T.G.I.Filter-Free Friday

Don't waste another Friday keeping the truth to yourself. Today is the day that filters come off and you speak your mind, offer your opinion and help others move toward excellence - in a non-hurtful way.

• Today is the day you speak up when that guy in the next cubicle uses his speaker-phone to have conversations instead of using a handset.
• Today is the day when you lean over to the next table in the restaurant and ask the person on the cell phone to take their call outside if they are going to speak so loudly.
• Today is the day when you ask people who are freely dropping the f-bomb to politely tone down their language.
• Today is the day when you politely re-focus a clerk's attention back onto serving you instead of having side-conversations with their co-workers.
• Today is the day when you make the person you are conversing with (either in-person or on the phone) the most important person in your life at that moment.

Today is Filter-Free Friday, a day when you remove the filters that stop you from expressing what is on your mind - in a non-hurtful way. Use this day to its full advantage. You will soon discover the freedom you feel at no longer swallowing your comments. You will no longer feel frustrated that people just don't "get it." Your life will begin to change when you discover how empowering it is to say that one thing you've been thinking but have held back so as not to create a disturbance. You will find yourself focusing on excellence - especially in yourself.

Excellence does not come as a result of swallowing your feelings, being afraid to express your truth or by being afraid of the insensitive actions of others. Excellence comes when you fight through your discomfort and take a small risk.

Speak up today. If you can think it, you can say it - in a non-hurtful way.
--
Kevin Burns - Excellence Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Finding Your Excellence In A Wasteland of Mediocrity
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

Encouraging Your "Grasshoppers"

"If you can snatch  the pebble from my hand, it will be time for you to go Grasshopper." (1970's TV Series Kung Fu)

At some point, if the teacher is a good one, the student will surpass the teacher's ability. At that point, it will be time for the student to find a new teacher because the student has achieved Excellence.

So what is the excuse of your organization? How come you don't have a continuous parade of students (employees) who are surpassing the abilities of their teachers (managers)?

The modern-day manager is supposed to be more than a policeman who passes out memos and enforces the rules. The modern-day manager is supposed to be a coach, teacher, motivational speaker, family therapist, conflict diffuser, ally, inspirational mentor and thoughtful friend. Didn't you get the memo on this?

If you're a manager, have you read a book in the last 90 days that will help you be better at any of it? Look, as a manager, you need to lead by example. If you won't do the work to improve, then don't complain when your staff won't do the work either. And, don't be surprised when their ability surpasses yours. You're standing still while they continue to grow every day on the job - regardless of whether you hold them back or not.

Here's the thing though: the moment the student surpasses the ability of the teacher, the student achieves Excellence. That means that the teacher, by comparison, is mediocre - until they learn something new.

C'mon managers, encourage your Grasshoppers. Force them to be better than you - more excellent than you. You will be doing an excellent thing for your organization.
--
Kevin Burns - Excellence Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Finding Your Excellence In A Wasteland of Mediocrity
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

Numbers Don't Tell The Whole Story

It would easy to run a business or any organization by concentrating simply on the numbers because the numbers don't lie, do they? The numbers tell you how you how you are doing. If you have numbers, you don't really need charismatic leaders, encouraging managers or highly-motivated staffers do you? No, if it were all just based on numbers, you could have personality-deficient drones running your place of work. (Wait a sec - isn't that what's already happening?)

You see, focusing only on the numbers is what sinks most organizations into mediocrity because it's the things outside of the numbers that dictate how the numbers come to be in the first place. Let me explain:

• 54% of customers choose to do business with an organization based on Attitude factors: ease of service, approachability, friendliness, after-sale service, return policies, etc. 
• Over half of your customers choose you for something other than product knowledge.  
• Any customer who really needs product knowledge can probably find it on YouTube. 
• It's the Attitude Factors that separate one organization from another.

Do you have a favorite coffee shop? How about a favorite restaurant, clothing store, hair stylist, etc? What makes these places your favorites - product knowledge? Or is it because of how you are treated when you get there?

Good managers do more than judge team performance by just the numbers in a report. They tune into the attitudes, behaviors and factors that you don't see - the factors that move the organization from mediocre performer (found in the numbers) to an excellent performer (the reason why people call it their favorite).

Excellence is an Attitude. An excellent manager will encourage their excellent employees to bring their excellent personalities to work. Mediocre managers, however, will settle for any warm body in a job. Any manager who settles for a mediocre employee is a mediocre manager running the mediocre organization into a permanent state of mediocrity.

For some managers, excellence seems like too much work - but usually just for those who don't demand it of themselves. Try to discover that by simply reading a numbers report.
--
Kevin Burns - Excellence Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Finding Your Excellence In A Wasteland of Mediocrity
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

Good People Doing Good Work

Good people want to do good work for good wages so that they can have a good life. And managers are responsible for ensuring that these good people know what is expected of them.

Expectations need to be clear. When good people attain those expectations, it's up to management to set the bar just a smidge higher. Once the new expectation has been met, set a new standard.

The problem though is that managers become too busy putting out fires, settling petty disagreements and attending too many meetings to be able to check in regularly, to recognize achievement when it happens (not just once a year) and to make sure that the work they give to good people is challenging enough to engage but not too challenging causing disengagement.

That means a manager needs to manage - every day. Managers need to set their people up to excel - not just be competent.

An Attitude of Excellence is about giving your best, doing your best and being your best. Performance expectations need to be conducted regularly - not just once a year - unless you only open your doors once a year.

The market can change plenty in a year. Are you keeping up?

--
Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Creating An Oasis of Greatness In A Wasteland of Mediocrity
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

Just One Warning

What happens when you turn eighty years old and find yourself alone?

It suddenly dawns on you that you treated people poorly your whole life. And now when you could use a good friend to talk to, a great love to depend on, a grandchild to share joy in, a purpose to awake every morning for and something that could bring joy to others, you find your health failing, your spouse gone, your friends who've left you behind and grandchldren you don't see anymore. You have no purpose but to get out of bed and hope - no, pray - that someone comes by today to share a few words of conversation.

Your only joys are the distant and seldom happy memories of the past and the hope that maybe tomorrow, maybe, someone will want to share a little time with you.

What you do in this very moment can impact your life decades down the road. Be gentle. Be caring. Be the friend you would want to have if it were you. Do something nice for others without the expectation of something in return.

If someone owes you a favor, you probably will never collect. People will never want to share your company out of obligation.

Every action today has a consequence tomorrow. Choose wisely. Life is not a run-through. It is a once-only performance worthy of Greatness.

--
Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Creating An Oasis of Greatness In A Wasteland of Mediocrity
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

If Only The Same Rules Applied

Imagine walking into a bar and overhearing a couple of strangers discussing your job performance. Then, your attention is drawn to the TV above the bar where you see a picture of your face with the word, "Under-performing" featured under your portrait.

Dejected, you walk home to find a newspaper laying on your step and the headline reads your name followed by, "Is It Time He Was Fired?"

After a restless night's sleep, morning radio's call-in show is all about you: your lack of production, your below-par performance and your seeming unwillingness to explain why you are overpaid for such sub-standard results.

