Main Idea
Have you been told by your child that you say one thing but do something else? Do you hear from politicians that they are looking out for you but then they have their hand in your wallet? Have you had a business dealing with a company that espouses customer service yet the reality does not include service?
Expansion of Idea
Next Tuesday is an important day. It is an election that will dictate the business and political environment for the next two years. I will be extremely glad when the day is passed if for no other reason that I am sick and tired of the political ads. I do think that this is a critical time for our country and I have been following some of the races. One race that seems really odd is the California governor’s race. Republicans are doing pretty well across the country and yet Meg Whitman, who is a Republican, is trailing Jerry Brown, who is a Democrat. She was doing very well until it was revealed that she had not voted in previous elections. (There was also another allegation about hiring an illegal immigrant.) However, the lack of voting in previous elections tells Californians that she doesn’t care. Whether or not she cares is actually irrelevant. The apparent hypocrisy of telling everyone that she will help fix their problems when she has not voted in the past will probably prevent her from being elected even if she is the better candidate. Voters are sick of the double talk. They want someone who will treat them with respect.
I think that this is carrying over to all of our organizations. Employees want respect. Customers want respect. They want us to do what we say we will do. All of us fail at this sometimes because life gets in the way and we cannot honor all of our commitments. That doesn’t mean that we can’t try to do the right things. We can look at our businesses and see if we are doing what we say we will do. We can look at our commitments and honestly assess whether or not we can do them. Do we have the right staffing levels to provide the service that our customers want and need? Hypocrisy creeps into all of our lives in very subtle ways. It is obvious when we look at politics. It may be equally obvious when we look at our businesses from our customer’s point of view.
Questions to Ask Yourself
Are you honoring your commitments to your coworkers or customers?
Are there systems issues that are preventing you from doing the right things for your customers?
Are you doing the best that you are capable of?