(Note: Michael D. Brown is a speaker, management consultant, and the author of Fresh Customer Service. Clients have included small, mid-sized, and Fortune 500 companies, including Marriott, U.S. Army, Wendy’s, Omni Hotels, Houston Rockets, Capital One, Wells Fargo, Amoco Oil, ARCO Oil, Murphy Oil USA—The Wal-Mart Project, British Petroleum, and a number of colleges and universities. . He has been featured in such media outlets as Christian Science Monitor, NPR, Black Enterprise, and BusinessWeek.com.)
“Make the customer number one.” Customer service experts have been chanting variations of this mantra since one caveman paid another caveman three clamshells for the skin of a sabertooth tiger. Okay, as far as we know cavemen didn’t chant mantras, but you get my point. The vast majority of customer service strategies use the idea of making your customer your top priority as their cornerstone.
I’m writing this just after the conclave of cardinals announced the successor to Pope Benedict XVI, who last month became the first modern-day pontiff to abdicate the throne. They charted some new ground, choosing 76-year-old Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the first non-European to fill the role in more than 1,200 years and the first ever from the Jesuit order. But in other ways, it was a vote to preserve the status quo, as Bergoglio, who has chosen to be called Francis, is a theological conservative.
We have all been weathering an “economic tsunami” for the past several years, and although it appears the worst part of the storm is behind us, the seas have hardly calmed. The unemployment rate hovers around 8 percent for unemployment and around 18 percent for underemployed. Companies and organizations are still in pain (they want to deliver exponential growth to the top and bottom line) but they are only willing to invest in a fresh and proven branded product (YOU) with a track record of delivering results- if you are not in this category you will not be the sought after solution provider.
By accentuating their natural skills and strengths, leaders can stand out and put themselves on the fast track for senior-level leadership roles that will enable them to achieve all of their hopes, goals, and dreams.
The alternative is to become a “generic” leader, a basic manager who does not stand out in any way. In today’s fast-paced and ultracompetitive economy, generic leaders are rapidly on their way to becoming extinct — “average” is the new unemployed and good is the new average. By following the principles of Fresh PASSION, a methodology I created of developing a personal brand that leads to exponential personal, professional, and economic success, you can learn how to become great, and therefore put yourself in a position to obtain a senior leadership position that will deliver maximum personal, professional, and economic success.