And to top it all off, just as you find your rhythm in your work day, you are constantly interrupted by small groups of people who stick their heads over your cubicle wall and yell, "YOU SUCK" at the tops of their lungs.

Such is the life of a sports figure. That's an average workday when a public sports figure seems to be under-performing or hitting a dry spell in production.

Maybe the same rules should apply to every person, sports figure or not. Imagine if your performance were under the watchful and judgmental eye of the public.

Maybe the same rules should apply in how we treat sports figures. Perhaps everyone's performance should be open to judgment and public discussion. Maybe then, the half-hearted efforts and "good enough" attitudes would cease to be.
Maybe.
--
Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Creating An Oasis of Greatness In A Wasteland of Mediocrity
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

A Filter-Free Friday Garden Experience

We went plant-shopping this week. It seems that the garden store offers free replanting of your chosen plant into a pot of your choosing and then finishes it off with some decorative bark or stones to hold in moisture. It's a nice touch and more than enough people inside the store were willing to fall all over themselves to make our experience exceptional - except the cashiers.

While wrestling with our newly potted plant (almost 3 feet in height) through the cash lane, we inadvertently left our box of plant food on the check-out counter in clear view of the two cashiers - both teen'ish. Since it was a slow time of the day, no one was in line behind us. We pushed our cart across twenty feet of shop floor before we reached the door, continued into the parking lot where we took a few minutes to offload the plant into the truck and secure it. A lot attendant came up and offered to take our cart away, placing a 25 cent piece with us as our cart still had our quarter. We then drove away only to have to return when we realized we left the plant food behind. Back at the store, we found the two cashiers sitting up on the counter beside our box of plant food doing much of nothing.

Walking our forgotten purchase out to us could have been the icing on the cake of an exceptional service day. But sadly, all of the hard work of the rest of the staff was negated in a single "meh" moment (meh - a term indicating apathy or indifference to a situation - used mostly by Gen Y and younger). Still, we are likely to return to shop there again because the rest of the staff were attentive and helpful.

In the meantime, I have sent the store an email outlining my experience as I have told it to you. Why? Because it's Filter-Free Friday™, that's why.

Filter-Free Friday™ is the day you get to turn off the filters that prevent you from speaking up when you feel you could have been served better or when you feel someone needs a round of applause. Today is the day you craft letters or emails of face-to-face communication that tells the truth to a person or a business who you feel needs to hear the truth. Pretend you are being called upon to give evidence at a trial and tell your story without emotion and without blame.  Just the facts and perhaps your impression of how the situation could have been better handled. Then, once you have "made the world a better place" (wink), you can rest easy knowing that your concerns and ideas have been heard and that the experience for others that follow will be better.

It's Filter-Free Friday™. So who could stand to hear the truth today?
--
Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Creating An Oasis of Greatness In A Wasteland of Mediocrity
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

What I Would Offer To University Grads

I was asked today, what few words of wisdom I would offer to university grads at their graduation ceremonies this year, just before beginning life on their own. Here are three pieces of advice I would offer:

First, today you may be the most educated students of your university, but you are about to become the least educated members of the workforce. Those who you will begin working with have also had their own lifetimes of experience on the job - practical experience. Officially, theory stops today and practical implementation of your knowledge will be augmented with life experience and workplace challenges. Those you will be working with have already done most of what you are about to experience. Seek their counsel and listen carefully. It may save you a great deal of difficulty and disappointment.

Secondly, most university grads will never achieve a 6 or 7 figure paycheck, as much as they think they may deserve one. You are not entitled to a 6-figure paycheck by your graduation. What your diploma entitles you to is to compete with every other graduate who will be seeking the same job as you and want the same promotion as you. You are, however, by your graduation, entitled to continue to learn, to become a valuable member of your workplace and your community, to help those who can't help themselves and to serve people well. You are also entitled to be grateful and thankful for your education, a chance many didn't have or perhaps didn't take. You are entitled to be grateful to your parents who have helped in some way and you are also entitled to be a decent human being when you get out into the real world.

Lastly, you entered university to close the gap between what you knew and what you needed to know. Don't let that strategy be left at the door after today. You spent four years of learning, studying and testing to get to where you are today. The same rules apply in the real world. There will always be a gap between what you know and what you need to know. The only way to close that gap is to do what you have done here: read, learn, study, experiment and pass your tests. The real world that you about to enter, operates on the very same principles.

The truth is, after applying themselves for four or more years to acquire book-knowledge, some will end up believing they have been given their diploma in "knowing everything." They will ignore the wisdom of others and likely end up wallowing in a lifetime of mediocrity. Others, who have open minds, will achieve or experience some degree of greatness.

For those who paid attention to these meager offerings, good luck on your journey.

--
Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Creating An Oasis of Greatness In A Wasteland of Mediocrity
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

What Has Google Done To Your Business?

If you want to just hang out and do things the way you have always done them, you're dead. Google has changed the way we do business, the way we deliver, the way we sell and the way we hire our people.

Think about the number of times you've showed up in a store and didn't need a salesperson, just a cashier. By the time most of your customers get to you they already know more about you than you think they might. If you think that not having a web site gives you an advantage in that regard, then you're not getting it. A business without a web site is a business that can't be trusted. If you haven't got a web presence with testimonials and satisfied customers then you can't be trusted - and people won't buy from you because you have no on-line reputation.

Even the new people coming to our workplaces have a different idea about what they need to know and what they don't. Most new young workers won't remember facts and figures because they can access the facts and figures on Google when they need that information. If they don't need it always, they won't remember it.

If you think you're running the same business or organization that you were five years ago, hiring the same kinds of people and delivering the same customer expectations - you are out of touch with your own customer base.

Sure, you can run a business this way but it will always be a middle of the pack performer - mediocre.

Greatness requires visionary thinking and an embracing of change. Whether you like it or not, your customers are changing their buying habits. Are you changing your selling and service habits to match them?
--
Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Creating An Oasis of Greatness In A Wasteland of Mediocrity
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

It's Filter-Free Friday™

Several months ago I proposed the notion of a "Filter-Free Friday™" - not a day that you rip the filters off of your smokes and go "cowboy" but a day when you turn off your "I can't say that" filters and you say exactly what is on your mind at work, at home, at the restaurant, standing in line at Starbucks. Basically the notion is that if you can think it, you can say it.

I am starting to see some references of Filter-Free Fridays™ on the Internet these days. The idea is starting to pick up steam so, it being Friday and all, let's remind everyone how Filter-Free Friday™ works.

Filter-Free Friday™ is the day when you stop worrying about what people will think about you and actually say what is on your mind - in a respectful and non-hurtful way.

• If your pasta at lunch today is salty, tell your server it's salty - it's not "fine."
• If you have putting up with a co-worker's bad body odor for days, today is the day you say something - not in front of others to embarrass the poor soul but pull them aside and make a comment about how others are affected by it and too afraid to say something.
• If someone parks poorly encroaching on a second space and you can see them doing it, give them a gentle reminder that they might want to straighten their car a bit so others can use the next space.
• If someone gives you exceptional service at Starbucks (or wherever) today, say something to them.
• If a co-worker has gone long enough without praise that you think is deserving, say something even if you're not the boss.

