win.
How do you serve strongest in your business? Let us know.
For nine years I worked on staff at a nonprofit trade association. My job was to serve the industry I represented, or anyone interested in my industry, really. One of my operational principles was servant leadership. Although not always easy, service as a point of view was natural.
Now I am out in the “for profit” world and I have felt a great deal of pressure to protect my time, talent, and treasure. This is especially acute in my role as a consultant. Clients will often take a conversation or project outside the “scope of work” for which I am being paid and I have spent a lot of time worrying about when I’m working for compensation and when I am, in effect, working for free.
On Friday I met with a new client who hired us to address a very specific issue in his company, but it was clear to me as we listened to him over a few hours that there were other issues that needed to be addressed. For example, I felt the client needed permission to re-examine his somewhat unconditional support for some key employees. He was close to admitting some staff had been mis-cast but he would back away from this and sing their prasies along with a string of caveats. But this is a management/leadership coaching issue and he was not paying us to do this. The client is paying for some very narrowly focused training with his employees.
The next day I read The Go Giver. I have decided to set up a meeting with the client and help him work through these issues. I have the ability to do this in an appropriate manner, but my point is I have decided to do this without regard to compensation. It’s the right thing to do because his business will remain stuck if he does not work through this management issue. I’m not sure if this is service, but it is clear that my client needs my assistance outside the scope of the project for which we are being compensated, and I have decided to help him without regard for the compensation. I was about to type, “I guess we’ll see,” but that would be score keeping I think. I hope I can help him.
Hi Mike,
Thank you for your posting. You have the heart of a go-giver and it comes right through. I appreciate your willingness to go above and beyond in adding value to your client. And, as you mentioned (and this is important), you have the ability to do this in an appropriate manner.
Please let us know how things work out.
Best regards,
Bob
Dear Mr. Burg and Mr. Mann,
I want to thank you for coming up with the idea for writing The Go Giver — and then following your heart by putting it down on paper. I didn’t know, until I read the book, that I was doing many of the things you mentioned when I ran my own business of equine (horses) and pet sitting. For example, whenever a client was expected home I would ask them to give me a call when they got in. Not only that I knew they had gotten home okay but that I knew if I needed to go back out to their house and take care of their animals. Often, if I didn’t hear anything from them by the time the animals had to been taken cared of, or my phone calls weren’t answered, I’d drive back out (at my own expense. I didn’t charge them for my time, or gasoline) and take care of their animals. I’d always leave the owner a note, letting them know that I had been there and fed the animals so they wouldn’t feed them again. Horses can have all the hay they want (unless its new hay and then you have to be careful how much they eat), and won’t (normally) get sick from it. When you feed a horse too much grain, however, they can become deathly sick from it; developing either colic and/or can become foundered.
I can remember one time when I was taking care of some miniature horses — when the clients had gone to a horse show — and one of the mares was due to foal any day. The first feeding I was there (which would have been the evening feeding), I looked at the mare closely and decided to stay over night; even though the owners had not asked me to do so and, therefore, I was not charging them for staying over night nor did I charge them a foal watching fee.
Early the next morning (around 1:00 or so), the mare delivered. Luckily I was there, as the foal was mal-positioned, and after the mare foaled out, she developed colic, which I found out, after the fact, she was prone to do. I ended up calling their DVM (Doctor of Veterinary Medicine) when I saw the owners didn’t have any of the meds you can give to a horse in the beginning stages of colic. The hot bran mash I had given her (which is something you do after a mare foals. Not only is the hot bran soothing, it also makes the mare’s system start working after foaling), wasn’t working. If I had gone home that night I would have come back in the morning and found, not only a dead foal, but a dead mare as well.
I stayed with the mare and foal 24 hours a day until the owners returned ~ not charging them extra for taking care of the mare or the foal. Having been a horse owner myself, and having foaled out several mares over the years, (not only my own but many others owned by other people), I knew how important it was to stay with the mare and foal during that critical time. It never even occurred to me to charge them extra for the care I had given their horses.
WOW – thank you for the incredible value you added to the lives of the animals and their humans. Way to go!!
Best regards,
Bob