In our weekly discussions we’ve been concentrating on customer service and the ultimate customer experience. In a survey, the largest consumer survey ever, from 2001 the most important factor is overwhelmingly solving problems for them and helping them to make informed choices. Click the image to download the full summary.
One of the best ways to foster a healthy relationship with your customers is to use a regular, but not too frequent, Newsletter. Here is an example – again click to download.
I am not a Greek scholar but in many cases they have more words that occasionally are useful. For example their keywords for time chronos and kairos. The first refers to chronological time, such as when he checked the clock to see how long you have to wait for lunch or when you announced that dinner will be at eight o’clock.
Kiaros, on the other hand, reveals an event that happened at a particular point in time. If the 8 o’clock dinner turns out to be the most fun you had in a long time and you feel some relief from the pressures of your life, then it becomes kairos moments as well. Kairos refers to significant event — good or bad — that alters your life. Something happened or something was said that made an impact. It may have even made chronos seem to stand still.
Do you remember the day you were married? How about the birth of your first child? Think about a favorite vacation you took with your family. While these are all kairos moments you cherish. Some kairos events, however leave an impact because of the tragic consequences the death of a loved one, a divorce, an argument with a co-worker, the horrific events of September 11, 2001.
We humans are an analytical lot. What a kairos moment occurs, especially one that stirs up negative emotions, we want to study old events that led to this crisis with the hope of preventing a similar thing from happening again. We think that what we need to learn from our mistakes is how not to ever make that mistake again!
We are looking through the wrong end of the telescope. Instead of looking back at the event to prevent circumstances from converging in the same way again, we need to look forward to the growth that we can experience from it. Rather than focusing on what we want to leave behind from experience, we should be practiced about what we want for what from the experience as we move into the next asked of relationship or season of our lives.
There has been much talked about Mentors and their roles. However, how many people in business have one and really understand how to get the best out of them. Having a mentor is all about having a 2 way relationship, a conversation, that enables and facilitates accountability. A mentor is:
not all mentors need to look like this
- approachable – can you walk with them or they walk with you
- experienced
- easy to talk with and listen to
- often the one person who will ask the difficult questions
- encourages self development
- models good behaviour
- hold you accountable for actions, choices and decisions
- probably slightly disconnected from what you are creating
A mentor is not:
- not infallible
- is not a scapegoat for things that don’t go as we want
- available endlessly – there has to be some movement
Mentoring is about one person helping another to achieve something of real importance to them. It is about giving help and support in a non-threatening way, in a manner that the recipient will appreciate and value and that will empower them to move forward with confidence towards what they want to achieve. Mentoring is also concerned with creating an informal environment in which one person can feel encouraged to discuss their needs and circumstances openly and in confidence with another person who is in a position to be of positive help to them.
Mentors are probably confined to helping in a relatively narrow area and you may actually have several mentors at any one time each of whom assists in a different area.
One concept of a mentor is a person who holds up a mirror and annoyingly asks those questions that you might not have asked yourself.
A mentor might be someone who is around for just a few short months or may be much longer term – it all depends on the area you are working in.
So the call to action for today is this. Who is your mentor? Do they know it? How often do you talk with them about the important things you are trying to create?
For a few weeks now I’ve been thinking about about wisdom and what it really means.
Many of the simple lessons that we learn as young adults and children make up the bulk of the wisdom passed down through the years. For example why did our mothers and grandmothers tell us they need to eat parsnips only when the first frosts come? Another example being feed a cold and starve a fever! How do you cook a chicken?
Continue Reading…