You get the idea don't you? Stop saying nothing and start saying something. The purpose behind the idea of Filter-Free Friday™ is to tell the truth in a respectful and non-hurtful way. The purpose is to make bad service better for the next person, to offer hope and encouragement when someone does something right, to turn off the filters that stop us all from accepting ordinary and mediocre when it could have been great and to encourage people to start telling the truth instead of swallowing and internalizing it.

Everyone deserves to receive something better and we can all use a reminder that we could do better. Filter-Free Fridays™ is designed to stamp out the word "fine" as a response to, "how was everything?"

We'll start this little experiment with one day, Friday, and see how it goes from there. Maybe you might get used to doing Filter-Free Fridays™ everyday.
--
Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
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Disinfect Workplace Bullies

In walking through the hospital today, I noticed a janitor sweeping up fallen leaves from some of the large plants in the common area. He was addressing the things that visitors to the hospital could see, not the things they can't see - like those who were sick enough to be admitted to hospital who had touched door handles, arms of chairs, vending machine buttons, elevator buttons and counter-tops. How often do you see janitors wiping down the coffee vending machine with disinfectant spray? How many dirty hands touch the daily-mopped floor versus how many flu-infected hands touch the elevator buttons or touch the arms of a chair in the Emergency room?

Now before you go thinking I'm some sort of weird germophobe, let me explain why I point this out.

Every single business and organization runs like this hospital: they spend an inordinate amount of time on things that might address how they are perceived but little or no effort on things that might affect their customers and clients profoundly. A poorly disinfected waiting room could result in a patient's second trip to Emergency in a few days. But if there's litter on the floor, one might perceive the hospital to be unclean. So you clean what they can see and ignore what they can't.

Think about when an organization offers their people a chance to air their griefs as a team-building exercise - but no one does because the staffer they want to complain about is sitting beside them. What about organizations whose front lobbies are immaculate but their shipping department can't seem to get a delivery done on time to save themselves. Then there are organizations who preach a safe and happy workplace but refuse to reprimand workplace bullies for fear of the employee union.

Management's failure to address a workplace's silent issues is no different than a hospital janitor rarely wiping down bacterial surfaces. Either way, someone will end up not well enough to come into work.

And then you have absenteeism which costs you money; big money. Soon it becomes a lousy place to work because your standards are lax. Your culture suffers and your new-hire candidates become more mediocre. If only you had just wiped the doors more often, enforced the rules and dealt with the bullies, you could have kept your good people.

A germ is a germ. Disinfect it before it makes your whole organization sick. 
--
Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
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Talent Without Skill Is Nothing

I'm not comfortable with attending the social events at conferences because: 1) I am at work when I am at a conference, and 2) I'm really not very good at small talk.

As bad as I may be at small talk, my next door neighbor is, hmmm, let's say he's "inept" at making even the slightest conversation. I have no idea what he does for a living because, well, because communication seems almost painful for him and we've never gotten that far in a conversation. (Yes, I know that's small talk. I told you I wasn't very good at it.)

I hope he's not in customer service or sales. My line of work would probably make him catatonic.

Which brings me to this question: are you skilled in all of the areas you need to be for your work? I have heard far too many people say that they have the gift of the gab and that's why they're in sales. The gift of the gab isn't enough - unless you only want to be a mediocre salesperson. No, being "skilled in the sale" is where I would put my money.

Each person has a natural talent for something. But raw talent alone will only ever allow you to achieve mediocrity. Talent alone is seductive - thinking you don't have to work hard because you have talent. It's why too many with real talent only ever achieve mediocrity. But it is putting skill on top of that talent that drives you right into greatness. That means that even if you have talent, you still need to build skill.

Let me explain. Tiger has talent. Ovechkin has talent. Kobe has talent. So what? Without practice, they'd all be just average players.

You may have talent for whatever it is you do. But if you aren't honing your skill everyday, you're wasting your talent. You're as ordinary as every other mediocre "player" like you.

The quote goes: There's no difference between the man who can't read and the one who won't read. In the same way, talent without skill is lazy - a one-way street to the vast wasteland of mediocrity.

Be better than that. Stop being ordinary. Find your greatness.
--
Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
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Being Busy Is Not An Excuse

Have you ever used the excuse, "it's too busy" as a way of not paying attention to details, taking too long to get back to customers, missing project deadlines or being late for appointments?

Isn't the purpose of being in business ultimately to be busy?

If you can't handle juggling a few balls and still get your project in on time, can't get a meal out in a timely fashion, can't show your client or prospect some respect or show up on time because you're too busy, then I will guess that you won't have to worry about being too busy for long.

If your 100-seat restaurant gets bogged down after 60 chairs are filled, then take out 40 chairs and do a great job for 60 people instead of a lousy job for 100.

If you're leaving yourself ten minutes to get to your next appointment twenty minutes away, then start scheduling in 30 minutes of travel time - but show your customer/prospect that you think they are important enough to be there early.

If you can't seem to handle the details to get the project done on time, then delegate something or admit that you're over your head but don't let your project team grind to halt because you're "too busy.".

At a sporting goods store sale today, one clerk served one customer while 6 others waited for service. The clerk leaned against a stack of boxes while the customer took his time trying on several pairs of shoes - not acknowledging the others who waited. We didn't wait. We left, found a store where the clerk served us promptly, checked us for our walking style, brought out four pairs of shoes, allowed us try each, helped a couple of other customers at the same time and rang us through while we gladly paid a premium for premium service.

What's the point of having a sale to bring in more customers if you can't handle the numbers once they arrive?

Do one thing well. Be outstanding. Be the standard to which your competitors will measure themselves. Don't offer mediocre service (or none at all) and blame being too busy. You may end up solving your own problem of being too busy.
--
Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
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Raving About the Continental Breakfast

The hotel clerk handed me my room key and then a coupon for a free continental breakfast the next morning. The previous three nights I had stayed in a hotel that included a full, hot breakfast buffet of scrambled eggs, sausages, toast, oatmeal, cereals, bagels, etc. After being treated to the hot buffet for breakfast, the continental breakfast seemed like a cheap, half-hearted effort.

There was a time when a free continental breakfast was fashionable. Now, customers expect their hotels to make a fuss over them. A continental breakfast seems like the very least a hotel could do.

In fact, here's where the market is going and what other hotels are doing:

• The Hyatt Gainey Ranch in Scottsdale, Arizona offers guests a margarita upon check-in.
• The Gansevoort in New York and Turks and Caicos offer guests a Sony Reader Digital Book for the length of their stay.
• Opus Montreal offers guests Xboxes and PlayStation in their room because packing these can be a pain.
• The Zetter in London boasts an interactive guide to local restaurants, bars, clubs and more - all through the room TV - as well as 4,000 music tracks.
• The Crescent in Beverley Hills leaves a loaner iPod in every room loaded with music.
• Seven hotel in Bangkok lends you a mobile phone preloaded with all contact info for recommended restaurants and bars in the city.
• Doubletree still offers a hot cookie upon check-in (a little thing but a deliciously nice touch).
• Hotel Palomar in Dallas will offer you a goldfish in a bowl as a companion for your stay.
• Toronto’s Hazelton Hotel offers a pillow menu including the Therapeutic Siesta Body Pillow and the Snore No More Pillow.
• The Esperanza in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, will place a painting or sculpture of your choice from the hotel’s collection in your room upon request.
• At the Four Seasons Hotel Washington, you'll get the loan of a Kindle, featuring 80 different newspapers from 15 countries at the breakfast table.
• The Whatever/Whenever service at W Hotels around the world includes free services like staff running errands to get your favorite perfume or foreign newspaper.

