by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Collaboration, Creativity, Growth, Habits, Leadership, Mindset, Miniseries, Opportunity, Planning, Resources, Tools
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 50 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Write a great last chapter-Part 2
— From Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business by Danny Meyer
Yesterday we learned Danny Meyer’s approach to mistakes: writing a great last chapter. “The worst mistake,” he says, “is not to figure out some way to end up in a better place after having made a mistake.”
Today, Meyer expands on his philosophy for handling/addressing mistakes and why it’s important to learn from them.
In his restaurant business, “when something goes wrong, it is essential for the manager on whose watch the mistake occurred to make every effort to connect with the guest within 24 hours.” Depending on your business, the time frame for connecting may be different, but it is indeed essential to connect with the affected party.
The author says, “No matter how much you try to erase what has happened, you cannot.” And he adds, “Why wait for a second or third letter from somebody who has now cc’d his report of your fallibility and culpability to the Chamber of Commerce, the restaurant critic of The New York Times, and the Zagat Survey? Instead, take initiative.”
The initiative that Meyer suggests—and takes—is as follows:
1. Respond graciously, and do so at once. “You know you’re going to resolve the mistake eventually. It’s always a lot less costly to resolve the matter at the outset.”
2. Err on the side of generosity. “Apologize and make sure the value of the redemption is worth more than the cost of the initial mistake.”
3. Always write a great last chapter. “People love to share stories of adversity. Use this powerful force to your advantage by writing the closing statement the way you want it told. Use all your imagination and creativity in thinking about your response.”
4. Learn from the mistake. “Use every new mistake as a teaching tool with your employees [or colleagues]. Unless the mistake involved a lack of integrity, the person who made it has actually helped your team by providing you with new opportunities to improve.”
5. Make new mistakes every day. “Don’t waste time repeating the old ones.”
These last two points showcase one of the reasons why Meyer has been so successful. He is not afraid of him or his staff making mistakes, he knows it’s a natural part of life and business, and he welcomes the lessons and improvements that each mistake brings.
If you want to learn more about Meyer’s story and his philosophy about hospitality, my friend Don Crawford kindly pointed me to this recent podcast. Thanks, Don, it’s awesome! If you have a resource that goes well with a particular post and you’d like me to share it, please let me know, I’ll be happy to do so. 🙂
ACTION
TODAY: Hindsight is always 20/20, but in this case it can definitely help: think of a mistake you’ve done in the past. How could you have solved it in a more timely way and written a great last chapter? Do this exercise a few times, focusing on a different mistake each time. By imagining how the process and the ending could be different, you’ll be getting ideas as to how to handle future mistakes applying Meyer’s philosophy.
FUTURE: Make it a habit of incorporating Meyer’s five initiative points above to your life and business. You and your team will be able to handle and learn from mistakes in a much better way!
Know someone who would like this approach to mistakes? Please share this post: Email, Facebook or Twitter, thanks!
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Collaboration, Creativity, Growth, Habits, Leadership, Mindset, Miniseries, Opportunity, Resources, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 12 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Write a great last chapter-Part 1
— From Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business by Danny Meyer
Danny Meyer, restaurateur and hospitality guru says, “The road to success is paved with mistakes well handled.”
I love his take on this!
He and his team refer to their strategy for handling mistakes as “writing a great last chapter.” While Meyer’s examples come from the restaurant world, the approach can be adapted to any business. The author explains:
Whatever mistake happened, happened. And the person on the receiving end will naturally want to tell anyone who’s interested at all about it. That’s to be expected. While we can’t erase what happened, we do have the power to write one last episode so that at least the story ends the way we want. If we write a great one, we will earn a comeback victory with the guest. Also, the guest will have no choice but to focus on how well we responded to the mistake when telling anyone we made it. We can, then, turn a mistake into something positive. To be effective, the last chapter must be written imaginatively, graciously, generously, and sincerely. And sometimes we even write a great last chapter when it was the guest, not us, who made the mistake.
Meyer recalls an occasion when Senator Bob Kerrey—whom he knew well—was having a dinner party at one of his restaurants. One of Kerrey’s guests found a beetle in his salad. Kerrey ran into Meyer the next day and told him. Meyer, rightly so, apologized and asked if his staff had handled it well, to which the Senator replied that, indeed, the staff had handled it incredibly well.
