Going beyond just OK in all that you do!

Published in Kankakee Daily Journal Feb, 19 ,2020

When you love your work, you will be exceptionally diligent in what you do and you will excel in delivering both quality and quantity.”
― Dr Prem Jagyasi

In the last few months AT &T has launched a rather clever, amusing, and attention-grabbing campaign: When “Just OK is not OK.”  According to Adweek AT&T is continuing to roll out more  scenarios “ ‘Just OK Is not OK’ campaign, where the likes of mechanics, babysitters and everything in between are perfectly content with providing just OK service—much to the consternation of their customers.”

 

While AT&T is promoting their new 5G network, the message of their commercials applies to our daily lives.  Most of us experience sub-standard service every week. Whether it is an uninformed and non-caring associate at a store, a less than satisfactory response when we make a call to resolve some problem or being ignored when we walk into a place of business.  But in this column, I want to focus on the other side of the issue, with specific illustrations of how I have received excellent, beyond the call of duty service.  I will give three categories where the service went well beyond just OK, although there are probably a dozen situations you can think of.

 

Saying, yes when they could have said no.  Companies all have policies and rules which are necessary. But we also know the best organizations sometimes can bend the rules a bit.  A few weeks ago, I was having problems will my relatively new car. It seems the battery would run down suddenly, but at unpredictable times.  I decided I would make just one more stop before going home. I stopped at the Circle K store on North Covenant at about 4 p.m. When I went to start the car it clicked, grunted, moaned and smelled like something was burning. I called my wife to come and jump the battery.  It did not work.  I then called my road service company; waited over an hour and called them back They said it might not be until the next day before they could get to me.  I pushed the car over to the side and went inside to plead my case of leaving the car overnight.  Many places would have told me “Well that’s your problem, you cannot leave it overnight.” But the lady was gracious and told me it would be alright. She also said she would leave the manager a note. Grateful, I told her I planned to buy more of my gas there in the future.  When in the station, I noticed the Easy Pay application.  I’m not here to sell the program, but it is a good deal. And now the Circle K station has become my station of first choice.  Her going beyond OK benefitted both me and the company. Do you find yourself in situations where a little more compassion and understanding will allow you to bend the rules?  If you are the boss do you support your employees when they do so?

 

Meeting your request with good cheer and friendly professionalism.  A couple of weeks ago I had to close an unused PNC account. We have been with PNC and its predecessors for almost 25 years and still maintain several accounts. Sometimes at certain institutions closing accounts is met with a cold stare, a penalty, and general unpleasantness.  But the lady was very agreeable, understanding, and very helpful.  Everything was done in about five minutes.  Being just OK would have gotten the job done. But being treated with respect, niceness, and professionalism makes me even more loyal to PNC. Here’s to the next 25 years.  By the way, we are fortunate in this community. I have had similar pleasant experiences with First American, People’s Bank and Homestar (now Midland).

 

Bailing you out when you make a stupid mistake.

This example, frankly, is a little embarrassing. I’ll take the chance that most of you too have gotten into a jam where you just don’t know what to do. My wife, daughter, and I had to visit the Cleveland Clinic, which is a magnificent medical center. Since we were needing to be there four days my daughter, who is an experience traveler, suggested we do an Airbnb, rather than a hotel.  It was a spectacular house in the historical Shaker Heights District of Cleveland and much less than a nice hotel.

 

The host left us with two sets of keys, of course. Unfortunately, we left one set in house and I had the other set with me. I decided to run back to the house and discovered I could not find the keys. No problem, I thought I must have dropped them in the car. No such luck. So, I traced my steps from the hospital room to the car at least 5 times, stopped by the hospital desk multiple times to see if anyone turned them in.  I had gone over to a Walmart earlier in the day. So, I went back there 2 times to check where I had parked, went inside to check at lost and found. I tried calling the owners number, but no answer. So, after about 4 hours of frustration and misery I reached the conclusion we would have to spend another $150 for a hotel room. My daughter being savvier than me, sent a communication to them via Airbnb and got a message back that they would drop off another key which they did. We told them we would be happy to replace the keys, but they said no that was not necessary. Airbnb has a rating system where they rate you and you rate them. I can see why they are considered a Superhost.  If you ever need to travel to Cleveland and need a place, I’ve got a recommendation for you!