So how is that continental breakfast tasting right now? Doing the bare minimum is not how an organization achieves greatness. What was once a nice perk years ago is well below ordinary now. I mean honestly, would you rave to your friends about the continental breakfast? What is your organization doing to add value? How are you separating yourself from being ordinary and mediocre? Become the standard that everyone else follows. Find your greatness.
--
Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
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"Ordinary" Is Never A Favorite

Do you have a favorite? A favorite restaurant, favorite food, favorite drink, favorite TV show or favorite sports team? How about a favorite make of car, vacation spot, airline, hotel or coffee shop? Do you have a favorite friend, co-worker or boss?

Everyone has a favorite something. Some parents even have a favorite child - even though the right answer is "I love all of you equally."

But now here's the interesting question: are you anyone else's favorite? Are you the coffee shop's favorite customer? Are you your doctor's favorite patient? Are you your waitress's favorite customer? How about at work? Are you your boss's favorite employee or your customers' favorite representative?

If you're not a favorite, you'll never achieve great success. It just can't be done. You can't rise to the top in people's minds by sitting in the middle of the pack. The middle of the pack is for the mediocre.

Are you OK sliding through life just being ordinary? No one picks "ordinary" as their favorite. You find life changes when you stop being ordinary and start finding your Greatness. Greatness is where you find your favorites.

--
Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
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Would You Still Do It?

If your customers couldn't tell the difference between a sauce of Mushroom Cream Reduction and Campell's Cream of Mushroom soup, would you still do it?

If your clients couldn't tell the difference between Starbucks and Folgers while they waited in your lobby, would you still do it?

If your customers couldn't tell the difference between 128-bit and 32-bit encryption when processing their transactions on-line, would you still do it?

If your boss couldn't tell the difference between you giving 100 percent and 60 percent effort, would you still give 100 percent?

If the rest of the volunteer committee you sit on couldn't tell the difference between you giving the project your full attention or giving the project lip-service, would you continue to accept the accolades for a job well-done?

What you do when no one is looking is what separates mediocrity from greatness.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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How To Make $5.50 At Lunch

Sitting in an average franchise restaurant, I ordered the Southwest Chicken Sandwich with tossed salad. After I finished lunch, the waiter, who had not visited the table since he delivered the meal, asked, "How was the sandwich?"

"It was OK," I replied. It was an apt description of an average meal.

"That's it?" he asked. "Just OK?"

"Just OK," was my reply. It was nothing more than I had expected and I didn't expect a lot - just an average sandwich in an average restaurant.

I explained that I really didn't understand the brown gravy on a sandwich when I was informed that it was a peppercorn sauce - apparently without peppercorns (in hindsight, I probably couldn't taste the peppercorns because of the overpowering vinegar in the pickled banana peppers). All in all, pretty average.

When I was presented with the bill, our waiter had discounted the meal by $5.50 for telling the truth.

So, are you over-paying for your average meal by untruthfully answering "fine" when you're asked how your meal was?

Answering "fine" instead of telling the truth is costing you $550.00 per year in extra charges (based on eating out twice a week for 50 weeks). And your restaurant is still making average sandwiches because you're afraid you'll hurt their feelings.

Stop being a pushover customer. It's costing you money and you're not inspiring the restaurant to perform better.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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How To Deal With Disappointment

Everyone gets disappointed at some point. Moms express their disappointment at the actions of their 6 year-old when they hit another boy. Fathers express their disappointment to teenage daughters in the hopes that the outward expression becomes a lesson to make better choices. Bosses express their disappointment on performance reviews in the hopes of motivating the affected employee. Teachers express their diappointment because they know the student isn't applying him or herself.

These are all expressions of outward disappointment in someone else. But what happens when disappointment is focused inward - when things don't turn out the way we had hoped?

There are some things in life that you just don't have any control over and there are other things that are within your control. Understanding which is which will help you to bounce back quicker from disappointment - to develop a resilience attitude.

Planning for months to visit the Grand Canyon only to be turned back by a snowstorm, a rained out family picnic, a power outage during your wedding reception or a cancelled flight to an important meeting are all things out of your control. You have no control over the weather, the electric company or the airlines. It's fine to feel disappointed for a short while but it isn't the end of your life. You can try again tomorrow.

However, disappointment about how much you get paid, your job-performance review, your golf score, that promotion you really want, your relationships at home and how your money is budgeted are all within your control. Only you determine how valuable you are to the company, how well you do your job, how much you practice at golf, how you self-improve to be the logical choice to be promoted, how hard you work at your relationship and how you spend your money. No one else is to blame for your results.

You have no control over other people, things or events outside of yourself. But you have complete control over your reaction to those things. You also have ALL of the control over every part of your life that involves YOU and your results.

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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Greatness Is Impossible To Duplicate

A recent walk through Scottsdale, Arizona this week had me shaking my head a little. Scottsdale's famous "Old Town" is a souvenir-hunter's paradise. There have got to be thirty gift shops within a three block area, all virtually carrying the same Red Dirt T-shirts, turquoise jewellery, Navajo blankets, water-ripple globes of the world and leather belts. All the prices are virtually the same. The hours of each store are the same. The parking issues are the same. The decor of each is virtually the same. All in all, each independantly-owned gift shop is a cookie-cutter version of the gift shop next door.

Did the people who opened the 30th gift shop really believe they were bringing anything new to the table by opening the exact same store as the 29 others on the street? And whose idea was it to make sure that every shop carry the same lines, selection and price? Really, there is no reason for the local residents to shop this area. This is a tourist area whose sole means of survival is by volume of tourists. Get enough tourists through and everyone can do OK - not great - just OK.

And while we're at it, as a tourist, why would you save up and plan a vacation for a whole year only to spend your vacation in the same restaurants you have at home? There are no memories made in eating in ordinary restaurants. The best memories are made when you stretch yourself and experience something different. In fact, the best businesses become successful using the exact same philosophy: be different than everyone else.

Greatness is impossible to duplicate. Copying mediocre? Piece of cake.

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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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When Board Members Don't Pull Their Weight

When you give your commitment to join a board, committee or volunteer organization, is it because you have deep convictions for the project or are you doing it to give the appearance that you are more important than you actually are?

Charitable societies, social projects or community prosperity initiatives all require brain trusts and people to follow through on decisions, ideas and commitments. All too often, we see people who initially show excitement and support for a project only to lag behind and blame their busyness, schedule or various other commitments to other boards, committees and social projects.