After the conversation with Senator Kerrey, who was then having lunch at another of Meyer’s restaurants, Meyer spoke to the General Manager and told him:
“There was a mistake last night at Gramercy Tavern. We’ve got to figure out how to write a great last chapter here,” and explained what had happened. Further, Meyer added, “Whether or not Senator Kerrey or his guest orders a salad during his lunch, I want you to deliver a beautiful salad and garnish it with a small piece of paper. On that piece of paper, I want to you write the word RINGO, and when you deliver it, you can tell them ‘Danny wanted to make sure you knew that Gramercy Tavern wasn’t the only one of his restaurants that’s willing to garnish your salad with a beatle.”
Meyer points out: “It was now impossible for Senator Kerrey to tell anyone the story about the beetle in the salad without also mentioning the ‘last chapter’ we wrote the following day.”
Most mistakes in Meyer’s business, according to him, are like this one and small enough to fix. But whether it’s something like this or a complaint of any other kind, the author focuses on a twofold mission. “First, to learn from the mistake and to profit from what we’ve learned; and second, to write a great last chapter that allows us to end up in a better place with the guest than if we had never made the mistake in the first place.”
I think Meyer’s approach to mistakes and hospitality is fantastic. Please come back tomorrow to continue learning from him on how to handle mistakes.
Do you have any stories of mistakes well handled? I’d love to hear them! Please let me know in the comments here.
ACTION
TODAY: Whether you make a mistake or someone else does, big or small, you can write a great last chapter. What will you write?
FUTURE: Make it a habit of incorporating the mindset of writing a great last chapter in your life and business. You and your team will be able to handle and learn from mistakes in a much better way!
Know someone who would like this approach to mistakes? Please share this post! Email, Facebook or Twitter, thanks!
by Helena Escalante | Creativity, Goals, Growth, Mindset, Opportunity, Planning, Tools
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 25 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Build your future supported by the past
— From: Habit Changers: 81 Game-Changing Mantras to Mindfully Realize Your Goals by M. J. Ryan
M.J. Ryan, leading expert and coach on change and human fulfillment, as well as author of Habit Changers, says that a lot of people go to her when they are at a crossroads in their career. “They’ve gotten into a rut and want support in breaking out of it.”
She helps them out by taking them through a process outlined in the book I Will Not Die an Unlived Life: Reclaiming Purpose and Passion by Dawna Markova. “It’s an examination [of] strengths, passions and values, as well as the environments that bring out [people’s] best.”
Once that process is done, Ryan’s clients achieve the clarity they seek. However, she points out, “the problem is that getting from here to there can feel like standing on one side of the Grand Canyon and trying to figure out how to get to the other side. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and stuck.”
So, if you’ve ever been there, on the proverbial one side of the Grand Canyon, looking at building a better future on the other side, but have no clue how to get there or where to start, Ryan suggests looking at your past:
“Build a bridge to the future on the pillars of the past.”
Ryan says, “It’s about remembering to leverage what you’ve already done to create the new. […] Nothing you’ve done in the past is a waste. It’s all grist for your future. Reminding yourself of this will help you figure out how to get from here to there.”
The author explains how she leveraged her book publishing experience when she was branding herself as an executive coach to attract her first clients: they were publishers and writers whom she knew.
Similarly, whether it’s a project that you want to start or a life change that you are about to undertake, think of your past experiences and contacts and build on them to propel you forward.
ACTION
TODAY: What project or change are you about to undergo where you don’t necessarily have step-by-step directions? Think of something similar that you’ve done in the past and draw from there. Or innovate by taking bits and pieces from your past to build something new.
FUTURE: Stay in touch, every so often, with people from your past. Not only is it truly enjoyable to continue to nurture those friendships and acquaintances, but also it is helpful in case you need them to open doors for you or provide assistance or support. I know I am always happy to hear from people with whom I’ve worked or friends that I’ve made in the past, and I’m delighted to help in any way I can. I’m sure your friends and acquaintances will be happy to help as well!
Know someone who is trying to cross over the Grand Canyon? Please share this post with them! Email, Facebook or Twitter.
by Helena Escalante | Creativity, Goals, Growth, Leadership, Mindset, Opportunity, Planning, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 43 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: The New Niche
— From LINGO: Discover Your Ideal Customer’s Secret Language and Make Your Business Irresistible by Jeffrey Shaw
In today’s world, where we often hear that we must “niche down,” because “the riches are in the niches,” Jeffrey Shaw, entrepreneur, coach, podcaster, and author of Lingo, says, “Ditch the niche and diversify!”
Whaaaaaat??!
He explains: “It’s not that niche marketing is inherently bad; it just needs to be redefined.”
He goes on to say that most of us, as the creative thinkers that we are (creative here defined very broadly), “need freedom from the shackles of a tightly narrowed offering and market. We’re multipassionate warriors and we don’t want to be stuck doing one thing.”
