Vulnerability Is A Strong Leadership Trait
In an interview with the NY Times, Walt Bettinger, CEO of Charles Schwab, said early on he assumed his employees only cared about themselves and didn’t want to hear about him. “But one of the lessons I learned is that, in the transition from management to leadership, I had to open up. I had to be vulnerable. I had to share with people. In fact, it was more important than anything to share with people the great failures in my life as opposed to the successes,” said Bettinger.
“Leadership is something completely different. With leadership, you make a decision every day about whether you choose to follow someone. And you make it in your heart, not your head. The ability to inspire followership is so different than management, and it requires transparency, authenticity, vulnerability and all things that are completely unnatural to you when you are trying to build and achieve and accomplish.”
Jaime A. Pun, CEO of Tai Pak’s Restaurants, a chain headquartered in Culiacan, Mexico, is a graduate of our 2017 Customer eXperience Executive Academy. One of the main features of Tai Pak’s World-Class Leadership training program has to do with FORD (Family, Occupation, Recreation, Dreams). Pun says, “During their monthly one-on-one meetings with their employees, supervisors are encouraged to share their own FORD in order to humanize the relationship and build up trust with one another. They are also required to gather at least one FORD piece each time they meet with a team member. The results are very positive. They are building strong relationships.”
Great Leaders Are Great Storytellers
As Daniel Pink points out in his book When, “One way that groups cohere is through storytelling. But the stories your group tells should not only be tales of triumph. Stories of failure and vulnerability also foster a sense of belongingness.” (11)
Nearly every company has rags-to-riches stories about someone who started off in a front-line position and today is in senior management. These stories need to be shared with new employees. Most new employees are overwhelmed with the information overload and the insecurities of being a novice; they cannot fathom being a rock star someday. Hearing about someone who struggled early on and went on to great success can be really inspiring to a new employee early in his or her career.
Are You Suffering From RBF?
Watch this two-minute video to see if you suffer from RBF and how to fix it.
Congratulations to our client: Celebrity Cruises
Celebrity Cruises’ service vision statement is “The World At Your Service.” Given that philosophy, it is no surprise that they have been getting a great deal of recognition for their outstanding success. Celebrity Cruises emerged the big winner for this year’s Cruisers’ Choice Awards, picking up five wins including the award for best overall ship and best value for money. The DiJulius Group has been working with Celebrity Cruises for the last three years and we are so proud of all their success.
These 12 Books Will Revolutionize The Way You Do Business
Each of these books is a key component to revolutionizing your organization’s Customer Experience. What do they all have in common? Each of these amazing authors are presenting at the 2019 Customer Service Revolution September 11th -12th in Cleveland, Ohio.