People who sit on volunteer boards can be categorized as either heroes or zeros. The heroes make no excuses for their involvement because they find the time to just get things done. Zeros, however, want to give the outward appearance of caring about something but their level of care is evident in their participation. Zeros are aptly named because other than attending the meetings, their output is a zero.

It's one thing to be involved and to make your commitment to the project you choose to be involved with. It's quite another thing to give the illusion of being involved only so you can use the name of the humanitarian effort to advance yourself, not your project.

Volunteer organizations have a culture just like regular business. As volunteers, you are allowed to fire other volunteers who are not advancing your cause. In fact, if a board member is not advancing the cause by claiming to be too busy to do more than attend the meetings, then he or she is dragging down the cause. Separate yourself immediately from laggards who are "using" you to advance themselves. That board member is taking the space of someone who would be willing to do the work. Get rid of the roadblocks. Sometimes that means removing people.

If you're not prepared to participate fully to elevate your cause to one of greatness, then you are standing in the way of a group of people making a difference. And you become the reason why nothing changes.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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What Doctor's Offices Can Learn From Hotels

There are things that some businesses do badly that no other business should adopt as a service strategy:

• help desks that seem to shrug their shoulders on issues, "Yeah, that problem happens on occasion. Oh well. Not much we can do."
• retail stores whose on-line stock check shows there are several items in stock but when you get there, they don't have any.
• automated reminders that it's time for another visit - phone reminders that call you incessantly until you have to lose your temper with them to have your number removed.
• Costco's "everyone's a potential shoplifter" policy that creates lineups at the exit while someone with a highlighter goes through your stuff to make sure you didn't take more than on your receipt.

But then there are some ideas that other businesses should adopt. Hotels, good hotels, have something to teach doctor's offices, dentists, chiropractors, medical labs, etc. I check into a lot of hotels. At the front counter, I simply give my name and the clerk usually finds my reservation within a few seconds. The paperwork has already been done, keys are ready and I can check in quickly. After all, the quicker I get into the hotel, the quicker they have a captive customer spending money.

"Do you have an appointment?" is a question that shows a lack of initiative. Of course I have an appointment. Otherwise I would say that I don't have an appointment and ask if the doctor can see me today? How hard is it to look at a schedule of appointments and match my name with an appointment on or about the same time?


Here's the rub though: if you do have an appointment, it's because you made an appointment (called in and actually spoke to someone), then had the doctor's office call you back a day in advance to re-confirm your appointment asking you to show up a few minutes early and then when you do finally show up for your scheduled appointment, you get asked, "Do you have an appointment?"

Hotels process more guests an a daily basis than the average doctors office, or chiropractor or dentist. So how come they don't ask if I have a reservation? Remember, we're talking about good hotels here - not the ones whose clerks are standing outside the front doors having to butt their smokes when you stand at the front counter. Most people who check into hotels have a reservation otherwise they ask if there are any rooms available. Unless your medical practice is a walk-in clinic, I would suspect most patients have an appointment. Same could be said of dentists. Those without an appointment would probably call ahead in an emergency to see if they could be squeezed in amongst the appointments.

Most people have appointments when they go to see their doctor, dentist, chiropractor, lawyer, accountant, hairdresser and auto mechanic. OK, let me explain that I rarely get asked if I have an appointment when I get to my lawyer, accountant, hairdresser or auto mechanic. They assume that I do or I wouldn't be there. This really just happens in doctor's offices - but there are a lot of organizations who take their lead from treating clients like cattle. They may not necessarily ask if you have an appointment but they do the bare minimum to impress you on your first impression.

Stop thinking of your receptionist as a receptionist. Change your Attitude. That person at the front counter is the Executive Vice President of First Impressions for your company.

Mediocre, apathetic organizations make it difficult to do business and first impressions are lasting impressions. But then, as I've been saying for a while, there's no effort required in being ordinary.

--
Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Friday Is Employee Recognition Day

Friday, March 5, 2010 is Employee Recognition Day. Now you might think that a day like this is kind of cute and meant to be lighthearted but it's not a really serious thing. That may be true, but then so is Valentine's Day and Mother's Day. Try not to take those two days seriously and see what happens. You would never dishonor your mother on Mother's Day nor your spouse on Valentine's Day if you want to have peace and harmony at home.

Think of Employee Recognition Day the same way. If the employee knows that it's Employee Recognition Day and no attempt is made by management to recognize them, you might as well have forgotten your spouse on Valentine's Day. You will have created a bigger chasm between employees and management.

Yes, there is the argument that you don't need a special day to recognize your employees and you would be right. But you don't need a special day to recognize your sweetheart or your spouse but it seems to be the only days of  the year that many do honor them. So we have this day to force the laggards to get with the program and show their gratitude. It is a day designated to REMIND managers that they have a staff who do their work without a lot of recognition: managers get so wrapped up in attending endless (and pointless) meetings that there is little time left to say "thanks" to their people.

So this Friday, show your Attitude of Gratitude by springing for pizza for the staff, buying a $25 Starbucks card for each member of your team or giving a heartfelt, handwritten card personally prepared for each member of your team. Do NOT hand out awards that day. Friday is Employee Recognition Day. That means all employees are recognized - not just your superstars.

If you want to build a culture of engagement in your organization, you will recognize your people on Friday. Then, make a decision to make the first Friday of every month, Employee Recognition Day. One simple change in your corporate attitude will spread the word that yours is a great place to work. More people will be lining up to work there - good people - not just the ones who are available.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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A Gold Medal Performance

This is going to be the worst day of their lives for a few people who have an attitude of just doing enough work to not get fired. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if a bunch of slackers phoned in sick today - at the Vancouver International Airport.

After the 2002 Olympics, Salt Lake City airport never thought about planning for the tens of thousands of passengers who would be all flying home the same day. Ticket counters, security screening, food service, janitorial and baggage handlers were grossly understaffed. Consequently, lineups went right outside the doors into the freezing cold and many missed thier flights.

But that won't be the case in Vancouver today.

YVR (Vancouver International Airport) has been planning this day for two years. Expectations are that 40,000 extra passengers will make their way through YVR today. That means that a full complement of ticket agents will be on duty, all security stations will be open, there will be more than enough food service workers on duty. Not to mention washroom attendants, janitorial staff, greeters, hosts, gate staff, baggage handlers and more. This will be the biggest day in YVR's history.

So, back to my original thought. Some people who work at the airport, will try to find a way to dodge the heavy work today. They will whine. They will pass the buck and the heavy lifting on to someone else and some will openly show their frustration in front of a world of passengers. What a horrible last impression to leave people with: that you could care less.

For those who will do their best and keep a smile on their face through this busy day, well done. Be proud of your achievement. You will be able to tell the story of the day that YVR was swamped and how you helped make it better. For them, it will be a gold medal performance. For others, it will be a forgetable performance - as it should be.

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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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What Do You Make?

It's not a question of money. It's a question of how the world is different because you're here.



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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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McLovin' It

Have you gotten caught up in Olympic fever yet? Watching the thousands and thousands of people on the streets of Vancouver daily, seeing the cheering and flag-waving crowds at the events and even seeing the people wearing Canada clothing in every city across the country makes it difficult not to feel a sense of pride that something special is going on.

