Of the leadership principles we heard about this week I’d say the top 3 I have personally displayed are “Have Backbone: Disagree and Commit”, “Customer Obsession”, and “Learn and Be Curious”.
Being in customer service for the last 10 years has taught me a lot about people and how to work with them while still retaining my dignity. There have been many businesses I have worked for with domineering or aggressive employers and catered to haughty, self-possessed customers. Most of the time if you approach a situation with maturity and grace while still holding your ground then usually the other party will at least meet you halfway. It is all about compromise. That, to me, is what “Have Backbone: Disagree and Commit” means.
“Customer Obsession” is my specialty, at least in terms of the service industry. When I am making customers their coffee, I take a lot of pride in the product I put out and the feedback I have gotten over the years has been overwhelmingly positive. I know what people want and I know how to give it to them.
“Learn and Be Curious” is less something that is specific to my work life, and more something that I have as a principle in my life as a whole. I think learning and a good sense of curiosity will get you any place you could ever want to go. Learning is something that I will strive to do as long as I live, and I will never stop being curious and making discoveries about the world around me and translating that into my work and art.
I would say the principle I would have the most difficult time adopting would be “Dive Deep” I tend to get lost in detail and am definitely more of a big picture thinker. Sometimes it can be hard for me to delve deeply into things unless I find them extraordinarily interesting. It is something I have been working on for a while and I am much better at being detail oriented now, but I think if we are talking corporate leadership, that would be my steepest learning curve.