In regard to my goals, dreams, and vision, I don’t believe in backing up I don’t believe in backing off or I don’t believe in backing down © 2007 Charles Marshall
Archive | Leadership
What if your customer has a point after all?
Sometime back in the early seventies when I was just a wee laddie, I was getting in our family car in a Kmart parking lot when I looked down and found a badly weathered eight-track tape (ask your mom) on the ground next to the car. The tape was in bad shape, but closer inspection […]
Handle the heat like George Clooney (Director’s Cut)
With a little prodding, you can get my friend John Hicks to talk about the time he got to act in the Coen brothers’ classic movie, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” After John saw their first movie he was hooked, so when he learned they were shooting a movie practically in his backyard, he rushed […]
Life and death leadership
Is tearing up a bird’s nest an act of cruelty or kindness? Last year my wife and I noticed a couple of birds flying up to the dryer exhaust vent above the kitchen window. My wife correctly guessed that they were building a nest so I went outside to check it out. After I came […]
Are you a Michael Scott leader?
A friend of mine was binge-watching old episodes of The Office recently and commented on Michael Scott’s leadership style. Okay, there was no friend. It was me. Anyway, I noticed that one of Michael Scott’s biggest weaknesses is his overwhelming motivation to be liked. He wants to be popular. And that is a great character […]
Creating a Marva-lous Client Service Experience
Maybe it’s time to re-think your goal of customer satisfaction. My family and I spent the entire day driving through a torrential downpour to get to an important event three states away. Both of our kids were cranky and miserable which meant my wife and I were cranky and miserable. We all were ready to […]
SERVE like Robin
Samantha was talking to her neighbor who was moving out of town and asked him what he’ll miss most when he moves. He answered, “I know it sounds funny, but one of the things I’m going to really miss is my mail lady. She’s just awesome!” Since this wasn’t anything like the answer she was […]
A salute to pants
It’s that time of year again when it has become necessary for me to switch from shorts to pants, and I couldn’t be happier. I had almost forgotten the comfort, warmth, and security that wearing pants provides. It’s just like getting a hug of sunshine, but without the searing heat and life-threatening melanoma. The reason […]
Customer service basket case
Customer service means never saying “no.” I went into a sweets store at the mall this past weekend to buy a gift basket for a visiting client. As I browsed the store’s shelves, I noticed the goodies in the baskets looked less than appetizing, so I asked Jeff, the customer service representative, if he could […]
Rock and roll leadership
By the late 1970s, Journey was pretty much finished. The band had recorded three albums, all of which had been critical successes but market failures. They had managed to sell several hundred thousand albums cumulatively, but in the recording industry at that time, selling one- or two-hundred thousand units per album was pretty much like […]