You remember the playground tease, “when they look up _______ in the dictionary, there’s a picture of you.” What an inspiration for a legacy.

Steve Jobs means many things to the world. Loved and sometimes hated, at the helm of Apple he has innovated, he has shipped on time, and he has brought amazing vision while maintaining focus to a talented company.

Yesterday’s announcement that he will be stepping aside as CEO has been a lingering “when” not “if” announcement, but it still rattled the interwebs.

I wish Steve the best of luck. Having walked the path of liver disease with my father, I know the difficulty of the journey. I deeply understand the disbelief of the helplessness that we have of such a debilitating yet seemingly incurable disease. And, yet I still have a hope that he can bring innovation to healthcare as he has to technology in the next step in his journey.

I am, however, left wondering: what is the psuedo-wiki page that someone might throw up in the wake of my own life? What legacy am I building?

Did Steve Jobs build the legacy as an innovator by answering every “urgent” email about customer complaints? As CEO did he get down into the weeds of personnel issues? Probably not. The danger that we all face is paying the right attention to the wrong problems, and that is not legacy building activity.

So, how do you fill in the blank to the statement: “when they look up _______ in the dictionary, there’s a picture of you”?

Sometimes I hear people share metrics that are like giving a map to a blind man that is lost in the desert at night. “Great we’re lost as hell, and you’ve given us no idea how to get back on track.”

So, the question is how can you share information that helps people:

1. Know the destination
2. Measure progress toward the destination
3. Stay on track

Metrics are only helpful when they are related to your destination. In an information-rich world, it is so easy to focus on the wrong measurement. If I am driving a vehicle to Los Angeles, knowing my distance from New York City is readily attainable and absolutely useless.

Image used under creative commons license by gjofili.

It’s Saturday morning. Lawn tractors all over the country are in high gear (except for the fact that every last blade is scorched in heat wave ’11). If you listen carefully, you can hear something over the hum of the over-horsepowered engines–it’s ideation in high gear.

How many times have you heard someone say, “I had a great idea in the shower this morning” or even “when I was on the mower, I had a thought?” On the other hand, when have you heard “I had an idea while I was answering email today?” While weed eating, we actually have nothing else to do than think.

Several of my friends have a “lawn service,” and I feel sorry for them. They are depriving themselves of the opportunity to have undistracted thought time under the guise of personal economics–”my billable is 3 times that of the lawn service.” Here is the problem with that, most of my knowledge working friends have the input on high gear and quiet time on mute. Who knows what million dollar idea will be hatched from the safe perch of a Cub Cadet this weekend.

So, what’s your idea haven? Have you ever had brilliant ideas on a mower? (leave a comment below)

As a bonus, here’s a great little piece about lawns in the us from CBS Sunday Morning:

Thumbnail and main image used under creative commons license.

…at something. We all do.  While we could quite possibly spend hours and blood, sweat, and tears trying to improve our weaknesses, all of that effort may move the needle, a little bit.

Despite being a fierce competitor on the football field, my father had a smaller build than many of the collegiate atheletes. He always wanted to beef up his “chicken legs.” He did squats, calf raises, and lifts but his legs never seemed to get much bigger. His true, natural-born, strength was in leadership, and within a few years into his college scholarship, he became the captain of the football team–chicken legs and all.

I have taken a number of personality profiles over the years, Profile XT, Craft Profile, Meyers Briggs, DiSC, and Strengths Finder to name a few. I tend to “learn” about deficiencies in my character and “type” of worker that I am, but StrengthsFinder is different. The resulting report provides insight into the strengths and competencies in which I am predisposed.

Tom Rath’s basic premise of Strengths Finder, is captured in the second paragraph of the book:

We were tired of living in a world that revolved around fixing our weaknesses. Society’s relentless focus on people’s shortcomings had turned into a global obsession. What’s more, we had discovered that people have several times more potential for growth when they invest energy in developing their strengths instead of correcting their deficiencies.

As a result of the test, my “top 5″ strengths are as follows:

Ideation – People who are especially talented in the Ideation theme are fascinated by ideas. They are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena.

Strategic – People who are especially talented in the Strategic theme create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.

Activator – People who are especially talented in the Activator theme can make things happen by turning thoughts into action. They are often impatient.

Communication – People who are especially talented in the Communication theme generally find it easy to put their thoughts into words. They are good conversationalists and presenters.

Futuristic – People who are especially talented in the Futuristic theme are inspired by the future and what could be. They inspire others with their visions of the future.

The Strengths Insight and Action-Planning Guide detail  includes full descriptions of these strengths and Applicaiton items includes a number of exercises to enhance each of the strengths. For example, one of the suggestions under Ideation is: “Finish your thoughts and ideas before communicating them. Lacking your Ideation talents, others might not be able to “join the dots” of an interesting but incomplete idea and thus might dismiss it.”

