Days Like Today...David Spiegel

This is a guest entry from my friend and fraternity brother, David Spiegel. He's a hard-working, deep-loving family and business person who shares his insights on a daily (almost!) basis. I like the positive nature of this entry and I have some leadership questions for you to contemplate after reading...

Today is one of the days of the year that I truly enjoy.

As the rest of the world seems to be shutting down from the mundane and gearing up for the upcoming holiday,we are busy doing business!

When I arrived at The Grooming Shoppe this morning, Becca had already opened, brought in our first client, put on the Christmas music and straightened and cleaned up the front end. We were ready for action on what should be one of our busiest days of the year. Truth be told, we were actually busier on the Saturday before Christmas last year. It was the single busiest day we ever had.

It's not that we have any less business. On the contrary. Becca has done a marvelous job of scheduling before the holiday. She chose to open last Monday (we are normally closed Sunday & Monday) as well as tomorrow,the Sunday before Christmas. In those two days we will bring in an additional 2 dozen dogs and no body had to kill themselves on any 1 given day.

By 8:30 this morning, 2 dogs were in the door, bathed and on the tables getting groomed. I love the energy! I don't know when this whole concept of shutting down for days on end before a holiday began. I hate it!

If you have ever watched A Christmas Carroll, in Dickenens' time, Scrooge wakes up on Christmas morning and yells out "hey boy" to the young lad walking past his window. The streets are a bustle and Scrooge sends him to the butcher shop (which is open!) to get that goose hanging in the window.

I love it!

To me, it's all part of the magic and mystique that surrounds the holiday.

Tomorrow around 5 p.m., our last dogs will be getting their finishing touches. After they leave,we will clean up as we do at the end of each day and the end of each week. Some gifts will be exchanged. An envelope with a special "thank you" will be handed out, and hugs and kisses given out. A little while later, we will wrap up the day. We will turn off the lights and as we put the key in the door to lock up, I will take one long last look into the shop and acknowledge that it really is A Wonderful Life! Shabbat Shalom!

-- David Spiegel

Leadership Calls to Action

What's your busiest time of year? Is it busier this year than last?
What small changes can you make in your schedule to to both better the experience and convenience for your customers AND make your own work easier to perform?
Have you appreciated the people you work with this week? What can you do that is above and beyond the ordinary to show your appreciation even more?
Are you taking care of yourself this holiday season? What will you do (or could you do!) to build better balance in your life and relax into true joy?

Comments

Get Going!

What goal are you working on? Maybe you don't spend every minute of every day working on your goals. I certainly don't. But when I do work on my goals they propel me forward. They get me going. Find your favorite goal. Work on it. Even if you start with the smallest task. Put one task after the other like little steps leading to a lofty elevation. Goals get us going. Because standing still goes nowhere. -- Doug Smith

Now Means Now

How do you feel when someone says that they will do something right away, and then they don't? When I say "now!" I mean immediately, and without over-thinking. never under estimate the temptation to overthink (I think I just did!) When is now? How about now? -- Doug smith Looking for leadership training? That's what I do: doug smith training

Power In Your Foundation

Where do you start? When you're building a team. When you're starting a project. When your developing a career. When you bonding a relationship. Build a strong enough foundation and your subsequent mistakes won't matter. Take the time to create the agreements, the conditions, the promises that you keep. Take the time to steady the ship and the waves won't matter. Sure, problems will bother you. Certainly, mistakes will sometimes hurt. But that strong foundation that you build creates resiliency that will see you through. Why not build for the long, long term? -- Douglas Brent Smith

Promise and then Deliver

Be careful what you promise to gain a new customer. They are only new for a day. After that, expectations continue even if you forget your promise. Be careful what you promise. Do you have what you need to give your customers what they want? Because probably, what they want, is what you've promised. -- doug smith

More Than Convenience

This is probably get some disagreement. We've come to rely so much on one particular trait of business, probably even more than price. Convenience. We make so many decisions based on how EASY a transaction is. It's so much EASIER than ever before and we've all been spoiled by click-and-ship that anything with any friction whatsoever gets passed over. That's an understandable decision, but not always the best one. Convenience is great, but no substitute for quality. Hamburgers are convenient but wouldn't you rather eat a steak? (please excuse me my vegetarian and vegan friends.) Social media is convenient but how about the depth and richness of a long face to face conversation with a dear friend? I advocate that we consider other measures in our important decisions. Measures other than convenience: Quality Durability Care Beauty Drama What would you add to the list? Convenience is a poor measure of quality. Let's consider everything else that makes business -- a...

Communicate!

A lack of communication is often interpreted as a lack of care. -- Doug Smith

Expanding Capacity

High performance leaders expand capacity by constantly developing their people. How does your team grow? How can you get more done with less? There are many answers to the question of increasing capacity and responsible leaders explore them all, including improving processes and design. It's also important to constantly develop your people People who feel valued and who are constantly growing develop new ideas. They fix problems. They engage in processes and structures and find better ways to get things done. People who are developing stop tolerating defects and instead work toward optimizing their environment. They raise their capacity and increase the value of the team. What are you doing to develop your people? How much more capacity could your team have with people who were fully engaged, truly energized, and growing? -- Douglas Brent Smith Learn more in the workshop: Building Your Team

Personally

Improving performance does require us to take our work seriously. But it does not require us to take ourselves too seriously. Taking things personally is a waste of self-esteem. -- doug smith

Disagreement Clarifies

One of the biggest mistakes I've made, many times, was assuming that someone agreed with me. That's a dangerous practice. It feels easier to agree. It just isn't always the agreement we think we have. High performance leaders constantly clarify the truth. They clarify meaning. The granular details reveal the truth. Abstractions keep us smiling and nodding. Clear communication sparks the awareness needed to see true disagreement. Disagreement can be the start to understanding, and without understanding there can be no true agreement. The more clearly we communicate the more likely it is that someone will disagree with us. Then we know where we stand, and the direction we need to move. -- doug smith

Solving Problems Requires The Courage to Tell The Truth

Can a problem be so tough that we deceive ourselves about solving it? In any problem there is a temptation to soften the edges, smooth the rough spots, to paint a better picture than we see. Sometimes we take sides and spin the truth in favor of our side, even when that contributes to a conflict or problem. We can do better than that. Solving problems together requires the courage to tell the truth as you see it. Not our version of the truth. Not our ideal of the truth. The truth as it exists, weak spots and all. If we want to clearly analyze a problem, we must be willing to see, and tell the truth. -- Douglas Brent Smith

High Performance Leadership

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