Wrapping up the trip to ATL visiting the leaders at NorthPoint; listening to Coldplay on the way home as a way to escape the babies on the plane. (”Fix You” might be in my top 10 songs of all time - I will post them on the family blog some other time) There are quite a few notes to write in regards to learning from NP…
As young leaders it can be daunting to look into the future and dream. Which leaders don’t want to make an incredible impact with the gifts & tools that they have at their disposal? Which artist doesn’t want to make phenomenal music? “Where do you begin?” It can be paralytic if your imagination is too vivid. It can also be fueled by selfish motives if you aren’t careful.
Let me propose a theory: Great things begin small w/ convictions held by unassuming, visionary suspects.
When you are young, you won’t be seen as a leader without suspicion. You will be seen as a slight renegade or maverick. Leaders have a way of being slightly off beat in their early environments if they hold convictions and future dreams that they are working out in their minds and trying out in their arenas. With suspicion will come some tests that will lead you to the assumption at first that there must be something wrong with you — however, there might not be something wrong with you other than a dream of an alternate reality or future.
Rick Holliday was generous enough to give me a great amount of time today. He was one of the “original 6″ founders of NorthPoint and remains on the management team 13 years later. I have read extensively from Andy’s books and listened to several podcasts that contain pieces of the story about their roots. What imprinted me today was seeing the passion of the early convictions of the original 6 of NorthPoint in Rick’s enthusiasm during our conversation. I am sure that I still don’t have all of the narrative of the journey but what I do have leads me to the conclusion that great things begin small w/ convictions held by unassuming, visionary suspects.
So, get started with your convictions…
What are you sure of?
What must you be doing with your life?
What do you value that you must live out?
What are you going to start doing about it?
How can you get started small?
what is travel without it’s’ ups and downs - i am sure my stories today are reflective of the every day business person’s life.
i am now convinced that American Airlines must have the WORST customer service —- ever!
in juxtaposition to my Enterprise experience, American Airlines also had an opportunity to serve me as a ‘regular’ customer. as it turns out though, i am not a ‘regular’ customer. i am an Internet shopper for low fares who deserves what he has coming to him.
i have been purchasing lately through Expedia (wise? you tell me cause i don’t travel enough to know) for the convenience of coordinating multi-leg flights at a great rate. BUT what i learned painfully today is that if something in your plans change (like not needing the middle leg and just wanting to return home) you are going to get hosed. i left this morning from PHX to ATL and discovered i while here that a meeting in CHI was cancelled for Thurs. so now i don’t need to go ATL to CHI to PHX but rather just back to PHX from ATL. my logical brain tells me i should be getting a refund… here is how. i don’t plan to use the gas/flight to CHI (shouldn’t that be worth something?) and just want a trip back to PHX which has to be about the same as CHI to PHX. well, evidently AA airlines doesn’t work like a logical person or business.
if you returned an un-used item at walmart you would get a refund. if you returned an un-used item on from an Internet purchase you may have to pay shipping and possibly re-stocking (bogus also). if you try to return an un-used ticket to AA that you purchased on the cheap from a 3rd party vendor (which they use to help them make all of their sale quotas) it will cost you $150 PLUS it will give them an opportunity to change the rest of your tickets to the price of purchasing the ticket same day. you ask how much more was that total over the original price of the fare? —$360!— needless to say i asked to speak to a supervisor realizing that the first-line person doesn’t have any real power to change what the computer tells them to do. the supervisor i received had certainly learned the specifics of what he was not required to do for me, was content with telling me how i was being illogical and wanted to school me on how “i need to use what i paid for or i need to pay for what i now need to use”. what a genius they have working as a supervisor! evidently he and AA don’t look at the current economy or their current financial status or the fact that all 3 of their evening flights tomorrow back to PHX are less than 1/3 full and going there anyway or the fact that i can choose from multiple other carriers to go home tomorrow for less than their quoted new price. (FYI i have never heard AA say the “we realize you have a choice when you fly” little speech at any of their flights) i can be a forgiving fellow since that is the work i am in, but this is the second exact experience like this with AA in a 1 month period. I will never fly AA again.
it makes me think (again) about service. are we really thinking about the customer in our industries, organizations or the members of our families or churches? do we give really lame excuses for not helping people with simple, doable, practical items that would literally cost us nothing ? do we adhere to ridiculous made up rules or simply lack the motivation to serve out of our best? do you have a bad attitude when you come to work and aim to rub it off on the people who engage you there?