Here are links to the hardback and Kindle version of StrengthsFinder. If you haven’t taken it, it is well worth the 30 minutes.

Are you a natural born leader with chicken legs? What are your natural strengths that you are ignoring?

Thumbnail photo and post photo are used under creative commons license. The links to the hardback and kindle versions of the book are affiliate links through amazon.com.

A few weeks ago another partner of Bluegill and I spoke with a recent college graduate seeking one of those non-existent, executive level, no-experience, marketing jobs. She had a number of questions for us about the industry, and the opportunities that she might pursue while tracking down a job. Then she asked, “what does the agency look like in 2015?”

Today, I blogged a response over on the Bluegill Blog.

[wp_connect_like_button href="http://www.jeremyfloyd.com/?p=771" send_button="disabled" layout="standard" width="600" show_faces="enabled" verb="like" colorscheme="light" font="arial" ref="" /]

Several months ago, I read Tony Hsieh’s Delivering Happiness. The words on the page were comfortable like slipping on a pair of broken-in house shoes. As I have transitioned in my career from a front-line customer contact to a consultant, I have met so many people that consider customer service to be pedestrian and beneath them. Successful businesses, on the other hand, understand the value and priority of exceptional customer service.

In recent weeks, I contrasted customer service experiences good and  bad that gave me a platform to discuss customer service. In this conclusion post, I wanted to wrap up some ideas related to those two experiences and provide some thoughts on what it means to be remarkable in customer service.

Based on the stories, I put together a short list of some of the customer service vices and victories illustrated in the two previous posts. This list is not exhaustive, but these are very common issues in all lines of business.

1. Who’s Your Customer? So commonly, employees and even businesses misidentify their customers as those that sign their checks (their bosses) or the one that shouts the loudest (investors). In every business there is one true customer that is the primary reason for existence. There may be multiple “customers,” but one is the sole reason for that person or business to have a job. Despite the difficulty of untangling the competing customers, identifying the one true customer provides a lens by which daily decisions should be made: “How does this affect my customer?”
2. Last Touch Luster - Retailers know that one of the most critical customer service positions is their cashiers. Whether they always deliver is another question. The cashier is usually the last touch point in the customer experience. If the customer has experienced mediocre customer service, the cashier can usually end the trip on an up note. On the other hand, if you had a delightful shopping experience and then meet long lines only to find a bitchy cashier who’s ready for a smoke break, a perfectly remarkable experience can quickly sour. What is the last touch point in your business? Is it delivering a consistent or enhanced experience?
   In both flight experiences, I encountered ticket agents, gate agents, pilots, and flight attendants, but my last touch point was the flight attendant, which colored the experiences.
3. To Thine Own Role Be True – Have you ever had a waiter make a management decision? “No sir, we will not re-cook that steak…it is only slightly overcooked.” This phenomena often occurs because of the confusion of the customer (i.e. the first point)–the employee is assuming that their customer is their boss and not the customer that is seated in front of them. The employee should be empowered to make decisions on behalf of their customer, but the employee should never take on more responsibility than they have when telling the customer “no.”
   In my experience with the American Airlines flight attendant, he assumed more responsibility than he actually had, which was quickly undermined by the captain of the plane.
4. Seek first to understand - Steve Covey said it best but understanding is foundational to communication, and communication is key to service. So often we zoom through listening as part of communication and get right to the point of our assumption. Unfortunately, our assumptions are built on previous experiences that have nothing to do with the present circumstances. Observing and listening the situation can go a long way to making a customer service superstar.
   In my experience, the American flight attendant simply didn’t understand the circumstances. Taking two minutes to listen to the situation would have likely yielded very different treatment. Instead, his assumption was that a group of guys in Tijuana Mexico meant a raucous party (not a mission trip). His assumption was wrong and resulted in a miserable experience.
5. Admit Your Faults – Finally, two of the most important and often neglected words are “I’m Sorry.” You can’t please everyone, but you can tear down the impenetrable wall of defiance by simply saying, “I screwed up, and I am sorry.” Hopefully, there are few occasions to utter an apology, but there are times that an apology can simply wash away the anxiety and reaction of a negative experience.

Regardless of whether we are discussing the airline industry, hospitality, retail or professional services, we are ALL in the customer service business. It has always been important, and service will be a critical factor of success in business in the future.

Tell me about your recent excellent or dreadful customer service experience.

[wp_connect_comments href="http://www.jeremyfloyd.com/?p=771" width="600" num_posts="6" colorscheme="light" /]

Only one week after the American Eagle situation, I had an experience on a Delta flight from Atlanta to Knoxville that was truly remarkable.

