beBetter 

Two of our best friends, Alan and Lisa (I won’t mention their last name for privacy purposes) recently told us this hilarious story about their cat, Taco.

So, Taco Purdie, a big, orange cat with a slight white streak on his back has been a family pet for 15 years. Alan has become very fond of this cat who guards their yard with fierce ownership. On this morning, as Alan left for work, he did not see Taco but didn’t really give it much thought. As he turned out on the main road from the neighborhood, he had only gone a few hundred yards when he saw an orange-colored cat lying in the middle of the road–dead. As he rode past, he thought, “Surely that isn’t Taco,” and he turned his car around to check. 

We are 20 months into living in our new home and the outside fans still do not work. The tire service company can’t sell me three new tires because they are counting them for inventory. I’m in a meeting and find out 30% of the team is struggling to get a critical app to work on their phones. Worse, team members are accepting slow system performance as the “norm.” We all have these experiences and stories where no one takes ownership, no one gets it done. The sad part is that people give up hope for a better outcome and start accepting CRAP excuses.

As I pulled up the driveway, I knew Cece was in her element. She was muddy from head to toe and plants, flowers, water hoses and clippers were scattered everywhere. She got her love of gardening from her late father, Poppy.

As I walked up to hear the latest gardening updates, she had the clippers whirling on the rose bushes. “Cece, aren’t you being a little aggressive with those clippers?” I asked. She replied, “Poppy always said to have the prettiest roses, you have to prune them as they produce more blooms than the individual plant can support.” I must admit, Poppy had some beautiful rose gardens although I’m not sure he enjoyed the pruning as much as Cece, but I kept that thought to myself.

I was really excited about my schedule as I headed into the office for the day. I had two meetings with team members—one to collaborate on a new client opportunity and the other to develop a strategy to help us execute at a faster pace on changing our client experience to be more focused, anticipatory and consistent.

I hope you caught my two previous blogs on disruption and unseen pain. On this day of very preventable disruption & self-inflicted pain, I also got to experience a third great life lesson in customer service mindset and experience. You may recall my boat trailer tire blowout and subsequent eye injury happened late on a Friday afternoon. That Saturday morning, I was up early and looking for a tire service center where I could get three new tires for my boat trailer. This was urgent since I had PTO planned for the following week to fish some more and I knew it would include a road trip or two.

You may have caught last week’s blog on disruption. Disruption that I knew about, understood and monitored but took no real action to avoid. Knowing is not doing.

As if being pulled over on the side of busy I-55 South with a blowout on my boat trailer wasn’t enough disruption in my trip, I also incurred some pain. Pain that came out of nowhere. I expected the pain (inconvenience, really) of trying to locate where my car jack was, the actual changing of the tire and, of course, the fear of thinking the next car or truck might crush me. I was mad at myself for not acting and causing my current inconvenience but at least I had my mind wrapped around it. However, I certainly didn’t see the most painful part of the disruption coming. 

The worst kind of disruption is the kind that could have been avoided and I certainly got what I deserved with this blowout. Earlier this year as crappie season rolled around, I rolled my boat out and began to get her ready for the season. As I checked the trailer tires, I thought—it’s really time to replace these. We are blessed with some fantastic lakes all within 90 miles of my home so I pull my boat a lot of miles in the two months of the crappie spawn. Again, I knew what I SHOULD do.

I often hear team members refer to a star performer as having the “IT” factor or expressing the desire to be personally known for excellence. What stands between us and excellence or being one of the star players is DELIBERATE PRACTICE.

At my recent birthday celebration, I heard my kids huddle everyone up to get a picture of the grandkids with Pops (that’s me). It was like an out-of-body experience. Instantly, I became “that guy.” You know, the guy or gal that everyone wants to take a picture with because they represent the older side of our friendship or family. Taking photos to capture our memories and demonstrate our love for those we fear we may soon lose.

When we were growing up, if Mike, Mitzi and I were constantly arguing or fighting, Mom would patiently warn us several times to stop. If we continued to be rowdy, she would finally step back in the room and say, “I’ve had ENOUGH!” which we knew meant our future was not real bright and our backsides were now in jeopardy. As a profession, we need a wake-up call of our own about the disruption and speed of change we are facing. So, today, we will use the term ENOUGH just as Mom did. 

This blog is the fifth part of a series meant to outline the Four Building Blocks to Move to Advisory Services.

How do we move our organizations towards advisory services? How do we seize our future by being relevant starting now? I think there are four foundational building blocks. We’ll discuss the final building block today: COLLABORATION.

This blog is the fourth part of a series meant to outline the Four Building Blocks to Move to Advisory Services.

We’ve already discussed the first two blocks: MINDSET SHIFT and CONFIDENCE. ANTICIPATORY SKILLS is the third building block to move our organizations towards advisory services and seize our future by being relevant—starting now.

I believe this is a new skill that is required. Being anticipatory is defined as aware, predictive and adaptive. If we simply focus on being agile or nimble, we are always responding to things and being disrupted. By anticipating, we can actually be the disruptor and capture new opportunities. Seeing disruption coming provides us choices. Choices we must make today.

This blog is the third part of a series meant to outline the Four Building Blocks to Move to Advisory Services.

How do we move our organizations towards advisory services? How do we seize our future by being relevant starting now? I think there are four foundational building blocks. Last week, we discussed the first block: MINDSET SHIFT. Today, we'll discuss the second block: CONFIDENCE.