At the top of Calgary's Canada Olympic Park, known as COP, where many of the athletes prepared and trained themselves for the Vancouver games flies a lone white flag, the five interlocking Olympic rings.

At the base of COP, the legacy to the '88 Calgary Olympics lies a McDonald's restaurant, the official restaurant of the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. But there's nary a sign that the Olympics are being hosted in Canada in the restaurant. There's no signage touting their "official" status even though they look right up the slopes of COP. And on either side of the chalet-style four-sided fireplace on the two thirty-two inch plasma TVs there are no Olympics playing. Just the news from one of the non-Olympic news networks.

There are seven television networks broadcasting the games but not one channel is being shown in the official restaurant of the 2010 Vancouver Games. And until I mentioned it to the manager, no one even seemed to notice that the Olympic spirit had left the building.

For the 2010 Games, McDonalds chose 350 servers from across Canada to work the McDonalds in the athlete's village (which doesn't charge the athletes anything for the food). This is a major promotion for the company and one they take pride in.

By the way, my car dealership had the Olympics on in their customer lounge today. They are not an official sponsor. The electronics store I visited this afternoon had almost 100 televisions all tuned to the Olympics. They are not an Olympic sponsor either. Even the Mongolian restaurant I had supper at had the Olympics on in their lounge. They may have been supporting Team Mongolia if there was one but I don't think so.

Apathy exists even in management. It's missing little details like this that makes it a very mediocre place to work and an even worse place to be a customer.

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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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No Effort Required In Being Ordinary

I had a quote of mine make its way around Twitter this week. The quote was, "There's no effort required in being ordinary."

Maybe that's the reason why we are overrun with mediocrity, ordinary, sameness. There's no effort required in just being good enough. That's easy. That's why there's so much competition at the mediocre level because almost everyone competes at that level.

The stretch is when an individual or a company makes a decision to move toward "greatness." That's when everything changes. That's when it get s hard. That's when the scrutiny of those who would throw stones (the secretly envious) arises and that's when you hear from the naysayers in your life, all of the reasons why you can't do it.

"You can't increase your business in a recession."

"You can't have a banner sales month in a market downturn."

"You can't risk renovating your house when jobs are tenuous."

"There's no such thing as a perfect relationship."

"Blah. Blah. Blah."

You can do these things and you most certainly will do these things if you have made the decision to stop being ordinary and strive for greatness. The sideline critics are just too lazy to get off their fat asses and do it themselves and they know it. You're embarrassing them and they will complain about it.

There is no effort required in being ordinary. That's why there's so little competition at the "Greatness" level. The people and companies willing to do whatever it takes to be the standard to which every mediocre person and organization will measure himself are very few.

There's hardly been any effort needed to get your results so far, huh? That means you're capable of more but you're not even trying.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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It Sucks To Go Backwards

When a speed skater or skier shaves a full second off of their personal best time - or a football player scores a new high in season touchdowns - or a baseball player has a home-run record season - or a hockey player scores 50+ goals in a season, will any of them be satisfied with a lower performance in future?

What happens when you discover delicious food in non-franchised restaurants or experience a fabulous stay in an outstanding boutique hotel? It's hard to eat at same-old, same-old franchise restaurants or cookie-cutter hotel rooms. Discovering a great bottle of wine or an outstanding beer makes it difficult to buy everyday ordinary brands once you've tasted something so much better.

Once you set a new standard in your life, you realize what you are capable of. This happens too with sales people. Once they hit a great month they set a new standard. And if they don't set the standard themselves, their bosses will do it for them.

If you don't honestly put a great deal of effort into improving your work performance, then you're, at best, an ordinary performer: average, mediocre. You probably complain about your job, make excuses for your results in life and settle for what you get instead of setting a standard for what you could have.

It's people like you who hold your organization back from "greatness." Sorry, but you will never be part of a "great" organization if you're not willing to work for it. Greatness doesn't happen by accident. Greatness is achieved when all members of the organization are pulling their weight. Great organizations get rid of the dead-weight holding them back. It's how they're able to become "great" organizations.

Once you raise your standards, those new standards begin to seep into every other area of your life: relationships, investments, parenting, vacations, etc. It sucks to go backwards. You can never successfully downgrade your standards. Once you get a taste of something great, it's hard to enjoy mediocre ever again.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Are You Open At 2 A.M.?

If you've got teenagers then you know that they're up into the middle of the night chatting on MSN (Windows Live), watching hour after hour of YouTube videos and doing everything possible to avoid actually having personal interactions with their families because virtual interactions require absolutely no focus.

So a college student who is up most of the night, sleeping until 3 pm wouldn't have much time to reach a dentist to make an appointment if the only way to reach the dentist or the doctor or the chiropractor or the massage therapist or the hair stylist or... well, you get the idea ... was during traditional working hours of 9-5. Most businesses close their doors at 5 or 6 pm just when college students or other Gen Ys seem to be getting going. But not just that: people who work a day job can't get to you during day hours because they're working too.

Think of how many people, not just young people, are up between 11 pm and 2 am on the Internet actually buying things. The number of Baby Boomers on-line at this time is growing exponentially.

Discover Small Business' recent survey showed 46% of small businesses don't have a web site. That's about half of the small business market with no way for your clients to reach you unless you force them to call (on the telephone) when it's convenient for you - not for them. Today's young market has more phones than ever but they don't talk on them. They text on them.

There's a great divide of hours between when customers are available and when businesses are open. And it's only getting worse. The numbers of people expecting to be able to interact (simply send an email) to a business is getting larger. The demand is getting higher and you're losing market share to your emerging (and soon to be dominant) market because you won't give them a simple email address or have a simple web site to do business by?

How much money are you LOSING to competitors because they can be reached after hours? You'd better have a way for this up and coming market to reach you or you're going to lose quickly. 

Any mediocre business can shut it all down at 6. But organizations of greatness will find a way to allow their customers and clients to reach them when it's convenient for the client.

Ease and accessibility for clients is another way of separating the ordinary boring businesses from organizations of greatness.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Death To Funerals

A wedding is NOT something you HAVE to do which is why some spend tens of thousands of dollars (and go into deep debt to start their new lives together) on lavish events - because they WANT to. Whereas, a funeral is seen as something not done by choice but by necessity which is why if forced to do it, most will skimp and spend as little money as possible getting it done. Just get it done and forget about it.

How much can people skimp? Costco USA is selling caskets and has been doing so for the past few years. Can you see where the trouble might be for Funeral Directors?

While funeral service market share is shrinking, weddings are becoming more lavish, more expensive and more garish - over the top. Dresses worth thousands, limos, chocolate fountains, decorations, flowers, extended trips, money in envelopes, exotic locations, me, me, me, me, me. Funerals? More "eeeww" than "wheee."