I am going home non-stop on Delta — AA gets no more money from me, EVER. (if only i could get on a talk show and shame them into an apology)
I couldn’t believe it — i experienced extravagant service AT THE AIRPORT. Normally I use Thrifty rental car. Today i showed up without a reservation at the ATL Thrifty. All they had were mini-vans for $90+. I passed and went next door to Enterprise (just cause it was closest). It turns out they had cars, at a reasonable price and get this, i didn’t have to wait in any line as a ‘regular’ customer. Check-out in the airport took less than 5 minutes. I found my way to the curbside pick-up for the shuttle. As i crossed the walk one was just leaving, so i was bummed thinking it would be quite some time before another would come, however, the next one was there in und5 minutes. As i loaded the driver asked for my last name along with the other ‘regular’ customers. the ride to the car lot took less than 5 minutes. As i walked off the shuttle, there a was a line of agents waiting with clip boards displaying last names, to my surprise, my name was one of them. [i have never been greeted anywhere with a sign displaying my last name, however, i have contemplated accepting a ride that was meant for others.] the agent greeted me, walked me personally to the car, opened the door so that i could sit inside out of the rain while he completed the paperwork in less than 5 minutes. of course he did his duty to ‘up-sell’ me another car, but when i declined he was actually cool about it and still treated me better than a ‘regular’ customer. i needed a map, he didn’t have one but he RAN inside, grabbed one and gave me directions to my desired location in less than 5 minutes (actually it was less than 60 seconds before he returned). the whole experience was so great, i definitely plan to use Enterprise again — Good-bye Thrifty.
i was left with the notion that i ought to tip everyone involved, but that isn’t what they were looking for. they just wanted to serve their regular customer. incredible!
what is so remarkable is that they really didn’t do anything all that spectacular other than they just cared to do their work very well in the most basic areas.
how many opportunities do we have in our environments to serve others extravagantly in simple ways that would leave them experiencing what i just experienced? do you serve your boss this way? do you serve your church this way? do you server your customers this way? do you serve your family this way?
what a challenge - what can you come up with to serve others extravagantly in the simple things?
ever wonder how others perceive you? no? you ought to, it just might be seriously effecting your leadership opportunities.
try this exercise: get a recorder and take it into your next meeting or a larger gathering of co-workers. push ‘record’. after the meeting is over, go back and listen for yourself. see what you find. chances are you don’t need a recorder at all. you probably have a good enough memory to think about your contributions in a group setting.
were you cocky, being overly sure of yourself and your answers? were you quiet, not contributing at all, but sitting in there, hoping just to get through unnoticed? possibly you were overly quippy and sarcastic, chimming in when not needed, derailling the meeting off topic and drawing attention to yourself. Or were you argumentative, trying to prove your point well past the time when everyone had already understood where you were coming from.
“I don’t care what other people think!” could very well be the most damaging thing a young leader says, thinks or lives out in their first leadership environments. you need to care, at least some. as i once heard and then learned from one of my mentors, at some point, you will need the respect and attention of those who you aren’t considering right now.
so try this… find some balance.
if you are quiet, slowly try to contribute. if you are loud, practice silence. if you are sure of yourself, consider the ways of those around you who are succeeding but are nothing like you. if you are argumentative, focus on results not debates. and if you are new, take a back seat to those who are there already — & take a few notes while you are at it.
i really didn’t want to do this… ever… (i like producing content not stealing it) but, since seeing this just two days ago, it has stuck with me and i have quoted it, so i thought i should pass it along.
orginial sources included here: 1 | 2
I would substitute PERSON with LEADER (so maybe i will make my own slide and claim it as original).
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