Monday Morning Mentoring reminded me of Tuesdays with Morrie. Both are books, which tell stories of how one person can be a mentor and a guide to someone else’s growth. In Monday Morning Mentoring Jeff has reached a crisis point in his life. He asks an old family friend if he can help guide him. Jeff has lost enthusiasm for his job and where he is at and has become a negative role model for those around him.
Tony agrees to meet with him once a week to help him work through his issues. “Trusted counselors, mentors and guides make an indelible mark on the lives they touch, and they can provide the two ingredients to success in life–caring and sharing–that cannot be learned or purchased” is one of Tony’s insights and it is what this book accomplishes. By listening in on the sessions between Jeff and Tony we learn how to give back to those around us and how to be a positive role model for everyone in our lives. They meet for ten weeks and share ten key points with us.
Mentoring works because “we all need people who will help us look at situations from a different perspective.” Tony shares his wisdom with Jeff and helps teach Jeff how to look at each situation he encounters from two or more perspectives. How will others be affected by our actions and what will the outcome be on them. If we can’t positively affect them in the long run maybe we are not looking at the situation from the right perspective.
One of my favorite quotes from the book is “ There is a direct correlation between the books you read and the success you achieve.” Use this book and many others to help you get where you want to be in life.
Are you a business owner who needs or wants to take your business to the next level? Step Dynamic will help you avoid the common pitfalls that can lead to disaster for you and your business.
Growing your business is what we all strive for however, many businesses run into problems that can seem insurmountable when they start growing. Step Dynamic will help you stay focused on the right parts of your business during every stage of its growth. Making the wrong decisions can be costly and sometimes deadly for your business.
This easy to read, powerful book is a great way to start thinking about and implementing the next steps to grow your business. We follow a business owner who is trying to take the next step in growth to see how other businesses have approached the process and what they had to do to overcome the pitfalls. The pitfalls include stepping up too soon, shooting past the step, and capitalizing on your capital. Step Dynamic includes knowing your capabilities and revenue streams and knowing when to increase capabilities and sales to take your company forward.
Preparation is the key to not having capabilities that are underused or sales that you can’t easily service.
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The Box You Got: Transforming the World You Live In by Steve Bigari, Elevation Press, 2006.
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Local businessman Steve Bigari shares leadership insights with us through stories from his life. Steve is the former owner of twelve Colorado Springs’ McDonald’s. While there he instituted a number of innovations that helped take McDonald’s forward. He is now involved with Mr. Biggs and the nonprofit America’s Family.
Steve is big on using the “Box you got” and not following today’s mantra of “thinking outside the box.” Looking around you and getting creative about the way you use the tools you already have to take your business and your life forward is the main message here. Enthusiasm and creativity can take us to many new highs.
Steve tells of successes; credit card implementation and centralized ordering through the drive up window and failures; automatic ball washing and donuts at high altitude, to illustrate how using the ideas and tools around you can help to achieve higher results. Some results take longer than others and sprinkled among the successes are failures. You must take a chance to fail in order to succeed. Our failures teach us as much as our successes do.
He uses a number of Bigg ideas including: “It’s what you do with the box you got “and “If you’re afraid of failure, get over it-everybody fails”.
The business analogies of McDonald’s and Mr. Biggs are great examples for you to apply to your business. America’s Family helps Steve and others implement giving back to the community and helping those who need a hand up by providing access to things many of us take for granted. The business world is built on the lower level jobs such as fast food and the hotel and motel industry. Helping people achieve their dreams helps you to achieve yours. Transform the community and your business by applying Bigg ideas.
Did you know that the library has a Speakers Bureau. Last year I developed business specific content for the following groups: Pikes Peak Sales Professionals, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, State Farm, Key Bank, Mi Casa, Colorado International Affairs, SalesPros, Greater Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce, Air Force Academy Transition Assistance Program, SCORE, Rush investment club, B2B Networking, UCCS Entrepreneur class, and Small Business Development Center NxLevel class.
Topics included: starting or growing a business, how to use library resources to find the business information and statistics you need, job hunting, investment research and networking.
If your business or nonprofit is looking for a business speaker consider offering education of library resources for your next program. Contact me at 531-6333 x2308 to request a speaker.
Most of us accept mediocre customer service as good customer service because that is mostly what we experience as customers. This book could do for customer service what Who Moved My Cheese did for change in the workplace. Don Gallegos spent most of his career in the supermarket industry from a buyer to president of King Soopers Supermarket. He uses examples of good customer service both from King Soopers and also from experiences he has had over his lifetime.
If we set out to assume that the customer is wrong and choose not to refund the requested monies we could end up costing our company a much larger amount in the long run. King Soopers will refund for meat or produce that is not up to standards even if they think the item came from another store. They figure that the refund is a small amount to pay to keep the average customer who spends $5000 a year at their stores.
Employees and management should take the attitude that every interaction is a chance to wow the customer and get them to switch their spending exclusively to them. Examples come from retail, aviation, hospitality and automotive industries as well as others.
Don takes the time to make his employees super heroes and rewards good customer service and takes the time to acknowledge a job well done. He also uses examples of bad customer service from his staff and his staff’s experiences as learning experiences for all of his employees.
We replicate what we see happening around us so if good experiences are rewarded that is often what will become the norm as behaviors change and people learn to provide the best service at all times. A small group of us were reading this book together and it has generated some really good discussions and changes in how we view customer interactions.