If Funeral Directors want to rebuild their industry, they had better start thinking like Wedding Planners and make the event more of a Celebration of Life than a mourning of death. Funerals need to get to that place where if you buy a Costco casket and spend no time, money or effort on your departed, you should be shamed. Funeral Directors need to shame people for treating their departed loved ones like last week's trash. People who cut corners to keep the balance of money for themselves should be shamed. How we treat people in death is a perfect illustration of how much we cherished them in life. Allowing some distant clergy member to say a few words about someone he didn't know is shameful too. Could you make the whole funeral thing even more impersonal? Not likely.

Weddings you get invitations for. Funerals you read about in the paper. Something as simple as mining the departed's email addresses and sending an invitation to a celebration and memorial event seems so much more appealing than reading about a funeral at a church that the departed never went to, officiated by a clergy member he never met who takes to opportunity of a half-full church to try to convert or save some souls and you have a funeral attended by a fraction of friends because they didn't read the newspaper this week.

No, if the funeral service of today is the best you can do as a Funeral Director, then your industry deserves to be shrinking. Complaining about it won't change that. Doing something about it will. Change your Attitude. Make people see the value. Markets change. You had better be able to respond to it or we're all about to attend the funeral for funerals.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Correcting A Bad Business Cycle

As a boss, when you make a decision that affects the whole organization, are you really clear of the practical and real consequences and fallout on your front-line employees and their families? Really clear?

As a sales rep, are you prepared for the consequences that follow by stretching the truth of your claims just one time too many?

As a customer service rep, are you prepared to accept the fallout that results from you being apathetic in your effort and your job responsibilities?

As a customer, are you prepared to reward lousy quality and poor service by purchasing anyway?

As a future consumer, aren't you upset because the customer before you could have corrected bad service by simply saying something?

As a person of value, are you going to allow the "takers" of the world to butt in line, take more than one parking space, not offer a seat to an elderly lady on the bus or any other event that requires decency?

It's not employees who work for you. It's not prospects you sell to. It's not customers you serve. It's not businesses you buy from. It's not jerks you deal with. It's people. Every single interaction, every single event, every single experience has people at the center of it all.

If you're not "good people" yourself, you'll be an even lousier employee and customer.

The Attitude of Connectedness says we are all connected to other people - all of us. No exceptions.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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How To Excel When Business Is Down

Jeffery Gitomer, perhaps America's top sales trainer, said yesterday, "When business is down, it’s likely morale is down. Invest in attitude training for every member of the team FIRST. The best way to get more sales is by creating more friendly and human interaction. The best way to gain loyalty from existing customers, and get more sales (the surest path to survival and growth), is by making service IMPROVEMENTS, not service cuts."

When business is down, there is greater competition for fewer dollars in the marketplace. My audiences always seem amazed to hear that 51% of buyers buy "Attitude" factors like staff, friendliness, approachability, ease-of-business, after-sale service and follow-up. A smaller percentage buy from you because of product knowledge.  

More people buy your Attitude than your knowledge. Pay attention to that. The companies who will be successful when times are tough are the ones who have the right customer-focused Attitude. A buyer expects you to have product knowledge but the competitive edge goes to organizations that address Attitude factors.

Attitude also happens to be tied for second as most popular criteria on job performance reviews: first, quality of work followed by Attitude and productivity. Attitude finished ahead of teamwork, goals, customer service and skills development. Why then do most organizations spend the majority of their training dollars on teamwork, goals, customer service and skills development if the top three criteria for how you judge your people aren't even in that list? When times are tough, you're wasting your money if you're not addressing Attitude.

45% of workers feel "work" is the biggest source of stress in their lives. That's about half of your staff who hate coming to work because they get stressed. Great Attitude to build a successful organization on.

Your Corporate Culture is nothing more than a collection of prevailing Attitudes in your workplace. You will never, and I mean NEVER, improve your culture without addressing Attitude. Without addressing Attitude, you will be never be more than an ordinary, mediocre organization. To go to a "Greatness" culture requires you to do something that none of your competitors are doing - like, change your attitude about Attitude.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture
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Bad Advice From Old People

"Get a good education. Get a good job. Make sure there is a pension. Retire early if you can."

How many of our parents said something like that to us in high school? Parents thought they had the right advice. But now it turns out that advice like this is what is disengaging employees at work.

Get a good education - more importantly get the right education. A degree in astrophysics is a good education, unless your love is in marketing. Then that astrophysics degree was a huge waste of your time even if you could make more money in astrophysics. People get degrees in great-paying professions but hate the work. That's how you become disengaged from your work. Make sure your education is in something that you will love to do for a lifetime.

Get a good job - no don't. Get a great career. You don't want a "job" - you want a career. When you stop looking at what you do as a job and instead view it as a career that you chose (even temporarily), you engage better and find more reward. A job is just a paycheck. Most could give a fiddler's damn about a job. But a career? You will protect that and keep up with changes and your education. You will be inspired to become the best in your field. But a job? Who cares.

Make sure there is a pension - especially if it just a job. Just showing up at work and doing just enough to not get fired qualifies anyone for a pension. You could be the world's worst school-teacher and you will get the same pension as the best teacher. Pensions are not incentive to perform. Perhaps the whole pension idea should be reformed to become commensurate with effort and engagement during the working years - a lifelong performance bonus, if you will. That would force people to give their best all through their work life and to choose something they would enjoy doing.

Retire early if you can - or not. I'm sure Richard Branson and Donald Trump are just waiting for retirement (Branson is 60 this year and Trump is 64). Bet they can't wait to stop slaving at their jobs each day so they can enjoy their retirement years of doing nothing and collecting their pensions. If you love something, you won't want to retire. And if your company forces you to retire, open your own consulting business to keep active. Why is it that we force those with the most wisdom to leave organizations?

Kids, ignore the "advice" of old people in jobs who do just enough to not get fired, who educated themselves in a discipline that gave them no joy (because they thought it was the right thing to do) and who are counting down the days to retirement so they can collect a pension from a job that they really didn't care much about. Look for the people who went against convention, who chose to rely on their smarts, their hearts and their spirit and who defied what old people told them and made their mark in this world. They're easy to find. They're the old people who are still working because they love what they do that much. Take their advice - not someone who can't wait to check out early.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Relationships That Work

Do you have a customer that you speak ill of behind their backs? Do you have a co-worker who you make sure you say things about out of earshot because the things you say are not very complimentary? How about your spouse - do you complain a little about them when they're not around?

How long do you think a marriage would last if both partners spoke ill of the other behind their backs constantly? That kind of relationship is doomed to fail.

A customer that you can't speak well of should not be your customer. I mean, if you're prepared to accept his money while he looks you in the face but you bad-mouth him and his business when he turns his back means you're, in effect, ruining his business - the same one whose money you gladly accept.

How about that co-worker who is just a pain in your butt and, for the sake of not creating workplace conflict, you swallow your barbs to her face but when she's out of the room, you put her down to your other co-workers. How long is that relationship bound to last? Until you get caught?

Relationships that last are built on a foundation of mutual respect - not disrespect, backstabbing and conflict. If that's what your relationships look like then you're really missing the Attitude of Connectedness in your day to day life. The Attitude of Connectedness simply is the mindset that everyone is connected to everyone else - by business, family, marriage or network. You can't badmouth one person and not expect it to come around. Everyone is connected.