So, what should we do about this?
In Jeff’s podcast and community of Creative Warriors, he refers to following all our passions as chasing squirrels. I own a dog who has tried to climb trees to chase squirrels (!) so I know how crazy this can get… Further, as an entrepreneur myself and a mentor for startups and small businesses, I know that our business minds tend to chase many squirrels too: the (in)famous shiny-object syndrome or SOS that tends to distract and derail us if kept unchecked.
Shaw says, “I’m not saying chasing squirrels is productive. But I am saying the creative thinker is going to do it anyway. Rather than make them feel ‘sinful’ for something inherent in being creative, why not figure out how it can be productive? We can make it productive by using the connections between them to unite the squirrels into a herd and then setting that herd off in a productive direction. We can cultivate a new niche.”
And here’s the key to the New Niche: “The New Niche is not the one thing you do or the one segment of a market you serve. The New Niche is the space you own, or, you could say, the area of expertise for which you are known.”
Note here that Shaw said “area,” because your expertise includes many things, so it’s not just constrained to the one thing you do.
“Space is expansive, even limitless as far as we know and so are the possibilities and creative freedom you have when you become known for the space you own. When you or your business are recognized for the space you own, you gain creative freedom. With clarity about the space you own, you can diversify your business and create multiple streams of income.”
Shaw goes on to explain the idea of the New Niche and the meaning of owning a space: “The space you own—as a solo creative entrepreneur or as a company—is what you are known for. It answers this all-important, fundamental question: Of what will your ideal customers say you are the expert?”
Further, Shaw urges us to imagine overhearing the tail end of a conversation on the street in which a person asks another one for a referral, “Oh, [your name or name of business] is the go-to expert for ___________.”
Fill in that blank. “If you don’t know almost immediately how to fill in that blank, then you don’t own a space yet.”
In his podcast, Creative Warriors, Shaw interviewed Christopher Lochhead, co-author of the book Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets. Lochhead refers to owning your space as being a Category King and emphasizes “the importance of not only being the ‘king’ of a category but also being the first in that category.”
To this, Shaw says, “Being the Category King can certainly give you an advantage. However, for many entrepreneurs, it’s less important to be first. It’s more important to create a unique category for which you can be recognized and stand out.”
So, what is your New Niche? Let me know in the comments here.
ACTION
TODAY: Answer this question about yourself or your business: “Oh, [your name or name of business] is the go-to expert for ___________.” What is the space you own? What is that New Niche of yours? If the answer comes easily, congrats! If not, no worries, give yourself time to think and to come up with the best answer for you.
FUTURE: Claim that space as yours… it is indeed! Make sure you are passionate about it, and that it is marketable, and you’ll be golden. Here are some additional posts on this subject: How to apply the Law of the Category to your benefit and Own a word in the prospect’s mind.
Know someone who chases squirrels? Please share this post with them! Email, Facebook or Twitter.
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Goals, Growth, Leadership, Mindset, Opportunity, Planning, Productivity, Resources, Time, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 53 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Warren Buffett’s little-known tool for prioritizing
— From Warren Buffett’s 5-Step Process for Prioritizing True Success (and Why Most People Never Do It) as appears in the Live Your Legend blog post by the late Scott Dinsmore. Today the site is run by Chelsea Dinsmore.
We’ve talked about prioritizing before, yet I’m always on a quest for additional tools and hacks that can I bring into my life and my projects.
Today I came across a great story in the Live Your Legend blog. It’s about Warren Buffet teaching his pilot a 5-step process on how to prioritize, and a great, new, little-known tool that everyone should adopt.
The story goes like this (taken directly from the post):
1. Know what you want – List your top 25. One day, a few years back Warren went up to his pilot (we’ll call him Steve) and jokingly said, “The fact that you’re still working for me, tells me I’m not doing my job. You should be out, going after more of your goals and dreams.” Warren then asked Steve to list the top 25 things he wanted to do in the next few years or even his lifetime.
2. Pick your Top 5. Once Steve completed his list, Warren then asked him to review each item and circle the top five that were most important to him. The ones he wanted more than anything. Steve was hesitant because, to him, they were all massively important. After all, that’s why he wrote them down. But Warren insisted that he could only pick five. So Steve spent some time with his list and after some deliberation, made five circles. “Are you sure these are the absolute highest priority for you?” Warren asked. Steve confidently replied the affirmative.