Image used via creative commons license via @kevinkluu

After boarding the plane, my business partner and I were seated directly in front of the bulk head (the same seat as the other flight). The flight attendant leaned against the flight cabin door with perturbed demeanor. With each question, he would roll his eyes and say something under his breath like, “If you’d just listen, you wouldn’t have to ask all these questions.” He was clearly from Jamaica with a very thick accent. Occasionally, he would roll his eyes and shoot a grimace to the passengers in the front of the plane.

Then we were told that the plane needed to be refueled before taxiing to the runway. This gave plenty of opportunity for the passengers to interact with the flight attendant. Each time, he was less than enthused, but he was not confrontational.

Finally, after the plane was fueled and the main door closed, our flight attendant changed demeanor. He stood tall, stretched his arms and then drew the handset to his mouth like a professional referee in a Las Vegas boxing match: “GOOD AFTERNOON LADIES AND GENTLEMEN AND WELCOME ABOARD. My name is Rinsky and I will be your flight attendant today. It’s a short flight to Knoxville, but I aim to make it the highlight of your day. No, I don’t have a Jamaican accent; I’m from Arkansas. My job is to make you smile and enjoy the brief time that you are on the flight. You may hate airports, you may hate Delta, but while you are on this plane my goal is to make you like me. So, if I can do ANYTHING to make your trip better than it is right now, let me know.”

The laughter echoed the plane, and passengers that were once fearful of his terse demeanor were so pleasantly surprised that they were engaging with him as he walked up and down the aisle. Not a single announcement was read and every time he made a public address, it seemed fresh as though we had never heard the instructions to fasten and release our seat belts.

The plane landed without incident and Rinsky was truly the star of the day. After landing, I told his story over and over because he delivered happiness.

In the final post of this series, I am going to comment on the customer service principals of these two stories.

We are all in the customer service business. Sometimes we don’t correctly identify our “customers,” but we are all in the customer service business nevertheless. In the course of the next three posts, I am going to tell two personal customer service stories, and in the third I’ll reflect on some of the principals that deliver a remarkable experience.

First Story

About three weeks ago, I was returning from Tijuana, Mexico where I spent a week with a group of about 10 guys working at an orphanage and in an impoverished area called the Colonia (a village that is literally built on a land fill). On the 6th day of our trip, I became very sick (I don’t want to talk about the pineapple popsicle). I spent two days depleting far more liquids than I could replenish. After a very rough second night, I visited a local doctor in Tijuana (suffice it to say that I’ve been in more sterile Veterinary offices); he gave me about four shots and almost immediately improved my sickness. In addition, he changed my antibiotic to Bactrim.

The next day, we crossed the border and boarded a flight from San Diego to Chicago. That flight was mostly uneventful. About an hour before landing my shoulders became very tight. After we landed, I went to our departing gate and called my wife to describe my symptoms to her. Suddenly, all of my joints began locking up. My vision began to black out, and my heart was racing. I felt like I was going to pass out.

Needless to say, I was very concerned. Should I call 911 and go to a hospital in Chicago? Should I “tough out” the flight to Knoxville? The cooler heads of the group suggested that hypothetically it would be faster to take the 45 minute flight to Knoxville and go to the Emergency Room there than to take a risk on going to a crowded Chicago hospital. I’m not sure whether they proffered this logic to ensure they would sleep in their own bed that night or whether they truly believed it, either way it made sense to me.

By the time that we were supposed to board the American Airlines (American Eagle) plane, the joints in my hands were locking up and extremely painful–I could not even pick up my carry on luggage, and I was panicking. One of my friends on the trip explained my situation to the gate agent and carried my bag onto the plane. After reissuing my ticket to give me a row to myself, I was assisted down the jet way by several friends on the trip. As I recall, it seemed like I was ‘stealing shoes from K-mart’ my stride was no more than 6 inches down the jet way, and when made it to the bottom to board the plane I was even more weak and confused.

As I entered the plane, I could hear an exchange between the flight attendant and my friend who had carried my bag: “I need to know whether there is a security threat or a medical emergency. This PLANE ISN’T GOING ANYWHERE UNTIL I SAY SO. Where is your “FRIEND?”

Tension was thick. The passenger on the 4th row became very alarmed, but the flight attendant told her to be quiet. When he turned to go to the back of the plane, he interrupted a conversation between 2 of the guys that was with our group, and he asked “Excuse me? What did you say?”

“I wasn’t talking to you; I was talking to the gentleman across the aisle from me,” our group member said.

Inflamed the flight attendant shouted, “Have you been drinking? I smell a strong presence of alcohol.”

Another man of our group said, “Sir, we have been working in an orphanage for a week. No one in our group has had any alcohol this week.”

