When you help someone up a hill, you find yourself closer to the top. ~ Brownie Wise
Service to others. It seems like a lost art in our “service economy”. Regardless of how many bad experiences we have with certain business, the companies and people that are finding ways to serve the masses are the ones that are profitable and living fulfilled lives.
We talked last week and this week about value creation and its’ different components. Service to others goes hand in hand with the value creation message. If you want to achieve true and lasting success, how you impact people’s lives for the better will dictate your success. It seems counter-intuitive to think that looking out for others actually serves our interest. We seem to have a real misconception about what capitalism is all about and how to effectively work within the system. It’s one of the biggest complaints I have about our current capitalistic mindset. The mindset is to get ahead, I have to stomp someone else out of the picture. If you have success, that means there is less for me. These limiting mindset end up working against us in our business or at our job because we forget about the people who matter; our customer, our teammates and our employees.
A great service story for me is that of Chick-Fil-A. Is this place not the most friendly fast food place in the country? While living in north Denver in 2004, I accepted a move with my company to Colorado Springs. For a period of 3 months I commuted 50+ miles to work each day while we looked for a place to live. Every morning I took the toll road (E470) and stopped at Chick-Fil-A for breakfast. On my first visit, I literally thought the kid who was helping me was mocking me because he was so friendly. It actually pissed me off at first. It was upon stopping a few more times for their delicious chicken biscuit sandwiches that I realized that this was how they rolled. I went from suspicious to impressed. I have had similarly great exeriences with Chick-Fil-A in different cities in different states. Enough so that I know it’s not an accident. Service is what they are about. If you don’t believe me, go to a Chick-Fil-A on a Wednesday night for family night. The experience is positive and says to me, we care about you teh customer and we most likely treat our employees well too.
That’s my story of service to other in action from the corporate side. I realize that there are other ways to serve outside of business as well. We will talk about Philanthropy from a business owner’s standpoint later this week. How do you create value for people? This can be at your job or in your business. What are your experiences that you would like to share about service done right? How are you helping others in your journey to the top?
PS. It’s podcast Wednesday click the button below to listen to this week’s podcast on value creation.