Exceeding Customer Expectations Every Time
Customers don`t care how much you know until they know how much you care!

Customer service isn`t enough anymore. The times have changed. The customers have changed. The minimum goal now is customer care.

The drive for quality started it. As customers` dollars shrank during the recession, customers started asking a lot more questions. They would stand there reading the fine print on warranties. They would come back at you with blunt questions about financing plans. They might buy, but they couldn`t be sold, at least not as readily.

Selling in this environment requires more than just knowing your product, and believing in it and your services enough to project yourself with confidence. Selling has become customer-centered, not product-centered. The minimum goal is, clearly, Exceed the Customer`s Expectation Every Time.

Twenty-seven percent of American companies already use some measure of customer satisfaction in their sales-incentive programs. Another twenty-three percent are weighing which measure to add. At some companies, as much as forty percent of the salespeople`s commissions are determined by assessment of customer satisfaction. Some companies are becoming as blunt as the customers became: They ask their major customers to grade their account reps from "A" to "F" Reps expecting an "A" had better reach out with the goal of customer care.

Clearly, no longer is the question simply: Did you make the sale? The more telling question is: Will we have this customer next time?

The Man In Charge
Leadership is more about responsibility than ability. Honesty, creating a positive climate, and trusting people are the important character traits of a leader. All too often, unfortunately, people with those strengths lack the courage or initiative to "step up."

Courage is a learned trait either from example (parent, teacher) or from experience. A leader must not be afraid to fail. The measure of a leader is not that he/she might fail, but how that person bounces back!

Initiative is also a learned trait, either by example or role model or an intrinsic willingness to help others.

As a kid, I wanted to be a coach. My role model was my father. And while he never pushed me to follow my goal, what he did by his actions showed me the positive and rewarding side of leadership. It has become a life-long project: first as a sports coach, next a school principal and district superintendent, as well as an NFL referee.

Improving Employee Enthusiasm and Resourcefulness
When thinking about how to correct self-defeating patterns, it helps to ask yourself: "What would I think of the choices I have been making if a teenager I loved were making the same ones?"

We don`t allow our children to adopt habits that are damaging to themselves or others. All too often, though, we are more lenient with ourselves than we would be with our children. Perhaps this is because we have the mistaken idea that self-defeat is a victimless crime.

One lesson we learn from football is that the more self-discipline you apply to yourself, the better you will be and the better off those around you (crew mates, teammates, etc.) will be. That interaction works in life as well.

Together Everyone Accomplishes More
My responsibilities over a 30+ year period as a teacher-coach-high school principal and District Superintendent created a fundamental belief that if a decision affects others in the process, it is wise to involve each of them in the process of the decision.

Further, as a National Football League Referee for over a 30+ year tenure, my approach to making our crew (T.E.A.M.) the best it could be was by building chemistry among the crew. I was also privileged to be on the field to observe the T.E.A.M. building philosophies of legendary NFL Coaches Don Shula, John Madden, Vince Lombardi, George Halas, Chuck Noll, as well as many others.

Living Every Day for Peak Performance
To sustain top performance, we must develop and maintain balance in our lives -- between work and play, between the fiscal and the physical, between duty to others and duty to ourselves.

In today`s fragmented and pressured pace, achieving wellness -- the combined condition of your physical and mental health -- is often an early casualty of too many options. It takes a smart, even artful, integration of lifestyle and workstyle to create a balanced life, one that is smoothly conducted with vigor, intelligence, and individuality.