 

In summary, going beyond OK even in the small things everyday makes a huge difference.

 

 

The most essential abilities may not be what you think they are!

Of all places, I heard some profound wisdom while listening to a sports commentator on Fox Sports SiriusXM radio. We were traveling back from Cleveland on Thursday, and this little tidbit, came whirling out of the radio. The commentator said, “The most important ability is reliability.”  This got me thinking about what it takes to be successful in life, no matter what is your occupation, career, or job. Thankfully in the last 5-10 years, our schools have emphasized STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and math).  There has also been a renewed emphasis on written and oral communication.

That being said, most human resource professionals, along with managers and supervisors from every field, often grumble about the lack of soft skills, emotional intelligence, courtesy, and professionalism.  Less I am accused of being yet another complaining Boomer (as per Dennis Marek’s excellent column in the Sunday Journal) of taking it out on the Millennials or Generation Xer’s, these same abilities that young people must develop applies to those from 8 to 98. As an illustration of this, I know of a major Illinois-based company that 30 years ago decided to give special bonus hours to employees when they showed up on every Monday, rather than calling in with hangover flu. So Boomers like me, we can’t be too smug about our generation.

Let me pick up on the sportscaster’s idea and add a few more “abilities” that can benefit us and those who live and work around us.  For this column, I will use the definition of a reliable person as someone who consistently does what they do and do it well. In the sports world, we all know of athletes who are superstars one week and fall flat on their face the next.  The Kansas City Chiefs’ win in the SuperBowl was primarily determined by the whole teams’ constant and relentless pursuit to the end of the game.  In our jobs, customers want people who are consistent and provide excellence.  When I go into home improvement stores, there are some individual workers I avoid. But there are others I go to directly because I know they give reliable suggestions and don’t just shoot from the hip. I can always count on them.

The next “ability” we’ll feature is adaptability. To what degree as a person can you adapt to a situation?  There are so many variables that impact the plans we make, that being able to adapt and adjust is critical to our co-workers and customers. We all know someone (and hopefully we are not that person) who, when their perfect schedule and routines are interrupted they go into a melt-down.  Employers, on the other hand, highly value those who can change to fit the situation.  Being an “old school” map reader on trips, my daughter and I sometimes laugh at each other about the use of Google maps vs. an atlas.  Recently, though, I have started to move to her way of thinking after experiencing the software’s incredible ability to adapt to construction zones, road delays, and those situations where “Oh my goodness I just missed my exit off the toll road.” Some of you probably have done the same, missing the I-65 exit to the Indiana Toll road, and suddenly you are heading to Detroit rather than Cleveland.  Without yelling at me, Google map adapts and instantly gives us a new plan.

Next, we have flexibility. While similar to adaptability, it goes a step further. In trying to get something done, from the get-go, we usually plan on multiple ways of accomplishing the job. I often write about the powerful concept of contingency theory.  Contingency theory indicates we have to consider numerous challenges and means of achieving the task at hand. Since we do not know ahead of time precisely what will happen, we plan on different plausible variables, outcomes, people, and situations.  Let me offer a word of caution here for experienced senior managers.  Sometimes the flexibility your younger workers display results in a far better solution than yours.

Finally, there is the ability to be willing to take responsibility.  As President Harry Truman famously said, “The buck stops here.” People need to be held accountable. But they also need to be rewarded when they come through. Responsibility cannot just be seen as someone taking the blame when things go badly.  As a matter of fact, I have yet another caution here. I have seen too many times where parents, bosses, spouses, and other authority figures demand that someone takes responsibility without being able to explain (or as they call it giving an excuse.) Being responsible does not just mean pleading guilty, even if something is primarily based on your actions or inactions. Just bearing responsibility without diagnosing and understanding the situation is an almost 100% guarantee that a difficult situation today might turn into a disaster tomorrow. So yes, hold people responsible.  But then at the appropriate time, try and understand what went wrong and hear the situation out.

Of course, we all need the abilities and skills we learn in high school, college, and seminars.  But reliability, adaptability, flexibility, and responsibility characterize the best, most productive, and pleasant people to work with.

