Have a Passionate Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is for romance and love, so you may be wondering why I would write about it in this blog. Valentine's Day is about more than romance and love... it is about passion. And passion is something we definitely can talk about here.

As you celebrate Valentine's Day today, let your passion for life, for projects, and for ideas to show through.

Your passion will create energy.

Your passion will help you influence others.

Your passion will change, in a positive way, how others see you and your abilities.

Your passion can make a difference.

Happy Valentine's Day.

A Little Something Extra

"Lagniappe" (LAN-yap) is a word used primarily in southern Louisiana - which is where I learned it.



I love the way the word sounds, but I really love what it means - giving a little something extra that is unexpected.



Having a lagniappe attitude and habits can be tremendously beneficial to you and those you serve. The applications in our work are endless. Here are a few situations for you to consider...



As a leader, think about how you can serve a little bit better by giving something a little bit extra.



When serving Customers, think about the little extra you can give people at the time of the purchase, or at some point in the future that is a pleasant surprise.



How can you give a little lagniappe to other members of your team?



How can you make the training you design or deliver unusual, and unexpectedly interesting, fun or effective?



Think lagniappe today.

The Positive Postcard Project

Three years ago, a colleague of mine, Stephanie West Allen, named January 2 as Positive Postcard Day. I'll let her explain the process as I quote her:

First, write down seven positive traits about yourself. Next, obtain seven postcards. Write a note to yourself about each trait on a different postcard. When you are done, you will have seven postcards, each with a note to yourself about one of the positive traits you listed.



You may write a note as simple as this:



"Dear Sally,



You are very imaginative.



Love,



Sally"



Or:



"Dearest, remarkable Sally,



You are wildly and wonderfully imaginative!



Much love and respect and affection to you, girl,



Sally"



THE WHOLE SPECTRUM OF COLORS



Why seven traits and seven cards? Because a musical major scale has seven notes, a week has seven days, a telephone number has seven numbers, a rainbow has seven colors. Seven is a good number.



Speaking of rainbows, it is highly recommended that you get writing utensils that write each of the seven colors -- red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo , and violet. Use one of the colors for writing each of your postcards so you will have a rainbow of postcards when you are done.



Now address your cards to yourself and stamp them.



Give the whole stack to a friend and tell him or her to mail you the cards throughout the first quarter of 2005. Make sure he or she does not tell you when each is posted so your receiving your cards will be a fine surprise for you each time one arrives.



Receiving a card will add a new and bright dimension to your day. And it will again invoke the powerful phenomena of self-fulfilling prophecy and the law of attraction.



CARE PACKAGES



Next prepare a Postcard Care Package for someone else. Give this person seven stamped postcards and seven pens, one of each color of the rainbow. Give him or her the instructions above on preparing Positive Postcards. Recommend that, after he or she has prepared the seven Positive Postcards and given them to someone for mailing, he or she prepare a Postcard Care Package for someone else.



See the potential here? If people prepare their own Positive Postcards AND give someone else a Postcard Care Package, the mails in 2005 will be filled with Positive Postcards arriving to surprise, and to affirm marvelous traits.

You may not do this today - might not even read it today! It doesn't matter. Take this process and use it or modify it for your own use.



Some options I can think of immediately are:



- Put together the CARE packages for everyone on your team and do this at your next team meeting.

- Send Packages to your favorite Clients, enclosing the materials and instructions and offer to be their "sender by enclosing a self addressed stamped envelop to return the post cards to you.

- Give the materials and instructions to a training class and either have them exchange their postcards or collect them and mail them yourself.

- Go into a school classroom and in collaboration with a teach have a whole class write them and give them to you to mail to them at random days in the coming weeks.



There are many more ideas you will come up with. If you have ones that will make a difference for you, your organization or the world at large, let me know and I'll post them here.

One Word That Matters

This is the word my Grandmother (who was my fifth grade homeroom teacher) taught us never to start a sentence with. According to a study described by an Inside Influence Report that same word is a powerful word for persuasion as well.



Because.



Put this powerful word to work for you by having Clients give you feedback as to why they choose to do business with you.



Read this link above, you'll be glad you did. Why?



Just because.

It's Just You and Me

I was at Best Buy last night and the lines were long - much longer than I expected. As I stood in the serpentine line I was near register 9 and overheard Allison with a flustered Customer. She said, "Take your time. Don't worry about those other people in the line. Right now, it is just you and me."



I secretly hoped that when I got to the front of the line I would be directed to register 9.



I got my wish.



I told Allison that I had overheard her conversation and I applauded her. After getting over her shock at getting this kind of feedback from a Customer, she said, "She couldn't find her card in her purse and she seemed to be stressed out so I tryed to calm her down."



Best Buy is fortunate to have Allison at register 9.



And I was fortunate to witness this truth in action: All of us as Customers want it to be treated as if, "It's just you and me."



Thanks Allison.

Memory, But Much More

There is an interesting exercise in memory and observation to be found here.



Go check it out and then come back.



How did you do? (Perhaps I like the exercise because I succeeded!)



Our brains are amazing organs that allow us to recognize patterns and then move on to solving the next problem. This pattern recognition trait helps us survive and thrive in a million ways, mostly subconsciously, every day.



The challenge with this trait is that too often we don't really observe a situation, a problem, or a person's behavior because we based on initial or cursory information or brain has recognized a pattern and therefore locked into a solution or a label.



If you didn't succeed in the exercise above, ask yourself how many pennies you have seen in your life, and ask yourself how many other things that you should know well do you misinterpret, mislabel, or just plain miss the details?



The skill/habit of observation is what I'm talking about. You will become a better leader, coach, trainer, team member, parent and person when you improve and use your powers of observation more consciously.

The Busiest Shopping Day of the Year

It is 7:00 am. By this time yesterday morning I was already in my 4th store. Do you think I'm crazy because I went out on this zoo of a shopping day? Maybe I am - after all the first store I went to had 2 local television crews capturing the initial rush of people and madhouse that ensued.



Overall I went to eight stores before I returned home. And while there were crowds of people in each store my experience as a Customer was quite good. A couple of times I wished I could find someone to help me, but that was understandable given the crowds. The Guest Services desk at one store was outstanding, and while I stood in line longer than I would like (again, understandable) my check out experience was great at each as well.



As I review the specific reasons people did well, I found people to be focused on helping Customers, smiling (and some even mentioned they thought the big crowds were "fun") and very proficient.



I applaud the stores I visited for training people to have the skills they needed and applaud the individuals for having a great service attitude, even on what could be viewed as a very tough day.



For more on a recent great Customer service experience, read this entry from Holly Power's blog, Independent in Indy (I'm proud to have Holly on my team and after reading this you will see one reason why.)



p.s. I didn't name any of the stores, because people reading might get clues about what they are getting for Christmas - I can't take that chance! :)