Don’t You Love It?
In this rough, tough, seemingly heartless, bottom-line oriented world of strategizing for survival through takeovers, layoffs and budget cuts, don’t you love it when people do business with heart?
They seem to love their work. They get the job done. They really care. They make you feel good. They warm your heart doing business with heart.
Below are a few classic stories about doing business with heart. I share them with 3 hopes.
Hope #1 is that you will read and share them with co-workers, family members and friends.
Hope #2 is that you will share some stories of your own - and encourage others to do the same.
By the way – if you hold a regular meetings of any kind - sharing heart stories can be a great addition to your agenda. It sets a positive mood for the meeting and beyond. Get details for Ready-2-Go Meeting segment.
Hope #3 is that you will join me in thanking people around you who do business with heart. You can do this verbally or with a handwritten note or with one of our Heart Cards.
Spreading the word and spreading appreciation for doing business with heart is so very important now more than ever. Because the more people do business with heart….the more people will do business with heart. And as more people do business with heart…even more people will do business with heart.
Warming hearts everywhere by doing business with heart.
Okay – it’s story time. Here are a few classic examples of people doing business with heart.
Story #1 – About Antwon
At the Marriott in Atlanta, I couldn’t help but overhear a customer yelling at Antwon who worked as a bellman there. And couldn’t help but notice that Antwon stayed calm through all the ranting and raving.
When asked how he managed to do that, Antwon laughed and said, “I get lots of practice.”
He grew more serious as he said, “I try to rise above it. I figure if I be nice to them, then maybe it will make their day better. And maybe later they will think about it and be nicer to the next guy.”
Thank you, Antwon for doing business with heart.
Story #2 – About C.H. Russell
C.H. ran a trucking company and was as passionate as we were about not just meeting, but beating our delivery deadlines.
When we had a job for him to deliver, he would take off right after loading and drive straight through to Kentucky, or Iowa or whatever the destination, arriving early the next morning, just in time for the recipient’s loading dock to open.
Once he helped them unload the truck (another unusual service), he would call us to announce in his celebratory voice, “Mission complete!”
It was not unusual for our customers to call us after C.H.’s departure to say, “That’s some trucking company you’ve got there!”
We admire the way C.H. did business with heart.
Story #3 – About Kermit & Company at Whole Foods
Kermit used to work at Wellspring Grocery (now Whole Foods) in Chapel Hill. He rescued our dog, Hurley, who had run away from home, gotten all the way to Whole Foods and then got hit by a car in front of the store.
When store employees couldn’t reach us by telephone, Kermit took Hurley to the vet and waited there until we arrived.
Anna, the store manager and several other employees called us that day and for about a week afterwards to check on Hurley’s condition.
We continue to be grateful that they all did business with heart.
Story #4 – About a Great Landlord
It snowed the other day and the landlord actually came out and shoveled the walkway himself!!!
The tenant/business owner was so impressed and appreciative that she decided to re-sign the lease (she had been a bit on the fence). And she called a friend about taking the empty space next door….because unlike many landlords who are never around and hardly seem to care…this landlord does business with heart.
For more stories, go to:
Additional stories have been shared in the comments section below. I hope you will join in. Include your e-mail address, in case we have questions for you! Don’t worry though – your e-mail address won’t be viewable by the public – unless you want it to be.
Also – in case you haven’t looked at them – here’s a link to read more about Heart Cards. Whether you use our Heart Cards to do it or not, we hope you will say thank you to those who do business with heart.
©2009 – Business Class Inc
Other Resources to Help Establish, Grow & Nurture a Culture of Doing Business with Heart :
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Don’t you love it? - a collection of stories
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Heart Cards – to help you nurture the “heart” culture
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Team Retreats & Coaching Programs to help you establish, grow and nurture a “heart” culture. Workshops also available upon request.
You Deserve a Break Today
If you’ve been managing tough times like the rest of us, pushing for, hoping for, wondering if you’ll ever get the morale and productivity boost you want and need, then this may be just the break you need.
Encouragement and how to’s from an insider at a company that prospered. Then stalled. And is now prospering again.
Read how and why that is happening in this great Harvard Business article entitled: What McDonald’s Can Teach Us About Recovery.
It’s written by Mats Lederhausen, who spent most of his career inside McDonald’s. First, flipping burgers, then advancing through the ranks and learning the the business from the inside out.
Staying Out There
Part #7 of the series on Managing Tough Times
Remember how Sally included her staff in the development of a Hunker Down Plan?
