Sorry about the absence.  I took a few months off to fight off cancer.  That is done and I AM BACK!

Let me introduce you to Denise and Leslie.  At my Seidman Cancer Center  . . .  these two ladies were at the front desk.  One day I stopped to get a sucker out of their candy bowl.  When I came back out one reached up and put the candy bowl down by her phone.   I thought, “I didn’t ask earlier . . . I wonder if I did something wrong?”

So the next day I asked them, “Does the hospital buy the candy or do you two fund the sweets?”

They then told me that some of their cancer patients have a strong taste in their mouth after their procedure and so they, OUT OF THEIR OWN POCKETS, buy candy.  (I will have you know I bought 3 bags of Halloween candy the next day and contributed to the cause)

Are your employees so dedicated to YOUR cause that they donate more than their own time to grow your business?

I am reminded of an event a few years ago that had me and a few friends driving for several hours.  After the event we were invited to a home cooked meal that had been cooked for us by some of the event members.  They cooked us lunch in their homes.   Who does this anymore?

My brother was staying at a Holiday Inn, where he asked about a local jewelry store or Wal-Mart.   When the reception desk manager of the hotel asked what he was looking for he indicated that his watch battery had just died.   The manager wondered if he might leave his watch for an hour so he, the manager, could do some research.  On his way out for dinner the manager called him over to give him back his watch WITH A NEW BATTERY INSTALLED!   He was informed, “it is no problem, one of our guys got you a new battery.  No charge.”

ARE YOUR KIDDING ME!  Who does this sort of thing?   (Note: by the way, this hotel sent out people to scrap the windows of the cars in their parking lot in the morning.  Who does this sort of thing?)

If your customers are NOT talking about your business to others in a positive way you need to develop your leadership team as well as creating a customer experience (call Kordell . . .that is what we do)

BUT if your employees aren’t participating with this kind of engagement . . . .then you really need to develop some synergy.   Gallup Polls indicate that less than 30% of your employees are actually engaged in your business.

Don’t you think you ought to look at the 5 ABCs of developing Synergy in your business?
A – Attraction and Adoption of Goals, Vision and Directions that inspire, compel and attract others to your cause.  These adopters need to be your customers, employees, community stakeholders, etc.

B – Become Leveraged!  You can’t do it alone.  You need other resources.   These outside influences, your team, or unique processes will multiply results instead of just adding more.  Multiplication is better for growth than addition.  The scale improves.

C – Contrarianism and Creativity.  Not only do you NOT want your offerings to look like the competition (contrarian) but you need the diversity that comes with creativity.

D – aDversity – The difference between winners and losers are the winners fail and then get up again.  Doctors practice.  Lawyers practice.  Concert musicians practice.  Football players practice.  They fall down, hit the wrong note, loose the case . . . but all of them get back up again.   They flourish on the failure and then practice until they succeed.

E- Execution and Ethos – If you don’t have a system to make sure things change and the culture (ethos) to support it, then everything else is just noise.

Why add when you can multiply?