The Pursuit of Wow!
Every Person's guide to Topsy Turvy Times
By: Tom Peters
One-Minute Excellence: You do it and it's done!
Tom Watson of IBM said: If you want to achieve Excellence, you can get there today. Quit doing less than excellent work. Set a matchless standard of excellence. You can become excellent in a nanosecond. Simply picture yourself as the greatest at what you do, ever. Do it. Don't compromise. Keep your attitude right. "Put all your eggs in one basket and watch the basket"
Learn something new everyday. Practice what you learn until you excel at it.
A nanosecond to attain it, a lifetime of passionate pursuit to maintain it.
Once the fire is lit, assume you have arrived and never do anything that is inconsistent with your new found quality persona. Act upon your decision to put "all your eggs in one basket" in a small way to match the Nordstrom/Motorola approach to quality. You will either change in a nanosecond or never. It is true whether you are trying to quit smoking, drinking, eating too much fat or deciding to deliver World Class Quality.
The determined shift of mind set is an all or nothing deal.
Lighten up!
Smile if it kills you. It makes the body and soul feel better, not to mention the body and souls of those around you. Each day is a miracle. Do what turns you on! Business ceases to be work when you are chasing a dream that has engorged you. Work should be more fun than fun.
What if Managers put Rebirth at the top of their agendas?
Ideas to bolster the renewal process.
- Take a break every day
A pause to refresh or redirect our brainwaves. Time Out. Hey bean counter; take the accounting department out to a movie or to see one of the team's kids performing in a play. Change the scenery. Work outside. Work in different places.
- Celebrate!
Find something to celebrate! Managing by Donuting around. Put on a show to showcase employee's talents. Do spring-cleaning!
- Practice
When it comes to training it is imperative to put your new skills or ideas into practice on the first day back to work. Don't put new skills on hold. Solid research is clear. The chances of you ever applying training lessons that are not applied on the first day back range from low to nothing. Review the high points of the course and plan how you can put them into action on Monday morning. You have to start nudging the new skills onto your agenda post haste. Schedule the new skills and get support from other people that you are learning with.
- Orientate for Success
Put things that you want to use where you will bump into them. Put your dictionary on a shelf and you may use it from time to time put it where you will bump into it you may use it every day. If you want your people to be successful give them subscriptions to Success or Fortune magazine, sent to their home.
- Make Customer Service a priority.
Put Customer service info all over the place. Distribute all customer service correspondence, good or bad for everyone to see. If a person is named specifically in bad correspondence, black out the name to avoid embarrassment to the individual. Public humiliation is not the point. Being fanatical about service is. Invite customers to visit. Highlight stories about service heroism. Like the dictionary. Help your people bump into customer service stuff many times per day.
- Behavior Changes Attitude!
In new businesses, attitude is what distinguishes the winners from the losers?
- Distinction
In 25 words how is my concept notably different from that of others. If you can't succinctly describe how you are different to the man on the street you are headed for trouble.
- Soul
The enterprise should make your prospective customer say Wow, Neat, Holy Smokes. It should be memorable. It should have a special guarantee, remarkable service or extraordinary products.
- Passion
The life of an entrepreneur is occasionally exhilarating and always exhausting. Passion will see you through the long days and the mistakes and challenges that are part of any start up project.
- Details
The overall scheme must be an attention getter but the execution of the details will win the day.
- Culture
Culture counts in the large Multi National as well as the single proprietor consultancy with a part time assistant. The spirit, energy and professionalism of that part timer sets the tone for your entire service offering. Spend time sharing your vision with every one in the organization so they all get it and transmit it to customers and vendors in a host of tiny ways.
- Community
Be a pillar of your community no matter how small your business is. Participating in community affairs with time more than dollars is good business from day one. It gets your name around, adds to your distinctiveness and best of all makes you an attractive employer, which is the key to sustained success.
- Good Books
The books must paint an accurate, timely and clear picture of how your business is working. Your bookkeeper, accountant should share your vision.
- A Pal
Whether a business partner or a spouse you desperately need someone to counsel with. Someone you trust and supports you but is not a flatterer.
- Perseverance
The path to success is littered with many fiascoes. No matter how many books you read or how many consultants you use you will do most of your learning the hard way. The key to the success of any new business is learning.