You can't just swallow your words and instead continue to think ill of others. What you're thinking is all over your face. People can see it. A fake smile won't make you successful. You have to feel it. You have to live it. People will think and speak well of you if you think and speak well of others - genuinely. But if you complain about your co-workers, your customers AND your spouse, then it's not everyone else. You are the common denominator in every one of those poor relationships.  

You'll never get to "greatness" by putting others down. Tearing others down does not elevate you.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Just Say NO

Question: How do you say NO with out hurting your relationships? At some point, I realize we have to say no to people who are expecting you to say yes out of obligation. So how do you say no to them without it affecting your relationships?

Answer: The only person who absolutely needs to hear "yes" every single time when they expect something out of obligation is a baby who is expecting to be breastfed. Outside of that, you had better learn to say "no."

If your co-workers are expecting you to nod in agreement and say yes to every request, then you've done a great job of breastfeeding them. You have become the "whipping boy" of your organization saying yes to everyone else's requests and have put them all ahead of your own responsibilities. Are you burnt out yet? You should be.

Say yes too often and you'll eventually find yourself picking up the boss's dry-cleaning during the day and getting your work done at home at night. But say yes too many times and you eventually create a toxic culture, one that has no personal or job boundaries, no respects or any consideration for others.

Most people can't say no because they're afraid that if they do they won't be liked. Who cares if you're not liked? You want to be respected more than you want to be liked.

Develop your Attitude of Leadership and learn to say "no" before you burn out and drop dead of a heart attack. Saying "yes" to everything creates too much weight to carry and trains people to take advantage of you.

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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Fire Your Bad Clients

Years ago, when I was selling radio advertising to small businesses, I would ask my potential clients to tell me specifically who they wanted to attract as customers. It helped me to identify whether our audience was also their audience.

"Everybody," was the usual reply.

But you can't have everybody. Not everybody is going to buy from you. For example, for the 50% of the population that doesn't play a sport, they would have no use for a sporting goods store and therefore never enter the store. So everybody is not their customer.

Identify your ideal clients and your market segment, to ensure that you aren't just spinning your wheels out in the marketplace. You can't target your potential clients effectively by targeting everybody.

Everybody doesn't see your one billboard. Everybody doesn't see your Yellow Pages ad. Everybody doesn't visit your web site because not everybody has ever heard of you. You don't have the kind of advertising budget to achieve that..

So who is your ideal client? If you don't have a clear idea of who that is, then you will end up aimlessly taking whatever you can get from whoever will give you something. Change your attitude about just taking what you can get and instead start to focus on what you want.

Do you want to do business with people who will beat you up on your prices just to knock you down to mere pennies in profit and then to have those same people complain because they don't value what you do? Be specific about who you want to business with. Don't think everybody wants to do business with you. Not everybody wants you, needs you or even likes you.

The Attitude of Service isn't just an outward attitude. The Attitude of Service isn't just about you serving others. The Attitude of Service also includes an honest study of who deserves what you offer. What is your service worth? Who would most appreciate what you do?

Don't do yourself a disservice by thinking that you must cater to price-hungry, high-maintenance customers who have no loyalty to you because it's all you can get right now. You'll never achieve greatness arguing with penny-pinchers who don't value you, your product and your service and who would never give you a recommendation. It's the wrong crowd. Maybe it's time you served yourself a little better a fired your "headache" customers. Let someone else have them. They're dragging you down anyway.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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A Kinder, Gentler Business Of The Future

This month marked a very important milestone, one that quietly slipped under the radar. The consequences of this milestone are far reaching and it is only going to get bigger and play a far more important role in business in North America.

January officially recognizes that women now comprise OVER 50% of the workforce. Where once women were largely confined to menial jobs, their brain power now outnumbers men in the workforce.

Add to that women dominating in terms of educational performance, volume of university degrees and especially advanced professional degrees and you can see how this can become a tsunami of change down the road.

It's been said that women are better leaders overall than men - largely due to their ability to lead with compassion instead of cutthroat business tactics - and we face a workforce that is about to change. As more women move up the ladder, the old-boys clubs are doomed to go the way of the dodo.

Personally, I welcome a change in the demographics. More women in senior management would mean more women dominating boards of directors as well as shareholders. That means how business gets done is going to change with a heavier emphasis on long-term growth and prosperity for the sake of the employees and loyalty while lessening concentration on jumping into takeover situations, raping and cutting up companies for the sake of profit and not caring about the families that cutthroat business affects.

Maybe by finding a way to be kinder, gentler organizations, we can help employees find loyalty, purpose and pride in their work and the companies they work for.

It couldn't hurt. I can't possibly imagine how much worse employee engagement, diligence and work ethic could get. Maybe we'll see the end of the practice of "company profits first, employee welfare second." Maybe it'll turn into employee welfare AND company success together. After all, you can't have one without the other.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Comparing Corporate Culture to Homelessness

How is it possible to fix a corporate culture that is good for employees, clients, customers and shareholders? Why would you fix something that doesn't need fixing - not improving - fixing. You wouldn't fix a culture that is working and giving you the results you want would you? You wouldn't feel the need to fix a culture where employees are productive, happy, service oriented and a culture that attracts the best talent and more customers. In fact, you would encourage more of the same to get more of the same. You would build on what you have to go up to the next level. You would move forward - not backward.

A culture that works is the result of a strategy that works. Culture is not the strategy. Culture is the result of strategy.

So if your culture sucks, don't blame the culture - blame the strategy that gets you the culture. Remember, culture is not the strategy. Culture is the result of the strategy.

Let me illustrate: homelessness is not the problem - it is a result of the problem. People end up homeless through a long-term series of choices and circumstances. You see, no one can have everything going for them on Monday and suddenly wake up homeless on Wednesday. In the same way, you don't have a productive and happy workplace on Monday and suddenly a culture that sucks on Wednesday. Nothing happens overnight.

Can you fix homelessness overnight? Sure. Rent each homeless person an apartment. Problem solved - for now. But over time, many of those same people will end up homeless again because homelessness isn't the problem, it is the result of choices. If you don't address the choices they are likely to repeat. Change the choices and you change the results.

Culture works the same way too. Culture doesn't magically shift overnight. You can fire your entire staff and start over and your culture would no longer suck - for a while. But unless you address the long-term processes, policies, management and attitudes, you will end up with the same sucky culture before long.

In the same way you have sales targets, every organization needs to have culture targets if they want to attract the best talent, retain their good people, lower turnover, raise morale and increase customer spending and numbers of loyal customers. None of it happens by accident. Ignore your culture and it will end up sucking over time. Pay attention to what you want to go right.

If the turnover rates of employees and customers is high, your culture sucks because the underlying attitudes in your workplace suck. Culture never improves by ignoring the contributing factors. Morale never improves because you demand it. It changes because you address the contributing factors.

A culture of greatness is the result of a strategy of greatness. If you don't develop a strategy of greatness then you will, at best, end up as just another mediocre organization whose people could care less about their work and their results. The choice is yours.

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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy To Greatness Culture


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