At that first meeting, in which she asked for their input on how to cut costs, she said:
“If my worst case revenue projections come true – we will have a $250,000 shortfall this year – which puts us in a bad situation with the bank.
“We certainly aren’t going to settle for this worst case scenario. We are taking charge. Staying out there. Acting boldly. And working on strategies for doing more of the same in order to boost sales. I’ll be asking for your input on that soon.”
She kept her promise and asked for their input on boosting sales at another staff meeting held a few weeks later. She started by Read more
12 Ways to Warm Cold Cuts
Part #6 of a series on managing tough times.
Layoffs. Reductions in pay and benefits. More work to do with fewer people and resources. Decisions perceived as good for the business – bad for the people.
Most managers and business owners hate making these cuts and do so only as part of the process to avoid the coldest cut of all – closing the business.
Their attempts to save the business often backfire. As they lower expenses, morale declines. So does loyalty. And productivity. Profitability too. All bad for the people AND the business.
If you need to make some of these tough, seemingly cold cuts for the financial health of your business but dread the impact on productivity and morale – theirs as well as your own – here are 12 ways to warm things up.
More! More! I Need More Help!
Note from Jan: This is part of a series on managing tough times. For full benefit, I encourage you to read the articles in sequence. For your convenience, here are the links to the first four:
#1 – 4 Musts for Managing Tough Times; #2 – Hunkering Down; #3 – Using All Your Strength; #4 – Need More Strength? What About Your Vendors?
Hope you enjoy!
What about your customers? Have you asked them for help?
Depending on the customer/vendor relationship, all kinds of things can be discovered by asking: Read more
Need More Strength? What About Your Vendors?
Note from Jan: This is part of a series on managing tough times. For full benefit, I encourage you to read the articles in sequence. For your convenience, here are the links to the first three:
#1 – 4 Musts for Managing Tough Times
#2 – Hunkering Down
#3 – Using All Your Strength.
Hope you enjoy!
Toiling away at your desk. Pouring over page after page of financial statements. Plugging “what if” numbers into spreadsheets. Maybe there is a mistake in the formulas? No such luck. Hopefully the staff will come through with some great ideas.
They probably will.
But while you are worriedly waiting, let me ask you this…..
Are you sure?
Are you sure you are using ALL of your strength?
Using All Your Strength
Note from Jan: This is the third in a series on managing tough times. For full benefit, I encourage you to read: 4 Musts for Managing Tough Times & Hunkering Down before reading this article.
So —are you using all of your strength?
The best success I’ve experienced with big budget problems (other kinds as well) came about by involving others. Staff members always came up with far more ideas than I did on my own (one time we came up with a list of 100 ways to save money!). Plus they were much more committed Read more
Hunkering Down
This is a follow up to “4 Musts for Managing Tough Times“. Please read that article before hunkering down to read this one.
PLEASE. Don’t just hunker down. It’s important to take charge. Stay out there. Act boldly. AND then just in case… hunker down.
And please don’t read this article until you have set an expense reduction goal. If you are one of many who wants to skip this step, please go back and do this first. Otherwise you’ll just be burning (your time) while reading.
Got your goal?
Good.
It’s design time!
If your goal isn’t huge and if you haven’t already spent some time searching for them – it may be real easy to spot ways to cut back with little pain and just enough gain.
If not – then another line by line study of each expense category may do the trick if you ask yourself questions like:
4 Musts for Managing Tough Times
A group of business owners recently attended a workshop on doing business in a recession. The facilitator told them to cut costs, cut employee hours and raise prices. When it was all over, many participants asked themselves and each other, “Okay but —- how?’.
As they talked about this, I could hear frustration in their voices. And could see fear on their faces. Or maybe I was projecting my own feelings – re-living some tough times of my own.
Yes - I’ve had lots of experience – not with a recession quite like this – but with major budget crunches. Very challenging ones. Lots of perseverance needed. And creative problem solving. And teamwork. Resulting in lessons learned that I’d like to share here - hoping to help anyone hoping for help.
The Hot Dog Story
The economy had taken an unfavorable turn and so had our close rate. Objections were getting tougher – in particular and understandably – the ones about budget. A group of us were commiserating in the sales room. We were worried and wondered how we might bide our time until things loosened up. A vacation perhaps?
Dan, our sales manager, must have been able to hear some of this from wherever he was at the time, because he swooped into the room as he tended to do and said, “Have you guys heard the hot dog story?” Read more
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