“I need for you to exit the plane sir.” The flight attendant said to him.

Then for the next few minutes, the flight attendant conducted an impromptu interrogation with several of the men in our group. Finally, I was asked to leave the plane and explain to the captain and the flight attendant my situation. The flight attendant was noticeably angry and sweating, and he wanted a full account of my story. After I explained the situation, again, we boarded the plane.

After a few snide remarks from the flight attendant during the flight announcements, we were clear for takeoff, finally. Despite great fear of passing out through the flight, I made it to Knoxville. The flight attendant never changed his abrasive demeanor. After spending that night in the hospital and the next days recovering, I finally discovered that I was having an allergic reaction to the sulfa in the antibiotic. Of the whole experience, first and foremost I will never forget the Mexican bathrooms, but in all seriousness that American Airlines flight attendant will always remind me of the horribly embarrassing experience I had with their airlines.

Photo used under creative commons license by @lrargerich

Today, I had lunch with one of my best friends, Mark Schaefer. Mark and I first met in 2008 after I direct messaged him through twitter suggesting that we meet for lunch. We met at Aubrey’s and let a lunch hour slip into the afternoon as we began telling our stories. Instantly, we were friends. Within weeks, we began working on several marketing projects together.

Since then, about once a month, we meet at the home or away Aubrey’s to catch up, talk about technology, chat about marketing opportunities, or just hang out. Today was one of our regularly scheduled meetings. It’s the first time we’ve had lunch since SoSlam, which  Mark was instrumental in making a phenomenal success. After catching up for a bit, Mark, like any good dyed in the wool evangelist, laid into me: “You’re a good a writer.”

“Well, thanks Mark.”

“But, no one knows it. You haven’t written in…”

Me: “a while, I know.”

Now, I have been blogging since 2003, so I’m not uninitiated. I advocate my clients to blog on a regular basis, and I frequently create social media strategies for clients. However, for a hundred reasons, I have walked away from blogging, seemingly altogether.

Rather than raise the false pretense of impeccable authority, I raised some sincere questions to Mark. After all, Mark has procured teaching gigs at Pellissippi and Rutgers, a consulting gig with the British Consulate, and consulting relationships throughout the world, so he can attest to the success of blogging first hand. Here are a few of the exchanges that we had:

1. I don’t know where to write. Between Posterous, WordPress, Tumblr, Blogger, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn I have forgotten where I should be writing. In reply Mark suggested that I pick one and ride the horse. I guess jeremyfloyd.com is as good as any.

2. Which audience should I write to? Mark very appropriately said, “your content will attract the right readers. Don’t try to ‘brand’ yourself. Be yourself, and you will attract an audience that supports you.”

3. What do I write about? Related to #2, I was really struggling with my brand. I want to write about leadership, but I also think and work in the marketing field quite a bit. Oh yeah, and I’m a hard-core geek. While I’ve heard this answer from him before, today it took on a more nuanced meaning, “Go into WordPress and create 25 blog potential posts. The first 9-10 are going to be easy, but as you work through the last 15, you are really going to start to identify the content that you are passionate about.”

4. But, I tweet all the time. Mark didn’t take this one on directly, but I know that I spend so much time on Twitter that I seldom take time to blog. The result? Because Twitter is so instant and so instantly dated, it has no lasting value. While hilarious, even poignant tweets may be shared, they have little archive value. Twitter is not a place to archive ideas.

5. What’s in it for me? I have been less than methodical about posting to my blog, but Mark took an opportunity to remind me that I need to change that. Committing to at least a post a week can make significant ripples in my natural communities. Merely having great ideas and sharing them over lunch is but vapor in a world of data, indexing, and searching. Sharing ideas and continuing the practice of writing is the key to opening doors nationally and even internationally to my personal brand.

So, not unlike a couple on their twenty-fifth anniversary, I find myself at the alter renewing my vows. To you jeremyfloyd.com I commit to update thee with regularity, in sickness and in health, when witty and when dull, with great thoughts and not-so-brilliant aberrations.

Wow. I said it, I’m sorry.

Despite a little hit to my ego and the fraction of a second it takes to type or utter these two words, it doesn’t really cost anything to say, “I’m sorry.” Not saying them, however, can cost thousands even millions of dollars, split up marriages, drive wedges in families, and result in years of litigation.

It seems to me that as a culture we’ve adopted a hard stance against the two words, and when someone humbly utters them it’s newsworthy. Last week Jim Joyce made headlines when he apologized to Armando Galarraga for blowing a call, which instantly destroyed Galarraga’s perfect game. He said the magic words, I’m sorry-I screwed up.

Somewhere between little league and the big league we get out of practice of apology. We build better justifications, bigger blame, and less frequently simply say sorry.