“You know if you take off your glasses you will do better.”

“What?”

Mario, my good friend and I had picked up ping pong paddles in the clubhouse of the Hilton Head resort we were staying at.  After missing several returns, he suggested that I take OFF my glasses, that they were hindering my perceptions.

Off they came and whamo, I started to connect with every volley.  Aren”t glasses supposed to help?  But what if your learned basics are different than your altered world (with glasses)?

The first element in creating Business Charisma is to reconsider your Mission.  Oh sure, you have the mission to be the leading manufacturer of widgets in the universe.  And then there is the marvelous mission of providing the best service in your business sector, ahead of all living entities.

But to get Charisma, your stated mission has to take one step back and let a new priority be number one.  Oh sure, your stated mission can still be the most excellent service or product.  But to get there, you must have an over girding, overarching focus that proceeds that old, business school type mission.  What is that new vision?  Why is your stated mission like a set of glasses that you think is helping and yet is hindering?

The new mission . . .  build a personal relationship with the customer.

Anything short of that will have a focus on your daily “to do” list. (glasses vision)

This is not about “the customer comes first.”  This is not your customer service efforts.  This mission and relationship must have you thinking about what they, the customer, want to accomplish and how you can help them get there.

In his book, Teach Like a Champion, Doug Lemov observed that the traditional teacher focuses on teaching stuff (normal stated mission statements) and their daily, “what do I need to do today?”

But, he observed that the Champion teacher instead focuses on changing the student, taking them to a place of seeing new vistas, and developing new skills.  Opposed to the average “what do I need to do today”, they instead ask the question, “How will I accomplish what I need to master today.”  This broader and more philosophical question speaks to moving the student to a higher level.

This is why Starbucks writes the customer”s name on their cup before the coffee is even made that will go inside of it.  That is why people go to “their” Starbucks, to get “their” cup of coffee.  It belongs to them.  They know charisma is focused on them.