Don Daake, MBA, Ph.D.is Professor Emeritus at Olivet Nazarene University. He can be contacted through the Daily Journal at editors@daily-journal.com or directly at ddaake@olivet.edu

A springtime renewal is better than a springtime cleaning

 “We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise, we harden.” —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

It is Saturday afternoon, February 29th, which means we get an extra day of winter to enjoy in this leap year!  But it is coming- spring is on the way. Next Sunday, we switch to daylight savings time; this week, it is forecasted to get into the 50’s, and some of my brave lilies are starting to sprout. Spring is a time of renewal and new life in nature but a great time to renew ourselves. Let me suggest four ways we can restore things in our lives for home, work, or play.

First, how about us renewing at least one of those New Year’s resolutions? Whether we wrote them down or carry them in our heads, by mid-January, most of them, as worthy as they are, tend to get disregarded. We might even feel a little guilty until mid-February, but then we even lose a sense of culpability.  For me, my renewed resolution is to write at least one note a week of encouragement, thankfulness, or just a greeting to someone in my life.

The second area of rejuvenation is renewing a friendship from the past or strengthening one with a person who lives far away. Many of you will remember the “good ole days” when long-distance calls costs 30-40 cents a minute. And yet we did make those 10-20 minute calls. At one point, AT&T reduced its prices all the way down to a dime a minute. What a deal we thought. There is a general truism that applies here. When something is scarce, we value it.  On a dessert Island with little or no water, we would pay an almost unlimited amount for even a gallon of water. But here in Northern Illinois, with our plentiful water supply, we pay less than a penny a gallon.  Because of that we usually don’t see it as something as precious as gold. For all practical purposes, most people today have virtually free per minute costs because of widespread unlimited plans that are common with cell carriers.

While Facebook and texting are useful, why we so reluctant to call people via long that we have known across the years?  In some cases, the newer generations have grown up not knowing how to communicate properly over the phone or even in person.  That is unfortunate, because a live conversation is what communication researchers call “media-rich” when compared to e-mail, texting, or posting on Facebook.  By listening and hearing each other’s voices, we can pick up the more subtle things that are going on. To avoid being a hypocrite, let me pause for a few minutes and call my good friend Randy in Tallahassee…. Wasn’t home, left message. He called me back on Sunday, and we had a pleasant conversation

Thirdly, spring is an excellent time to take up those household renewal projects, whether they be inside or out.  Many times, people who run a business don’t even notice the small things like faded or chipped paint, worn-out door latches, or outdated signs.  It likely takes an outsider to see the things you don’t.  Just as many businesses hire “secret shoppers” to check out their services, have you ever thought about having outside people walk your facility and give you an honest report card. Sometimes just a few dollars will go a long way in freshening up your place.

This is also a good time to look at your home. About a year ago, we decided to remodel our two bathrooms. The half bath took us several weeks, but we finished it last March. We have had the materials for the upstairs for months, but not the courage to dive in. Well, finally, we have started and have encountered Murphy’s Law of projects.  Usually, it will cost twice as much as you think and take three times longer. Wrong this time! It is turning out more like 2 times on the money and 4-5 times on the hours.  Some days I feel like Bill Murry in the movie  “Groundhog Day.”  I wake up, and nothing much has happened day after day. However, slowly but surely, it is getting done!  How about you? Do you have any of those projects that have been delayed by days, weeks, months, or even years?  Take them on as a spring renewal.

Finally, there is the renewal of your mind and spirit.  There certainly are lots of bad things happening these days.  Without brushing them off and putting your head  in the sand, nevertheless take a proactive attitude advocated by the Apostle Paul in Philippians 4:8, (NIV version) “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.” Furthermore, during this Lenten season, we should concentrate on living out our faith and displaying the fruit of the Spirit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things, there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23).

The days are getting longer, new plants are sprouting, and the robins are back in town. So as spring approaches, renewal is right and proper.  In the renewal process, don’t focus exclusively on yourself but also on helping others.

Don Daake, MBA, Ph.D.is Professor Emeritus at Olivet Nazarene University. He can be contacted through the Daily Journal at editors@daily-journal.com or directly at ddaake@olivet.edu