“You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself.”
– Galileo
Author: Andrew John Harrison Page 28 of 32
Leadership Advocate and Co-Founder of the Goldzone Group. I help leaders to master the new rules of leadership for the new economy. Over the past 30 years, I have visited more than 500 cities in 54 countries to explore, learn from, and help many of the world's leading companies, leaders, and luminaries in science, technology, health, finance, and entrepreneurship.
A recent study of 30,000 workers showed that individuals suffering from depression took an average of 30 days off work while stress-sufferers were away for 21 days.
This research shows just how important it is for managers and HR professionals to take early action to support individuals before their condition deteriorates into a long-term sick leave problem.
– Chartered Institute of Personal Development
Not knowing what you are feeling is not the same as not feeling anything. – Andrew John Harrison
Many people who deny their feelings in order to make rational decisions are inadvertently making emotional decisions.
If you ignore, suppress or deny the emotional aspect – you will end up being totally influenced by the emotion. All the while, you’re thinking you are using reason and being totally rational!
The best decisions are made after taking into account how something feels – then making an optimum decision that includes logic, reason and emotion.
There are five primary reasons why people procrastinate:
1) Too much or too little information
2) Lack of emotional energy
3) Hoping things will change on their own
4) Afraid of making a mistake
5) Attached to current results
It is a mistake to overlook the fact that no decision is a decision.
Have you ever had a positive experience that you couldn’t forget? One that made a lasting impression on you? We call these “WOW Experiences.”
Over the c0ming years, we will be writing more about WOW Experiences and how you can create these in your everyday life, relationships and business.
The below article is from 2002 however, it is as relevant today as ever!
From Service Economy to Experience Economy
For years now, the world’s developed nations have seen a steady migration from producing goods to providing services. Based on current figures available, on average the service sectors represent 65% to 80% of total GDP, with Industry around 30% and Agriculture ranging from a 1% for the United Kingdom, 1.7% for the United States and 7.4% for New Zealand.
Much of the manufacturing has moved to the lower cost emerging economies, which have seen a migration from the Agriculture sectors to Industry. As the emerging economies have competed with each other for manufacturing business, their competency and capacity to add value through services have increased and become a strategic competitive advantage.
In the United States, 65 of the top 100 companies are from the service sector and the Bureau of Labor Statistics figures for the decade ending in 2010, predicts that goods-producing industries (like mining, construction, and manufacturing) will create 1.3 million new jobs, compared to 20 million for the service sector.
So the service sector continues to provide the majority of new jobs and fuels economic growth for most of the world’s economies.
The most significant trend in the service economy is the move towards experiences. It is no longer enough to provide an adequate service that meets or even exceeds expectations. In order to build a long-term relationship that compels clients to return over and over, it is necessary to provide a WOW Experience that is unforgettable and has them telling all their friends and associates.
WOW Experiences, are the strategic differentiator that will have one service provider stand out from another.
Here are some examples of WOW Experiences in action.
On a business trip, we checked into one of our favorite Hotels – the Ritz-Carlton. We stay with them frequently so they have gotten to know us, and our preferences. On this occasion, we not only paid the lowest rate possible for a standard room but were automatically upgraded to a $750 a night Club Suite. One of the best features of this property is their Ritz-Carlton Club. They serve complimentary drinks, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks in between. We proceeded to have back to back meetings and not only had our meetings in the Club meeting room, but our guests also helped themselves to meals, drinks, and cappuccinos all day.
We were fully expecting to be billed for the extra guests and at the end of our stay the Club Manager winked and said don’t worry about it! WOW!
On another occasion, we were at the Ritz-Carlton Resort & Spa in Bali. This has got to be one of the best resorts on the planet! The Hotel made a small mistake around our allocated room – and before we could say anything asked “how can we make it up to you? Would you like a free meal, or perhaps a massage for you both?”
We both spoke in unison “the massage would be nice!” Upon returning to our room, we noticed that there was an incense burner in the bathroom. It was filled with the most beautiful smelling oils. So we called the Butler in the Club and asked if they had any in the shop that we could buy to take home with us. They called right back and said, “I am sorry the shop is out of stock, so is the spa and housekeeping had run out also.
