Your Presence is Requested

 

I am here.  Are you?  Huh?  When was the last time you were across from a person you thought you were engaged in some sort of meaningful exchange with only to discover that the other person was not “there”?  Physically present: check.  Mentally present: checked out.  Think U.S. Postal Service.  Think DMV.  (Sorry, folks… I will quote Ram Charan here: “truth over harmony”).   Heck, it even happened to me this week during a visit to my usually-amazingly-engaged bank!  You know the scene: while you are thinking about your money and the product, service, and experience you expect to receive in exchange for said money, the person “serving” you is thinking “geez, its bad enough I have to actually be here… you expect me to be engaged, too?”  Aaarrgh!

We have slipped.  We are distracted.  We are not showing up.  In the retail world, the team that engages the customer best wins.  We have to, as Susan Scott states in her book, Fierce Conversations, “be there and be nowhere else” for our customers AND our team.   So often our hearts and our souls are absent… we are checked out.  This vacant presence of leaders, sales associates, and cashier team members is nothing short of certain death.  Sadly, certain death is quite prevalent.  Big box home improvement giants know it.  Electronics stores know it.  Banks know it.  So what?  What do we do about it?

Get out of the fog and into the NOW, leaders.  Engagement begins with you.  Period.  Be fully in the game, get in your zone, help the whole team win through your focused action.  Example: we got REAL about engagement this week in a busy retail store.  What was happening?  Leaders were present on the floor physically and mentally.  Their awareness of the customer experience was at a 10.  Leaders were applying quick, laser-focused coaching to keep the whole team highly engaged.  Result: customers went out of the way to smile, make eye contact, and tell us about their experience.  A couple of their stories literally gave me chills.  Chills!  Oh, and we had a killer sales day to boot!

Lest you dismiss the opportunity before you because “I don’t work in retail”, consider this: what is possible when you are “there” for your colleague, shift leader, or potential client?  High levels of engagement work incredibly well in spontaneous cubicle meetings, on the manufacturing floor, and even on the phone.

So, would you rather sweat to a certain death or experience the chills of high engagement?  So what?  What are you going to do about it?

Gifts We May Never Open

 

Attention, leaders, citizens, humans.  The most tragic landfill of all is right here, right now, under our feet.  Unique, fantastic, amazing gifts are being thrown in a pile to rot every day.  Ignore the signs if you will but eventually the waste we are creating now will impact every single one of us in untold ways.

You see, just a few more than half of the kids in Portland, OR who enter ninth grade will graduate from high school on time.  The national average is about 70%.   A report that was released in 2008 stated that 17 of the nation’s 50 largest cities had high school graduation rates lower than 50%.  In Detroit, about 1/3 will wear a cap and gown 4 years after they begin the ninth grade.  One in three.  Many emotions and words come to mind here but let me give you just two: SILENT DEATH.  We are killing our city, our state, our country….slowly and certainly.  Is there a doctor in the house?

I know one.  Tony Hopson, Sr. leads a brilliant, bold program that stands for the potential in youth.  Self Enhancement, Inc. (SEI) boasts a graduation success rate that is consistently in the 95 – 100% range.  “Every kid has a unique gift,” Mr. Hopson told a group of leaders at a corporate luncheon last week.  His organization executes a zillion deeds every day to help kids find that gift and use it to create a healthy and prosperous life.  SEI is working hard on replication.  Heck, we need 10,000 SEIs right now!  Think our business problems are tough now?  Wait a few more years when talent droughts starve businesses and more of our resources get pulled to address issues like crime, addictions, and unemployment.  Indeed, our future may or may not be sitting in tenth grade language arts class tomorrow morning.  I say again: SILENT DEATH.

Recently, President Obama said “dropping out of high school is quitting on your country….we need the talent of every American…”  That means YOU, high school class of 1969, 1977, 1995 and 2007!  We need YOUR talent.  What can YOU do?

Find a way to put a brick in our country’s foundation today.  Help a kid find their gift.  Support the bold work of those rare few like Mr. Hopson, Sr. who have found a solution that works.  Yes, this is not charity; this IS an investment in YOUR city.  Isn’t it time for some responsible investment?

Do something BOLD today.  Now.