3. Make your Top 5 Plan. Warren now asked Steve when he planned to get to work on these top 5 and what his approach would be. They spent the next while discussing Steve’s plan. Steve explained “Warren, these are the most important things in my life right now. I’m going to get to work on them right away. I’ll start tomorrow. Actually, no, I’ll start tonight.” Steve went on to explain his plan, who he would enlist to help him, and by when all these items would get done. Warren was starting to get excited. With any luck, he would be out of a pilot within weeks…
4. Marry your priorities. Once the Top 5 planning session was over, Warren then asked, “but what about these other 20 things on your list that you didn’t circle? What is your plan for completing those?” Steve replied confidently, “Well the top five are my primary focus, but the other twenty come in at a close second. They are still important, so I’ll work on those intermittently as I see fit as I’m getting through my top 5. They are not as urgent but I still plan to give them dedicated effort.” To Steve’s surprise, Warren responded sternly, “No. You’ve got it wrong, Steve. Everything you didn’t circle just became your ‘avoid at all cost list’. No matter what, these things get no attention from you until you’ve succeeded with your top 5.”
5. Know your ‘Avoid at all Cost List‘ and stick to it. Warren makes a powerful and somewhat unconventional point here. Most people would suggest ranking their second most important items just below their first. Makes sense at first, but as it turns out, this is the type of behavior that creates some of the most detrimental distractions in making big things happen.
I love the concept of the ‘avoid-at-all-cost’ list and, as of right-this-very-second, I am incorporating it into my life. I think it’s a great idea and another tool for focus, concentration, and success.
By having an ‘avoid-at-all-costs’ list, your mind will not be distracted by the priorities in that list. It’s as if you put them in a vault and forget about them. You can’t get them out until the other ones are done, so you will not spend precious mental energy thinking about those things that are not your immediate focus. Brilliant!
Do you like the concept of the ‘avoid-at-all-costs’ list as much as I do? Let me know in the comments here.
ACTION
TODAY: Set up some time in your calendar to follow Buffet’s 5 steps and create a plan to achieve your goals.
FUTURE: Once you have your plan, focus, focus, and focus on your top 5 priorities. That laser-like aim will enable you to devote all your energy to your top 5 goals and crush them!
Know anybody who could use this 5-step process to prioritize? Please share this post via Email, Facebook or Twitter.
by Helena Escalante | Creativity, Growth, Mindset, Opportunity, Planning, Tools
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 27 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: The Great Ones Think Big
— From 177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class: The Thought Processes, Habits and Philosophies of the Great Ones by Steve Siebold
“The life each of us lives is the life within the limits of our own thinking. To have life more abundant, we must think in limitless terms of abundance.” – Thomas Dreier
In 177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class, Steve Siebold makes an important assertion about successful people (whom he calls world class), “Their philosophy seems to be, ‘If you’re going to be thinking, you may as well think big.’ Their love- and abundance-based consciousness is the engine that drives their big thoughts and creative ideas.”
In contrast, Siebold states that “average performers think about how to survive with the least amount of pain and struggle,” instead of planning a brilliant future by thinking big.
The author suggests asking the people around you what they think about at any given time. He says, “You might be surprised to learn how many think about just getting by. The world class refers to this as ‘selling yourself short.’”
Siebold highlights the differences in mindset: “One group views the world as a scary place, and the other sees it as an exciting adventure with endless possibilities. [Most people] see life as a threat; the great ones see it as a game.”
In sum, Siebold says, the difference in mindset and worldview is so dramatically different between these two groups, that when you talk to them “it’s as though you’re speaking to people from different planets.”
“The great ones are fearless and focused on manifesting their ultimate dreams… [and their] abundance-based consciousness drives them to think and dream bigger with each passing success.”
ACTION
TODAY: This action comes directly from the book: “Review your vision for your life and think about your greatest dreams. Are you selling yourself short? Are you thinking too small? Are you letting fear hold you back from the abundance of life? Do you really have what it takes to hit it big? (Hint: yes!) Rewrite your vision today and go bigger than ever. Trust in your ability to find a way to make your dream come true. You can do it!”
FUTURE: Two great books to expand your mind to keep thinking big and see opportunity and possibility everywhere are: (1) The Magic of Thinking Big, by David J. Schwartz. Here are some posts I’ve written about it. This book was written in 1959, but the advice is as valid now as it was back then. (2) The Art of Possibility by Rosamund and Benjamin Zander. This book is one of my absolute favorites and I can’t recommend it enough. Here are the posts I’ve written about it. If you like audio books, you’ll love listening to it: the music is beautiful, as Ben Zander is the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.
Please share this post with the great ones around you, and ask them to share their worldview, it’s always wonderful to learn how they see the world! Email, Facebook or Twitter.
