Scene 1:

“We’re getting ready to start our dinner hour, no laptops permitted,” the host at the locally-owned restaurant informed me as he stood at my table.  No prelude, no “how was everything?”  Just, pack it up.

I looked up from my computer where I’d been working on my manuscript.  Dinnertime may have been upon us, but no one had informed the customers.  The place was empty.

Scene 2:

I walk into one of the three highest-end, luxury department stores in New York and the first two employees that I see don’t see me.  Or say hello.  They’re looking down at their phones.

Scene 3:

I’m at a fine resort, go for a run on the beach, and return to find an employee handing me a glass of water.  How lovely!  Except this person didn’t look at or acknowledge me.  He held out the cup as he talked to one of his pals, a co-worker.

You want to preserve your tables for higher revenue dinner sales and not late-afternoon-tea-sipping people like me?  I get it.  And I support you.  But, how about giving your employees the trust to use their judgement and tell me that I’ll be given the boot when things start filling up, rather than kicking me out of an empty restaurant?

We all love to check our phones.  I get that, too.  But don’t you want the first impression someone has when they walk into your establishment to be about what your organization can provide, if nothing else other than a welcome?

And, policies and procedures are certainly important.  But if you’re hiring people who only cross the T’s and dot the I’s, those policies won’t convey what they were designed for because the ultimate vehicle for their delivery is human connectivity.

Local does not mean better.  High-end does not mean better.  Policy does not mean better.

People mean better.

If you aren’t defining what excellence means for your organization, if you aren’t asking your people to aspire, there will be a vacuum.

And it will be filled.

Are you inspiring and drawing the best from those you lead by asking and expecting it of them?

And is that standard of excellence part of the bigger whole of your mission and vision, to which you all aspire?

For more on Magnificent Leadership™ and aspiring to excellence, you can reach me at: sarah@sarah-levitt.com about working with me directly.

If you want to leverage your team to its fullest, I work with senior leaders and their teams to create strategies that deliver business results.

And if you have a national leadership summit that needs a dynamic, engaging keynote speaker, that’s how audiences describe me.  For booking information: sarah@sarah-levitt.com