We were disappointed but quickly let it go. A half hour later the doorbell rang and a Balinese Maid was standing at the door with a huge beaming smile “here you go” and handed us a huge unmarked bottle. WOW, they had searched high and low around the resort to locate the only bottle on the property – in order to make us happy. “How much do we owe you?” we asked. “Nothing” she replied. WOW.
At the end of our stay, we asked for a car to deliver us to the airport. No problem. “How much do we owe you,” we asked. “Well, the usual charge is US$25 to the airport, but for you no charge.”
WOW, thank you!
We take the concept of WOW Experiences very seriously and are constantly looking for ways to provide these to our clients. On one occasion a client was flying in to meet us from Hong Kong. At the time, we had rented a beachfront Villa at the Le Meridien Resort & Spa, which was over an hours drive from the airport. As this client had never flown in a helicopter, we arranged to have them met at the airport and secretly whisked to the helipad. You can image the delight and surprise of their first flight in a helicopter! A definite WOW Experience!
Contrast these experiences with a recent stay at the Five Star Stamford Plaza Hotel in Auckland, New Zealand. In this case, we paid for an upgrade to an Executive Club Room. The first thing that went wrong was our first room service order, and then our second order and then the third was wrong too.
Then on the second day, as we were in the Club Lounge surfing the Internet, a carpenter began to dismantle the room around us! Huh, “what is going on?” we asked the carpenter. he said, “We are renovating the Lounge and the Business Center”. Oh, “how come no one mentioned this to us, and why are we paying for an upgrade when we can’t even use the Lounge?” we asked the Hotel Staff. “Not to worry”, they said, “it will be finished by the end of next week, sorry for the inconvenience.”
What? We called the front office and asked for the upgrade to be refunded. To give you the short version we had to argue with the Hotel to get what we wanted, and in the end, they never made any attempt to make amends for the problems and only did the minimum necessary.
This is what you would describe as a “negative wow experience” where we will advise our friends, and associates to not stay with this Hotel.
More than any other time in history it is no longer adequate to do the minimum necessary. In order to make it in the hyper-competitive economy of the future, it is necessary to provide WOW experiences.
© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.
Your purpose is your reason for being, for existing. It is what gets you up in the morning and provides meaning for your life. Often, our sense of purpose comes from our deepest essence – our core – and includes knowing who we are, where we come from, and where we are going.
Most people have a natural desire to contribute… to make a difference. Typically, our purpose is a combination of expressing our unique gifts or talents in a vocation (work, career or profession that is inspired) that contributes to others.
What about a self-serving purpose? This is possible and many people are driven in this way. However, the biggest challenge that results from this kind of purpose is a lack of fulfillment.
Fulfillment is the result of being on purpose in a way that makes a difference to others.
“When an old and distinguished person speaks to you, listen carefully and with respect – but do not believe him. Never put your trust in anything but your own intellect. Your elder, no matter whether he has gray hair or has lost his hair, no matter whether he is a Nobel laureate, may be wrong. The world progresses, year by year, century by century, as the members of the younger generation find out what was wrong among the things that their elders said. So you must always be skeptical – always think for yourself. There are, of course, exceptional circumstances: when you are taking an examination, it is smart to answer the questions not by saying what you think is right, but rather what you think the professor thinks is right.”
– Linus Pauling (1901-1994), Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1954, Nobel Peace Prize 1962
“More than half of Americans suffer from one or more chronic diseases. Each year millions of people are diagnosed with chronic disease, and millions more die from their condition. By our calculations, the most common chronic diseases are costing the economy more than $1 trillion annually – and that figure threatens to reach $6 trillion by the middle of the century.
“Yet much of this cost is avoidable. This failure to contain the containable is undermining prospects for extending health insurance coverage and for coping with the medical costs of an aging population. The rising rate of chronic disease is a crucial but frequently ignored contributor to growth in medical expenditures.”
– An Unhealthy America: The Economic Burden of Chronic Disease (courtesy of Milken Institute)
“People don’t want to be managed. They want to be led. Whoever heard of a world manager? World leader, yes. Educational leader. Political leader. Religious leader. Scout leader. Community leader. Labor leader. Business leader. They lead. They don’t manage. The carrot always wins over the stick. Ask your horse. You can lead your horse to water, but you can’t manage him to drink. If you want to manage somebody, manage yourself. Do that well and you’ll be ready to stop managing and start leading.”
– As published in the Wall Street Journal by United Technologies Corporation